The Polish Gun Wreck.pdf

Skyllis. Zeitschrift für maritime und limnische Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte, 2022

The article deals with the research of military wrecks of the First and Second World War in the German Bight. The focus is on the presentation of some military wrecks investigated in German territorial waters and the German EEZ. The evaluation of the hazardous potential of these and other military wrecks for the marine environment of the North Sea was one of the main objectives of a research project led by the German Maritime Museum, Leibniz Institute for Maritime History (DSM). The potentially remaining ordnances on the ships formed a focus of the research interest of the project. Another important aspect was the combination and evaluation of the critical analysis of historical and archaeological facts about the ships with the scientific data obtained from the wrecks.

2013

IKUWA3: Beyond Boundaries, London 2008. The 3rd International Congress on Underwater Archaeology

Archaeology: Just Add Water "Światowit" Suppl. Series U, 2019

dr hab. Mateusz Bogucki, prof. IAiE PAN dr hab. Maciej Karczewski, prof. UwB dr Piotr Kotowicz dr hab. Grzegorz Kowalski prof. dr hab. Kazimierz Lewartowski dr Henryk Meyza prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Misiewicz dr hab. Tomasz Nowakiewicz dr hab. Agnieszka Tomas prof. dr hab. Przemysław Urbańczyk prof. dr hab. Mariusz Ziółkowski dr hab. Jarosław Źrałka

After finding objects from French Flak guns at a World War 2 anti-aircraft (Flak) site in Arnhem (the Netherlands), a small (private) archaeological investigation was started. This deviant type of weapon was used as Beutewaffen by the German Wehrmacht. With the help of experts, I wrote this article on the 7.5 cm Flak M 36 (f) gun in use in the Netherlands, around Arnhem and Deelen airfield, during operation Market Garden and other periods, focussing on the finds done in the Arnhem site. This document simply serves as the documentation of these finds, so the archaeological relevance and historical context of them can be understood.

2015

Archaeology: Just Add Water. "Światowit" Suppl. Series U, 2019

On the right bank of the Oder River, over a dozen kilometres downstream of Kostrzyn nad Odrą (Lubusz Land, Poland), lies the ‘Porzecze’ Landscape-Nature Protected Complex (West Pomerania, Poland). It encompasses floodplains, marshes, meadows, riparian forests, and sandy dunes inhabited by rare species of plants and animals. At the beginning of the previous decade the divers penetrating one of the local oxbow lakes had discovered a wreck of a flat-bottomed, iron vessel, about five metres long. The find had been interpreted as a German cargo boat from the first half of the 20th century and had not attracted any major attention of neither museum curators nor scientists. In 2016 scholars and students from the University of Szczecin (West Pomerania, Poland), together with a diving expert from the NUREK–TECHNIKA Company have thoroughly reinvestigated the wreck, taking side-scan sonar images and measurements. It has become possible to correctly identify the wreck as a frontal semi-pontoon of the Soviet N2P heavy pontoon-bridge park (Russian: тяжёлый понтонный парк Н2П). It was a mobile set of military engineering equipment designed for construction of ferries and floating bridges, introduced to the Red Army service in 1932. The watercraft has sunk or has been sunken during the fights along the Oder River, clashes between the Red Army and the armed forces of Nazi Germany in winter and spring of 1945. The wreckis preserved in a good condition (hull framing is complete, and the plating has negligible losses), though all removable parts are missing. The wreck, now examined and documented, is currently the only known specimen of this type of a semi- -pontoon in Poland. It remains an interesting, yet hardly accessible element of cultural heritage of the Oder Valley, enriching natural assets of the ‘Porzecze’ Landscape-Nature Protected Complex.