Ju-88 found in the Adriatic sea close to Montenegro

[imalko]

Hello Dušan and welcome to the forum. Glad to have you here.

How much of the aircraft fuselage is left? German bomber aircraft carried code letters on the fuselage sides next to the national markings. This letters could indicate the unit from which this aircraft was. Another clue about the unit might be emblem on the aircraft nose below the canopy. However, not all Ju-88s wore these emblems.

Igor

 

[Vardad]

Hi Igor!
Nose of plane is smashed in crash. When I saw it first, I was sure that we found Savoia also crashed in this area, which have hole on place of third engine in front. Secont thought was Bristol Beaufighter, engines looks very alike. Later we realised that it plane is lying upside down, with smashed front cabin. Measuring wings (66 feet) was one of the first signs what plane it could be. I can say that I am expert in recognizing fish, but not submerged aircrafts. Let's say that 3/4 of fuselage is there, but there is over half century fat layer of algae on whole body of aircraft. We have only few minutes of dive at that deep, so it is impossible to wipe out corrosion even from the smallest part on the plane. Grabbing on one part of wing, we noticed yellow paint. This is very hard way to find some marks on plane.

Our idea was in easier way to find out in papers/internet what MIA it was, not to make forensic investigation under sea -problem is very-deep diving.

 

[seesul]

Welcome aboard Dusan. As Igor says, you gotta find something. Code, emblem, number. Just something.
What about your feelings during this dive? It must have been something I bet.
Thanks for joining us!

 

[seesul]

And Igor, I know I´m late but thank you very much for your translation and posting the article!

 

[Vardad]

Feeling was ONCE IN A LIFETIME....)

First, we was not sure what it was down there - shipwreck or stone reef. I even was assuming that it is UFO. It was very small hill on very flattern muddy sea bed. It was very hard to locate with sonar. And it was really big suprise, because no data about plane crash here was known, excluding Savoia wich was known that wings fall off when it hits water(by whitness stories and other divers informations about location of one wing). We find it at the end of summer 2008 (31.august), and it was only succesful dive at site in the end of season. Last summer we make several dives (measuring, filming, etc.). Occasionaly problem on location is visibility and sea currents.

Next dives will be during this summer. Than we can search for some marks on plane. Fuselage is also partly destroyed by dinamite (common way of "fishing" in Montenegro). That's how we found location- from traditional fisherman experience. Holes from dinamite are quite small, but enough to make tricks for your eyes not to see clearly shapes and details. We didn't want to dig and search inside a plane because we don't know situation about bombs or other explosives.

My opinion is that shape and condition of aircraft is for salvage or restoration impossible, especially in Montenegro. On the other side, it is too deep for touristic-recreational dives.
Probbably, it is best for good short film or TV story, and I will be very pleased to see it on National Geographic or Discovery one day.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Very interesting Mr. Varda. Looking forward to more information and photos. Keep up the good work sir.

 

[imalko]

You would be surprised Dušan to know in which state some airframes were recovered from sea and then completely restored.

If the wingspan is 66ft then we can at least rule out Ju-88A-1, early version with shorter wingspan. Interesting that you found traces of yellow paint on the wings - it's underside wingtips I presume. This represent tactical marking usually associated with German aircraft operating on the eastern front, but it was first time applied on some aircraft in the Balkan campaign of 1941.