Sunken WWII Russian sub found

A Russian S-class submarine that sank in the Baltic Sea during WWII has been found, according to The Moscow Times, citing both AP and Reuters news sources.

Divers discovered the sub in the waters between Sweden and Finland in February, but did not announce the discovery until this week after its identity was confirmed. A team led by Marten Zetterstrom had been looking for the vessel the past 10 years.

The submarine was last spotted at surface level in January 1940 by a lighthouse keeper on Market Island, west of the Aland Archipelago. The keeper's notes of the incident have been preserved and describe how the vessel headed north before diving and entering a Finnish minefield, after which an explosion was heard.

Markus Lindholm, curator of maritime archaeology at Finland's National Board of Antiquities told news agencies that pictures of the wreck show the front of the submarine was missing, apparently torn off by an explosion.

"The mine must have hit the submarine hull near the torpedo tubes, and then the whole thing blew up," he said.

At the time the submarine disappeared, the Soviet Union was at war with Finland while Sweden had declared itself neutral in the conflict. Many ships of different nations were sunk in the Baltic Sea, but Lindholm said this was the only submarine.

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