There is mystical side to almost every war
Many of us read about the so-called sea monsters e.g. giant sea serpents, huge octopuses etc. Given the scale of combat operations at sea, some evidence indicating the existence of such monsters may have been gathered (the use of depth charges being one of the reasons). Indeed, there are some documented pieces of evidence. For example, there is a report filed by the captain of a German submarine that sank the British merchant vessel Iberian in the Atlantic. His report contained the description of a huge (18 meters long) sea monster, which rose to the surface amid the wreckage of the ship. The monster resembled a giant crocodile equipped with four strong webbed paws and a long tail. The creature disappeared in the depths of the ocean after suffering several minutes of agony. Perhaps we need to thank the proverbial German pedantry for documents like that. The captain described the actual events at the risk of looking a total psycho.
The mystery of the so-called “cursed ship” also has to do with the German navy. Indeed, the history of the giant German battleship Scharnhorst is either a series of dire mishaps or stages of a real curse. Prior to its launch in 1936, the ship slid down the slips in a shipyard. The accident claimed the lives of 60 workers. Another accident took place during the launching of the Scharnhorst. Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials could see the ship crashing into the barges after breaking the lines. In 1939, two explosions rocked the ship as she bombarded Gdansk. Two gun turrets were destroyed, 28 sailors killed. The Scharnhorst, the pride and glory of the German navy, failed to sink anything while engaging the British warships. Her steering gear was damaged by a Norwegian warship during the shelling of Oslo. The Scharnhorst went down rather gracelessly after being hit by a British torpedo. The ship’s ammo hold detonated, splitting the ship asunder. The battleship became a mass grave of 1,422 sailors. The British rescued only 36 crew members. Two of the ship’s crew managed to reach the shore by making use of the floating wreckage. Those two sailors tried to use a blow torch (borrowed from the ship) for making some tea. The blow torch went off and killed both the sailors, the last victims of the “cursed ship.”
The mysterious events often happened to chief protagonists of the armed conflicts. Adolf Hitler survived numerous elaborate attempts on his life. Winston Churchill claimed he had survived an air bomb explosion only because he heard a “tip from above”. That day he did not take his regular seat in a vehicle. Churchill, a rather hefty man, climbed into the other side of the car. A nearby blast could have upended the car. Yet the weight of Churchill’s body apparently gave a boost to the car’s stability. The car tilted at two wheels but never overturned. According to Churchill, it felt as if he heard someone tell him: “Don’t you do that!” a moment before he opened the door of the vehicle. It was one of several cases when something inexplicable intervened to save Churchill from imminent danger.
Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.ru
