10: Nazi Wreckage Divers recently found the wreckage of a German
steamship that had been destroyed.
The steamship had been sunk at the very end of the war.
It’s not the wreckage itself though that’s so amazing, but rather the crates discovered
in the jumbled mess of the broken ship.
The crates appear as though they could be filled with treasure stolen from the Amber
Room which lies inside a Russian palace.
German soldiers invaded in 1941 and must have taken the loot for themselves!
The shipwreck was found just off the coast of Poland at a depth of only 290 feet(88m).
That's actually quite shallow for a shipwreck from World War Two.
The ship itself is called the SS Karlsruhe, and in April of 1945 it was part of a German
evacuation from East Prussia, as the few remaining Nazis tried to abandon ship.
Historians have suspected for quite some time that treasure from the Amber Room was on the
vessel when it fled and then later sank.
The treasures had once beautifully decorated a room of pure amber at Catherine Palace on
the edge of St. Petersburg.
The Russians had actually stolen the idea to do this from the Germans, who already had
a room made of amber at the Charlottenburg Palace.
Maybe the Germans felt entitled to it?
The Russians put over 6 tons(12,000lbs) of amber into the room, along with treasures
that are worth about $500 million today.
It's not clear if the Amber Room treasures are inside this shipwreck, but experts are
pretty hopeful.
We just have to wait until they retrieve the crates out of the ocean and see!
9: Leftover Bombs Two men who were trying to build a map of
World War Two unexploded ordnance have been killed by the very explosives they were trying
to keep the public safe from.
This happened to two aid workers in the Solomon Islands.
The Solomon Islands is a nation covered in unaccounted for and unexploded bombs from
World War Two.
The aid workers were trying their best to find out where all the deadly munitions were
so that they could clean the place up and detonate all the bombs safely - not the safest
of jobs.
Well, the men got a bit more than they bargained for after they found a live bomb, took it
to the house they were living in, and then got blown up.
According to the New York Times, these guys were not supposed to take bombs home with
them.
Even those who were very close to the men didn't understand what they were thinking.
Stephen Atkinson from Britain and Trent Lee from Australia have been described as devoted
professionals.
But alas, one wrong move spelled the end of them.
We don't know what kind of bomb they found – and maybe they thought they could get
rid of it themselves for some reason.
But in the end, the bomb blew them up and both men died.
8: Plane in the Backyard A young boy in Denmark was just trying to
do his history homework when he stumbled upon an amazing relic from World War Two buried
in his own backyard.
It all happened after the kid’s dad suggested they search the backyard for war artifacts
to help with his assignment.
What neither of them realized at the time was that a German Messerschmitt fighter plane
had crashed on their farm in 1944.
They searched the grounds with a metal detector and were shocked to discover a huge collection
of metal right under their feet!
They used an excavator to dig and discovered a plane!
They dug the plane out, which ended up being only 20 feet(6m) beneath their feet the entire
time they had lived in their house!
The plane was broken up into tons of pieces when they found it, and definitely not salvageable.
But even more amazing is that they also found the dead pilot's bones, his ruined clothing,
and the guy’s wallet.
His wallet even still had money in it!
If I were that kid’s history teacher I would give him an A+ for sure!
Have you ever found something cool buried in your backyard?
Let me know if you have in the comments section below and if you’re liking this video be
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7: World War 2 Battleship The USS Nevada was a battleship from World
War Two that was recently discovered 70 nautical miles(112km) from Pearl Harbor, resting at
the bottom of the ocean at a depth of over 15,000 feet.
That's almost 3 miles(4.8km).
The USS Nevada was commissioned in 1916 and served at Pearl Harbor.
The battleship even survived up to 10 blasts and a torpedo impact during the attack on
December 7, 1941.
But unlike many other ships, it didn't sink that day.
It was actually repaired and went on to participate in the deadly invasion of Normandy in 1944.
Using it's huge 5 inch(12cm) and 14 inch(36cm) guns to batter the German defenses as American
soldiers stormed the beaches.
Later, the battleship joined the invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima in Japan.
Then at the very end of the war, as the battleship neared the end of its life, the army used
it as a target in some of their first atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.
The ship was still afloat even after getting hit by two atomic bombs!
BUT it was then rendered radioactive, towed to Pearl Harbor, and used as target practice,
then eventually hit by an aerial torpedo and purposely sank.
This thing sure did take a beating throughout its life!
But the Navy never recorded the exact coordinates of where it sank, making the recent discovery
of the battleship at the bottom of the ocean quite impressive.
6: Hidden Air Raid Shelter During the coronavirus pandemic lockdown in
England, a grandfather, Khandu Patel, discovered an air raid shelter hidden underneath his
lawn.
He had been living in his house for 40 years and never had a clue!
According to the grandfather himself, he always wondered why there was a manhole cover in
his yard but had never bothered investigating.
Then being bored with the pandemic, he and a friend decided to lift the manhole cover
and to see what was underneath.
They were shocked to discover what looked like a ceiling of concrete.
They had to break through the concrete, at which point they discovered a staircase leading
down to a secret air raid shelter!
From what experts can tell, the shelter was probably used during the war to keep the local
neighbors safe during German bombings.
Then for whatever reason, it was covered up and abandoned, with the only evidence of its
existence being a measly manhole cover.
Now Patel plans to turn the air raid shelter into a bar for him and his family to enjoy.
I like the way this guy thinks!
What would you turn it into?
5: Medals in the Dumpster A dumpster diver in Hickory, North Carolina
discovered the legacy of a war hero.
The hero's name was Donald Helfer, and he flew in 28 missions during World War Two and
was decorated for his outstanding bravery.
He got a Navy Flying Cross and a Bronze Star.
He even got a letter straight from the president of the time, Harry Truman, expressing gratitude
for helping to defeat the enemy.
But Helfer never told his family about what he'd done in the military.
He buried his past and became a police officer in New York before retiring to Florida and
passing away in 1993.
His kids never really knew who he was.
Then along comes a dumpster diver who discovered Helfer’s medals, his photos and identification,
and his military records amongst a heap of garbage.
They were probably discarded by whoever found them while sorting through his late wife’s
estate and decided to just toss them in the trash.
But the dumpster diver recognized their worth, he sought out an American Legion post and
turned them over.
Helfer’s daughter, Linda Delorey, was eventually contacted and she made the long drive out
to pick up her dad’s belongings.
Linda found herself amazed as she turned the pages of the neatly organized binder the man
had put together containing her father’s precious photos and mementos.
There were pictures she had never even seen before.
Delorey also got to see a picture of her grandfather.
History was unfolding right before her eyes.
Now that the treasure has been restored to her family, Linda plans to share it with her
relatives as soon as she’s able.
Suffice to say, it was a very emotional trip.
4: Lost Submarine In 1943, the USS Grenadier submarine was attacked
by Japanese bombers and scuttled.
The crew members were taken by the Japanese soldiers and tortured at a prison camp for
over 2 incredibly long years, which must have felt like centuries for the men.
The ship had a very violent and tragic history and was ultimately lost.
But recently, about 90 miles(145km) from Thailand, some divers stumbled upon this very ship over
200 feet(60m) below the water, 77 years after it was submerged.
The wreckage is now rich in marine life and hardly looks like a weapon of war.
There’s algae all over it and it’s even covered in dirty old fishing nets.
But how did the ship go down in the first place?
According to the New York Times, it was April 20th when they were attacked by a Japanese
plane, forcing them to go down 267 feet(81m) below the surface.
The hull and hatches were leaking, a fire had broken out, and they were in pretty rough
shape.
Two days later when they were struck again, they had no choice but to quickly destroy
their coding machine with hammers, get rid of all their important data, and scuttle the
ship.
76 members of the crew survived – though what followed were two years of beatings,
burnings, breakings, and other unspeakable horrors.
3: Live Explosives Carl Peterson was checking out his grandfather’s
war collection when he discovered something quite shocking.
What Carl found inside the box of World War Two memorabilia caused the evacuation of almost
an entire street in the High Springs area.
Carl's grandfather had sent the box back home from the last ship he was on during the war,
and among some fairly normal memorabilia, there were also two live Japanese knee mortars
that had been sitting there for 75 years!
The box had been kept in the family shed, and nobody had any idea that the box could
have blown up at any minute.
Carl phoned the police, and they called in the bomb squad, and the situation was defused
– no pun intended.
Carl was still able to keep the box of artifacts, which included signal cards, old war rations,
and even Japanese cigarettes sent home by his grandfather.
The bombs, on the other hand, were confiscated.
Why his grandfather thought it would be okay to keep knee mortars in the shed is still
a bit of a mystery.
2: Lost Enigma Machine It was in 2020 that German divers commissioned
by the World Wildlife Foundation went to the Baltic Sea to extract abandoned fishing nets
from the seafloor.
While they were cleaning up the water and getting rid of those pesky nets, they stumbled
upon an extremely rare machine used by the Germans during the Second World War.
It was an enigma machine, one of the rarest artifacts from the war.
When the Germans realized that they were losing, they began destroying all of their code machines
and throwing them overboard from any vessels that were out at sea.
They desperately wanted to keep the codes and the technology away from the Allied Forces.
Historians believe this enigma machine was probably thrown over the side of a vessel,
where it's been left to rot on the seafloor ever since.
The encryption device itself was invented in 1919 by a Dutch national named Hugo Koch.
He had invented the machine for business purposes.
But once the German army got ahold of it, they modified the machine and turned it into
the most notorious code-sending contraption in all of history.
The artifact has since been handed over to an archaeology museum in Germany where it
will be restored and then put on display for the public.
1: The Bucket List The final story today isn't exactly about
something discovered – at least, not in the usual way.
In Maryland, a veteran from World War Two has finally crossed something off her bucket
list.
She worked up the courage to finally go skydiving at the ripe old age of 102.
She was apparently inspired by President George H.W. Bush who did the same thing when he was
90.
But she beat him by 12 years!
Let this be a heartfelt lesson for everyone that it's never too late to live your dreams!
Vivian Bailey joined the army and had become a second lieutenant by 1943.
Nearly 80 years later, she discovered her youth by jumping out of an airplane!
Thanks for watching!
Have you ever found a World War II treasure?
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See you next time!
Bye! :)