Hitler’s Lost U-boats Found in the Black Sea希特勒失踪潜艇现身黑海

安迪·麦克史密斯/文　聂雅真　袁兵/译

For years， German submarines U-19， U-20， and U-23 were a terrifying presence beneath the waves， preying on British and Russian shipping. Then， they suddenly vanished to the bottom of the Black Sea.

德国的U-19、U-20和U-23潜艇曾在数年间是海面下令人不寒而栗的一种威胁，一直把英国和俄国船只当作猎物。后来，这几艘潜艇突然消失于黑海海底。

In 2008， the hulk of one of the lost submarines has been found by divers who are confident they can pinpoint the other two boats too.

2008年，有潛水员发现了其中一艘失踪潜艇的残骸，他们还很有信心会找到另外两艘。

The fate of “Hitler’s lost fleet” was the talking point of a conference on international shipwrecks at Plymouth University， when the Turkish marine engineer Selcuk Kolay described his painstaking search for the missing wrecks.

在普利茅斯大学举办的一场有关国际船难的会议上，“希特勒失踪舰队”的命运成为议题。会上，土耳其海洋工程师塞尔丘克·科拉伊描述了他搜索失踪潜艇的艰难过程。

The search began along the Turkish coast near the town of Zonguldak in 1994， after the Turkish navy complained that it was having difficulty conducting minesweeping operations. Local people had known for years that the submarines were out there under the water somewhere， though the remarkable story of the U-boats is one of the lesser known episodes of the war. The three submarines were originally part of a six-boat flotilla harassing Allied shipping around the North Sea. U-23 had patrolled the Spanish coast during the civil war， under the command of a young Sea Lieutenant， Otto Kretschmer， who was to become Germany’s top U-boat ace. He was known as “Otto the Silent” for his mastery of silent running and his reluctance to make radio contact with Germany while he was at sea.

1994年，沿着土耳其宗古尔达克镇附近的海岸开始了对失踪潜艇的搜索，此前土耳其海军抱怨说，他们的扫雷行动碰到了障碍。多年来，当地人一直知道失踪的几艘潜艇沉在海中某处，但就像战争中其他许多知名度不高的故事一样，有关这几艘潜艇的非同寻常的故事也鲜为人知。这三艘潜艇原本属于六艇组成的一支德国小型舰队，在北海海域侵袭同盟国船只。西班牙内战期间，U-23曾在西班牙海岸巡弋，时任指挥官是年轻的海军上尉奥托·克雷奇默，他后来成为德国潜艇的王牌人物。他有个绰号“沉默的奥托”，缘于他精通静音航行，以及出海时不愿与德国进行无线电联络。

His career almost finished before it had properly begun when a British submarine spotted U-23 off the Danish coast in October 1939 and fired three torpedoes at it. All three missed. Before he was transferred to another boat， Kretschmer scored his first hit of the war in U-23 when he sailed into the Moray Firth and sank a 10，000 ton Danish tanker on 12 January 1940.

1939年10月，一艘英国潜艇在丹麦海岸外发现U-23后向其发射了三枚鱼雷，但都未能中的——这次遇袭使克雷奇默的军人生涯还没真正开始就险些结束。1940年1月12日，克雷奇默指挥U-23驶入英国马里湾，击沉了一艘一万吨的丹麦油轮，打响了他在这场战争中的第一炮，之后他被调往另一艘潜艇。

The U-boats of the 30th flotilla were small by Second World War standards—only 140 feet long—which made them popular with the Kriegsmarine when it was rearming in the 1930s. The Type II-B， nicknamed Einbaum （dugout canoe）， were cheap to build and could be run off an assembly line quickly. Once war began， the smaller submarines were taken out of action in the Atlantic and North Sea as soon as larger boats could be built to replace them.

按照第二次世界大战的标准，德国第30潜艇舰队的所有潜艇都比较小，只有140英尺长，这使它们在1930年代重整军备时的纳粹德国海军中大受欢迎。绰号“独木舟”的II-B型潜艇造价低廉，可以很快从装配线下线。如果爆发战争，一旦可以造出更大的潜艇替代小型潜艇，小型艇便可撤出大西洋和北海。

But their size was an advantage when choosing craft for their next deployment. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941， the German high command decided that it needed the flotilla to attack Soviet ships in the Black Sea.

但是，在为下一次任务部署选择所需舰只时，艇身小就成了它们的优势。1941年6月德国入侵苏联后，德军最高统帅部决定用第30潜艇舰队攻击黑海的苏联船只。

To have taken the subs by sea past Great Britain and Gibraltar would have been hazardous. And they would then have had to go through Turkish waters， violating that country’s neutrality. So it was decided they would go by land. Each weighed just under 280 tons， making it easier to convey them on their 2，000 mile （3，300 km） journey overland.

由海路运送潜艇经过大不列颠和直布罗陀到黑海是危险的。走海路还不得不通过土耳其领海，这就侵犯了该国的中立地位。所以，德国人决定走陆路。每艘艇不到280吨，这样陆路运送2000英里（合3300公里）更容易。

The submarines docked in Kiel and were taken by canal to the Elbe， then upstream to Dresden. There they were dismantled and taken 85 miles by lorry to Ingolstadt on the Danube. They were then ferried hundreds of miles through Germany， Austria， Hungary and Romania， to the Black Sea port of Constanta. Over the next three years， the flotilla sank 45，000 tons of Soviet shipping， while losing three boats.

潜艇停泊在基尔港，从这里由运河运到易北河，然后逆流而上至德累斯顿。它们在德累斯顿被拆散，用卡车运到85英里外多瑙河边的英戈尔施塔特。之后，它们用船运送数百英里，经德国、奥地利、匈牙利和罗马尼亚，运抵黑海港口康斯坦察。此后的三年里，这支德国潜艇舰队击沉的苏联船舶吨数共计4.5万，而舰队损失了三艘潜艇。

But in September 1944， the Red Army entered Romania， its government switched sides， and the remaining three subs were stranded. Their crews were ordered to scuttle their boats and try to make it home by land. They rowed to Turkey， but were interned for the rest of the war.

但是，1944年9月，苏联红军开进了罗马尼亚，其政府倒戈，剩下的三艘潜艇也无法使用了。船员接到命令将潜艇凿沉，再想办法由陆路回家。他们划船抵达土耳其，但遭到拘留，直到战争结束。

Mr Kolay used German divers， interviews with survivors， and sonar soundings in his search for the three sunken U-boats. His divers have found U-20， which is two miles off shore and about 80 feet under water. “It’s in wonderful condition， still fully intact，” he said. He believes he has also pinpointed U-23， under 160 feet of water three miles off the coast， and thinks he knows roughly where U-19 is， further out and more than 1，500 feet down.

科拉伊先生在搜寻三艘沉没的潜艇时雇用了德国潜水员，采访了幸存者，还动用了声呐探测器。他雇的潜水员已经找到了U-20，该艇位于离岸两英里、水下约80英尺处。他说：“潜艇状况很好，依然完整无损。”他相信自己还找到了U-23的准确位置，就位于离岸三英里、水下160英尺处。他认为自己也大致掌握了U-19的位置，在更远一些的水下1500多英尺处。

Only 20 Type II-B submarines were ever built， and just one survives， making the prospect of retrieving three of them in good condition an enticing one for naval historians. And as the 25 man crew of each ship got out alive， they are not considered to be war graves.

II-B型潛艇只建造了20艘，只有一艘幸存，这让海军历史学家非常期待成功打捞三艘完好的II-B型潜艇。鉴于每艘艇配备的25名船员都活着离艇，没人认为这几艘潜艇是战争坟墓。