Serbian Construction, Traffic and Infrastructure signed a contract to raise WW 2 German Navy ships from the Danube at Prahovo on the Romania-Serbia border.

A ministry press release said that the contract is for initial work to raise the ships and is worth 1.5 million Euro. “We will finally determine what explosives and munitions and what amount are on the 23 sunken vessels so that we can start raising them safely and we will set aside 23 million Euro for that,” the minister is quoted as saying. She said that Serbia is losing five million Euro a year because sailing on that section of the Danube is not safe.  

“By raising he sunken German fleet we will help make the Danube safe to sail 365 days a year which is important to our economy and safe sailing,” Mihajlovic said.  

A consortium of Serbian, German and Austrian companies was given the job at a tender which called for a project to locate the munitions on the sunken vessels. The consortium is headed by the Millenium Team and Mull und Partner. The initial stage of the project will be financed with a loan from the European Investment Bank.  

The German Black Sea fleet was retreating down the Danube in 1994 but was ordered scuttled at Prahovo and Kladovo to prevent about 200 patrol boats, hospital ships and barges from being captured by the Red Army. Some of the vessels were raised and used by the Yugoslav military after the war. The remaining vessels are thought to contain munitions and possibly some valuables taken by Nazi forces from the Soviet Union.