安迪·麥克史密斯/文　聶雅真　袁兵/譯

For years， German submarines U-19， U-20， and U-23 were a terrifying presence beneath the waves， preying on British and Russian shipping. Then， they suddenly vanished to the bottom of the Black Sea.

德國的U-19、U-20和U-23潛艇曾在數(shù)年間是海面下令人不寒而栗的一種威脅，一直把英國和俄國船只當作獵物。后來，這幾艘潛艇突然消失于黑海海底。

In 2008， the hulk of one of the lost submarines has been found by divers who are confident they can pinpoint the other two boats too.

2008年，有潛水員發(fā)現(xiàn)了其中一艘失蹤潛艇的殘骸，他們還很有信心會找到另外兩艘。

The fate of “Hitler’s lost fleet” was the talking point of a conference on international shipwrecks at Plymouth University， when the Turkish marine engineer Selcuk Kolay described his painstaking search for the missing wrecks.

在普利茅斯大學(xué)舉辦的一場有關(guān)國際船難的會議上，“希特勒失蹤艦隊”的命運成為議題。會上，土耳其海洋工程師塞爾丘克·科拉伊描述了他搜索失蹤潛艇的艱難過程。

The search began along the Turkish coast near the town of Zonguldak in 1994， after the Turkish navy complained that it was having difficulty conducting minesweeping operations. Local people had known for years that the submarines were out there under the water somewhere， though the remarkable story of the U-boats is one of the lesser known episodes of the war. The three submarines were originally part of a six-boat flotilla harassing Allied shipping around the North Sea. U-23 had patrolled the Spanish coast during the civil war， under the command of a young Sea Lieutenant， Otto Kretschmer， who was to become Germany’s top U-boat ace. He was known as “Otto the Silent” for his mastery of silent running and his reluctance to make radio contact with Germany while he was at sea.

1994年，沿著土耳其宗古爾達克鎮(zhèn)附近的海岸開始了對失蹤潛艇的搜索，此前土耳其海軍抱怨說，他們的掃雷行動碰到了障礙。多年來，當?shù)厝艘恢敝朗й櫟膸姿覞撏С猎诤Ｖ心程?，但就像?zhàn)爭中其他許多知名度不高的故事一樣，有關(guān)這幾艘潛艇的非同尋常的故事也鮮為人知。這三艘潛艇原本屬于六艇組成的一支德國小型艦隊，在北海海域侵襲同盟國船只。西班牙內(nèi)戰(zhàn)期間，U-23曾在西班牙海岸巡弋，時任指揮官是年輕的海軍上尉奧托·克雷奇默，他后來成為德國潛艇的王牌人物。他有個綽號“沉默的奧托”，緣于他精通靜音航行，以及出海時不愿與德國進行無線電聯(lián)絡(luò)。

His career almost finished before it had properly begun when a British submarine spotted U-23 off the Danish coast in October 1939 and fired three torpedoes at it. All three missed. Before he was transferred to another boat， Kretschmer scored his first hit of the war in U-23 when he sailed into the Moray Firth and sank a 10，000 ton Danish tanker on 12 January 1940.

1939年10月，一艘英國潛艇在丹麥海岸外發(fā)現(xiàn)U-23后向其發(fā)射了三枚魚雷，但都未能中的——這次遇襲使克雷奇默的軍人生涯還沒真正開始就險些結(jié)束。1940年1月12日，克雷奇默指揮U-23駛?cè)胗R里灣，擊沉了一艘一萬噸的丹麥油輪，打響了他在這場戰(zhàn)爭中的第一炮，之后他被調(diào)往另一艘潛艇。

The U-boats of the 30th flotilla were small by Second World War standards—only 140 feet long—which made them popular with the Kriegsmarine when it was rearming in the 1930s. The Type II-B， nicknamed Einbaum （dugout canoe）， were cheap to build and could be run off an assembly line quickly. Once war began， the smaller submarines were taken out of action in the Atlantic and North Sea as soon as larger boats could be built to replace them.

按照第二次世界大戰(zhàn)的標準，德國第30潛艇艦隊的所有潛艇都比較小，只有140英尺長，這使它們在1930年代重整軍備時的納粹德國海軍中大受歡迎。綽號“獨木舟”的II-B型潛艇造價低廉，可以很快從裝配線下線。如果爆發(fā)戰(zhàn)爭，一旦可以造出更大的潛艇替代小型潛艇，小型艇便可撤出大西洋和北海。

But their size was an advantage when choosing craft for their next deployment. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941， the German high command decided that it needed the flotilla to attack Soviet ships in the Black Sea.

但是，在為下一次任務(wù)部署選擇所需艦只時，艇身小就成了它們的優(yōu)勢。1941年6月德國入侵蘇聯(lián)后，德軍最高統(tǒng)帥部決定用第30潛艇艦隊攻擊黑海的蘇聯(lián)船只。

To have taken the subs by sea past Great Britain and Gibraltar would have been hazardous. And they would then have had to go through Turkish waters， violating that country’s neutrality. So it was decided they would go by land. Each weighed just under 280 tons， making it easier to convey them on their 2，000 mile （3，300 km） journey overland.

由海路運送潛艇經(jīng)過大不列顛和直布羅陀到黑海是危險的。走海路還不得不通過土耳其領(lǐng)海，這就侵犯了該國的中立地位。所以，德國人決定走陸路。每艘艇不到280噸，這樣陸路運送2000英里（合3300公里）更容易。

The submarines docked in Kiel and were taken by canal to the Elbe， then upstream to Dresden. There they were dismantled and taken 85 miles by lorry to Ingolstadt on the Danube. They were then ferried hundreds of miles through Germany， Austria， Hungary and Romania， to the Black Sea port of Constanta. Over the next three years， the flotilla sank 45，000 tons of Soviet shipping， while losing three boats.

潛艇停泊在基爾港，從這里由運河運到易北河，然后逆流而上至德累斯頓。它們在德累斯頓被拆散，用卡車運到85英里外多瑙河邊的英戈爾施塔特。之后，它們用船運送數(shù)百英里，經(jīng)德國、奧地利、匈牙利和羅馬尼亞，運抵黑海港口康斯坦察。此后的三年里，這支德國潛艇艦隊擊沉的蘇聯(lián)船舶噸數(shù)共計4.5萬，而艦隊損失了三艘潛艇。

But in September 1944， the Red Army entered Romania， its government switched sides， and the remaining three subs were stranded. Their crews were ordered to scuttle their boats and try to make it home by land. They rowed to Turkey， but were interned for the rest of the war.

但是，1944年9月，蘇聯(lián)紅軍開進了羅馬尼亞，其政府倒戈，剩下的三艘潛艇也無法使用了。船員接到命令將潛艇鑿沉，再想辦法由陸路回家。他們劃船抵達土耳其，但遭到拘留，直到戰(zhàn)爭結(jié)束。

Mr Kolay used German divers， interviews with survivors， and sonar soundings in his search for the three sunken U-boats. His divers have found U-20， which is two miles off shore and about 80 feet under water. “It’s in wonderful condition， still fully intact，” he said. He believes he has also pinpointed U-23， under 160 feet of water three miles off the coast， and thinks he knows roughly where U-19 is， further out and more than 1，500 feet down.

科拉伊先生在搜尋三艘沉沒的潛艇時雇用了德國潛水員，采訪了幸存者，還動用了聲吶探測器。他雇的潛水員已經(jīng)找到了U-20，該艇位于離岸兩英里、水下約80英尺處。他說：“潛艇狀況很好，依然完整無損。”他相信自己還找到了U-23的準確位置，就位于離岸三英里、水下160英尺處。他認為自己也大致掌握了U-19的位置，在更遠一些的水下1500多英尺處。

Only 20 Type II-B submarines were ever built， and just one survives， making the prospect of retrieving three of them in good condition an enticing one for naval historians. And as the 25 man crew of each ship got out alive， they are not considered to be war graves.

II-B型潛艇只建造了20艘，只有一艘幸存，這讓海軍歷史學(xué)家非常期待成功打撈三艘完好的II-B型潛艇。鑒于每艘艇配備的25名船員都活著離艇，沒人認為這幾艘潛艇是戰(zhàn)爭墳?zāi)埂?/p>