Why Is Prinz Eugen Still There 80 Years Later?

Around the world there are countless wrecks from the Second World War — battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, destroyers, and submarines resting on the ocean floor. Some of them are well known, such as the wrecks of Bismarck or Scharnhorst. But others are far more unusual, particularly when the ships did not sink at sea at all.

In this video we examine two of the most fascinating German warship wrecks from World War II: the Admiral Scheer, which today lies buried beneath the city of Kiel, and the Prinz Eugen, which still sits partially above water in the Pacific Ocean. Both ships had remarkable careers during the war, but their final fates are even more unusual.

We’ll explore how Admiral Scheer was capsized during a devastating Allied bombing raid in April 1945 and later partially scrapped before the remains of the hull were buried under rubble during the reconstruction of Kiel. Today, parts of the once-famous “pocket battleship” still lie beneath modern infrastructure.

We’ll also follow the extraordinary postwar journey of Prinz Eugen, the famous heavy cruiser that fought alongside Bismarck during Operation Rheinübung. After the war the ship was taken by the United States as a war prize, studied for its advanced technology, and ultimately used as a target ship during the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. Despite surviving the nuclear blasts, the cruiser later capsized at Kwajalein Atoll, where her wreck remains visible today.

These two wrecks show how warships can end their lives in the most unexpected places — buried beneath cities or slowly rusting away in tropical lagoons decades after the war ended.

If you enjoy naval history and unusual warship stories, make sure to like, subscribe, and let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more videos exploring famous shipwrecks from World War II.

Sources/Other Reading:

Admiral Scheer Report: https://macau.uni-kiel.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/macau_derivate_00004688/kiel-up_978-3-928794-83-1_p12.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Battleships-Deutschland-Class-Lutzow-Admiral/dp/1591141656

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Guns-Atlantic-Germanys-battleships/dp/147284596X

https://hmsjervisbay.com/Story.IllustratedLondon.php

https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Theater-Operations-1940-1945-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B06XGQR2T1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1685390117&sr=1-1

https://hmsjervisbay.com/Story.HX84.php

https://www.amazon.com/German-Light-Cruisers-World-War-ebook/dp/B00SGC4YFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SZEH53PYYTGV&keywords=german+light+cruisers&qid=1690329693&s=digital-text&sprefix=german+light+cruisers%2Cdigital-text%2C98&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Cruisers-Admiral-Hipper-Class/dp/1848321953

Video Information:
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