Missing World War II Submarine Found Near Greece

LAVRIO, GREECE—Live Science reports that HMS Trooper, a missing British submarine, has been discovered under some 770 feet of water off the coast of the Greek island of Donoussa, in an area known as the Icarian Sea. Carrying a crew of 64, Trooper had completed a secret mission to deliver three Greek resistance agents to the island of Kalamos, near the west coast of Greece, and was thought to have been lost while on patrol in the Aegean Sea when it did not land in Beirut as expected on October 17, 1943. “The Icarian Sea is one of the most difficult seas with strong wind, waves, and strong underwater currents,” commented underwater search team leader Kostas Thoctarides of Planet Blue. The researchers found the wreckage by mapping the seafloor with shipboard sonar, and then investigated the site with a remotely-operated vehicle. Thoctarides and his colleagues then compared the wreckage with original shipbuilding plans to make the identification. Trooper had been broken into three parts, which suggests it had struck a naval mine. An open hatch on the conning tower could indicate that the submarine was traveling on the surface when it hit the mine, Thoctarides concluded. For more on exploring World War II wrecks, go to "December 7, 1941: The Battleships."