Experts Retrieve 700kg WWII Torpedo From Polish Lake

Story ByMichael Leidig, Sub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyCentral European News

Picture Credit: CEN/@strefamiedwie

A huge World War II aerial torpedo weighing 700 kilogrammes has been pulled in almost perfect condition from a Polish lake.

The alert was raised when the huge torpedo that would have been dropped from a plane was discovered on the bottom of Lake Miedwie in north-western Poland’s West Pomerania region.

Bomb disposal experts were called in and were able to determine that it was a training torpedo that had been dropped without an explosive charge. After that historians were called in with a view to recovering the object and they eventually secured it after a 10-hour effort.

Picture Credit: CEN/@strefamiedwie

Marcin Lewicki, who was the coordinator of the project to raise the torpedo, said that after being lifted out of the lake, it had been temporarily moved to the Fort Gerhard Museum of Coastal Defence which is located in the Polish seaport city of Swinoujscie.

It will be cleaned and preservation work will be carried out while it is decided where its permanent home will be. Initial research shows it was made by the Torpedowaffenplatz Madusee facility, the ruins of which can still be seen near the nearby village of Bielkowo, which would have then been in occupied Poland.

It is understood that the torpedo must have then been used at the nearby lake to test its efficiency, explaining why it was sent off without explosives.

Picture Credit: CEN/@strefamiedwie

The F5 torpedo was typically dropped from a plane and in order to control fighting year it had a wooden tail that broke off when the torpedo entered the water.

Once it had been dropped had a range of around two kilometres and was capable of travelling at 40 knots (78 kph). This particular one was made on 22nd November 1943.

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