Russians Explore Sunken USN Ship
Northern Fleet divers salvage weapons and equipment from the American ship “Thomas Donaldson”, which sank after a German submarine attack outside Murmansk in 1945. Divers from the Northern Fleet’s search and rescue department in 2014 started an operation to bring weapons and equipment from the American vessel to the surface. Last year a Sherman tank was raised. It has been restored and is now displayed at a museum in Safonovo outside Severomorsk, barentsobserver.com reports. The Liberty-class ship “Thomas Donaldson” was part of an allied convoy and carried more than 600 tons of cargo as part of the Lend-Lease program. In1945 the ship was hit by a German torpedo and sank by Kildin Island outside the Kola Inlet.
Unique Gun Salvaged from Barents Sea
Divers Northern Fleet raised from the bottom of the Kola Bay, an American anti-aircraft gun, which lay there for 70 years. Earlier it was reported that the specialists of the search and rescue (UPASR) Northern Fleet (NF) completed the preparatory work in the area of the death of an American military transport ship "Thomas Donaldson" (type "Liberty"). During the Great Patriotic War, the ship participated in the composition of the Arctic convoy JW-65, who drove the Soviet Murmansk under the Lend-Lease ammunition, military equipment and other goods. In March 1945, "Thomas Donaldson" was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank near the entrance to Kola Bay (Barents Sea) at a depth of 60 meters. Diving operations on the vessel began in 2014.
