German WW2 aircraft carrier wreck found in Baltic

By Malgorzata Rakowiec

GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) - A search for oil in the Baltic sea has turned up the wreck of the German World War Two aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, whose whereabouts had been a mystery since it was sunk by the Soviet navy after the war. 

A research ship belonging to Polish oil company Petrobaltic found the 250-metre (820-foot) wreck 55 km (34 miles) north of the Polish port Wladyslawowo. 

"We were searching for oil deposits and sonar showed an object shaped like a ship," said Marcin Zachowicz, spokesman for Polish oil group Lotos, which owns Petrobaltic. 

A Polish Navy ship, sent to the site, identified the wrecked ship as the Graf Zeppelin, which was captured by the Soviet navy, used for target practice and sunk as part of a training exercise in 1947. 

The Graf Zeppelin was Germany's only aircraft carrier in the war. Its final resting place had been a mystery, although fishermen had for years torn their nets in the waters where it lay, the Lotos spokesman said. 

Poland's navy said it was unlikely the wreck would be recovered from depths of more than 80 metres. 

"According to tradition, shipwrecks are left in the sea," said navy spokesman Bartosz Zajda. "Besides, it would be technically hard to pull it out."