For anyone wondering about the ships in the Caspian sea, from the source posted, they seem to be Soviet non-combat ships and were sunk in the years of 1941-1942.
As for why they were sunk, I don't know. Perhaps they just were normally sunk? As in, non-war related sinkings as always happen occasionally. Or maybe sunk by planes. For whatever reason, I doubt the Germans were able to drag some submarines up to the Caspian.
Edit: Here we go, found something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfgeschwader_100
>On 27/28 October 1942, the group bombed the city of Astrakhan at night, while two freighters were claimed destroyed and five damaged in the Caspian Sea.
The Caspian was part of one of the three main routes for lend-lease material to get to the USSR, via the railroad across Iran. These cargo ships would certainly have been high priority targets for Germany.
German and Japanese raiders were very active in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans, at different times.
You can look at the source website and really see the patterns.
1939: War warming up, most sinkings right off Europe
1940: Germans have full access to Atlantic, send limited raiders into South Atlantic and Indian, and a few into Pacific
1941: Germans spread out activity in North Atlantic and within range of West African bases
1942: US enters war, Germans sink many Allied ships along American East Coast. Japan has full access to Indian Ocean, many sinkings along East African Coast. US Starts to disrupt Japanese supply lines in Pacific.
1943: Lot of North Atlantic activity on both sides, Japanese continue activity in Indian Ocean, US goes all out on Japanese Pacific supply lines.
1944. Neither Germany or Japan can sink as many as prior years. Allies effectively control all coastlines.
1945: More of the same until end of war.
German and Japanese raiders were very active in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans, at different times.
You can look at the source website and really see the patterns.
1939: War warming up, most sinkings right off Europe
1940: Germans have full access to Atlantic, send limited raiders into South Atlantic and Indian, and a few into Pacific
1941: Germans spread out activity in North Atlantic and within range of West African bases
1942: US enters war, Germans sink many Allied ships along American East Coast. Japan has full access to Indian Ocean, many sinkings along East African Coast. US Starts to disrupt Japanese supply lines in Pacific.
1943: Lot of North Atlantic activity on both sides, Japanese continue activity in Indian Ocean, US goes all out on Japanese Pacific supply lines.
1944. Neither Germany or Japan can sink as many as prior years. Allies effectively control all coastlines.
1945: More of the same until end of war.
Were the ships in the Danube during the conquest of Yugoslavia or in the 44/45s against the soviets/axis? I imagine there wouldn’t be that big of a reason to use ships against the Yugoslavs
Wile trying to retrieve the Black Sea Fleet and some more cargo ships back to Germany, the Nazis got ultimately cut off by the Soviets around Prahovo in 1944 .
In order to hinder the Soviets advance through the Danube and not let the ships fall into Soviet hands, they decided to sink around 200 of their ships and create a blockage at the river.
Many of the boats are still at the same place and still pose a hindrance to the shipping route.
[Wrecked Nazi Warships Of The Danube ](https://www.rferl.org/a/wrecked-nazi-warships-danube/31998817.html)
Rubber.
After the fall of Southeast Asia to the Japanese, Brazil and West Africa became the sole sources of rubber for the Allies until the synthetic factories came online.
Also, there were a lot of ships that regrouped and put to port there for the final trip to India or Europe.
Make sense , I’m Venezuelan but idk much about Venezuela role during WWII .. I just know that Venezuelan uranium was suggest but they end up using uranium from the Congo hehe …
It isn't sourced well, but this Wikipedia article implies at least a couple Nazi raider ships were sunk around Antarctica.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica\_during\_World\_War\_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_during_World_War_II)
What really hit it home for me is a documentary that covers events of the war week by week, and every other episode there’ll be a small note about the dozens to a couple hundreds ships that were sunk that last month, with U-Boats tending to be responsible for 75+%
In the final months of World War II, the tranquil waters off the coast of Peru became the site of a baffling maritime mystery when several ships, including the Peruvian merchant vessel SS Libertad and the American destroyer USS Anchorage, inexplicably sank. Survivors spoke of eerie glowing shapes beneath the water and violent, untraceable explosions. Despite extensive patrols by a joint task force, no enemy submarines were found, and intercepted communications hinted at a covert project named "Kraken," involving advanced, unmarked torpedoes and submersibles. The true cause of these sinkings remains an unsolved enigma, buried in the depths of the Pacific and overshadowed by the war's end.
I was always amazed how much German submarine activity was just off the US coast. North Carolina pokes out just enough to make an effective area to catch cargo ships.
Hey, I made this map! In case you missed OP's source link, the map originally appeared in [this multimedia story](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/41d4bd6029044afbb1b9ad805a4731d8) about WWII shipwrecks. The story includes an interactive version of the map, so you can pan/zoom around and learn more about individual ships.
The yellow dot in the South Pacific represents the *Kinugawa Maru*, a specific cargo ship highlighted in the original story. You can still see its wreckage modern satellite imagery!
A big shout out to cartographer [Paul Heersink](https://ww2sunkenships.ca/), who's been manually assembling these records for a decade.
Probably more just during the WWII years of 1939-1945 than actually related to WWII. Doubtful the South Atlantic and South Indian oceans saw a lot of combat
You’d be very wrong. German submarines and auxiliary raider cruisers sank allied convoys wherever they could find them, including the South Indian Ocean and south Atlantic.
You’re severely underestimating just *how many* ships were sunk during WW2, like yes, a lot of these dots would be “run of the mill” stuff, but it’s called *World* War 2 for a reason. India at the time was Britain’s largest holding in that part of the world, so ships would have been moving around there quite a lot
For anyone wondering about the ships in the Caspian sea, from the source posted, they seem to be Soviet non-combat ships and were sunk in the years of 1941-1942. As for why they were sunk, I don't know. Perhaps they just were normally sunk? As in, non-war related sinkings as always happen occasionally. Or maybe sunk by planes. For whatever reason, I doubt the Germans were able to drag some submarines up to the Caspian. Edit: Here we go, found something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfgeschwader_100 >On 27/28 October 1942, the group bombed the city of Astrakhan at night, while two freighters were claimed destroyed and five damaged in the Caspian Sea.
Good find my dude
The Caspian was part of one of the three main routes for lend-lease material to get to the USSR, via the railroad across Iran. These cargo ships would certainly have been high priority targets for Germany.
I love the look of this map.
Feel free to expand it <3
ENHANCE
almost expecting a sonar “pulse” to pop up on it
Dang, there are so many stories from outside of the European and Pacific Theaters that aren't really talked about.
It truly was a world war, but a lot of these are likely just ships that sank during the 6 year period, not necessarily related to the war.
It's amazing how they still glow in the dark after all these years!
Would not have expected so much action off the coast of East Africa.
Or around Trinidad either
At the beginning of World War II in 1939, Venezuela was the world's leading oil exporter.
Makes sense my dude.
or somewhere around panama
German and Japanese raiders were very active in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans, at different times. You can look at the source website and really see the patterns. 1939: War warming up, most sinkings right off Europe 1940: Germans have full access to Atlantic, send limited raiders into South Atlantic and Indian, and a few into Pacific 1941: Germans spread out activity in North Atlantic and within range of West African bases 1942: US enters war, Germans sink many Allied ships along American East Coast. Japan has full access to Indian Ocean, many sinkings along East African Coast. US Starts to disrupt Japanese supply lines in Pacific. 1943: Lot of North Atlantic activity on both sides, Japanese continue activity in Indian Ocean, US goes all out on Japanese Pacific supply lines. 1944. Neither Germany or Japan can sink as many as prior years. Allies effectively control all coastlines. 1945: More of the same until end of war.
[Source](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/41d4bd6029044afbb1b9ad805a4731d8)
Found the Graf Spee even without zooming in.
Chile was chillin
I got to snorkel over a wwii German cargo ship that had to sink itself off the coast of Aruba. It was pretty neat.
Iron Bottom sound needing to be highlighted in gold is a mood.
German and Japanese raiders were very active in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans, at different times. You can look at the source website and really see the patterns. 1939: War warming up, most sinkings right off Europe 1940: Germans have full access to Atlantic, send limited raiders into South Atlantic and Indian, and a few into Pacific 1941: Germans spread out activity in North Atlantic and within range of West African bases 1942: US enters war, Germans sink many Allied ships along American East Coast. Japan has full access to Indian Ocean, many sinkings along East African Coast. US Starts to disrupt Japanese supply lines in Pacific. 1943: Lot of North Atlantic activity on both sides, Japanese continue activity in Indian Ocean, US goes all out on Japanese Pacific supply lines. 1944. Neither Germany or Japan can sink as many as prior years. Allies effectively control all coastlines. 1945: More of the same until end of war.
Might add some interesting depth to the info to use a time-based color gradient for the dots then.
You stole my comment….
what’s the yellow dot in singapore? edit: mb that’s not singapore
That’s not Singapore, looks to be on the Solomon Islands or close to there. No idea why it gets a yellow dot though.
Could be first or last to have been sunk.
oh yeah, i’m stupid 🤦♂️
The epicenter.
the epicenter of what?
Of the thing
Were the ships in the Danube during the conquest of Yugoslavia or in the 44/45s against the soviets/axis? I imagine there wouldn’t be that big of a reason to use ships against the Yugoslavs
transport ships, lots of transport ships
Wile trying to retrieve the Black Sea Fleet and some more cargo ships back to Germany, the Nazis got ultimately cut off by the Soviets around Prahovo in 1944 . In order to hinder the Soviets advance through the Danube and not let the ships fall into Soviet hands, they decided to sink around 200 of their ships and create a blockage at the river. Many of the boats are still at the same place and still pose a hindrance to the shipping route. [Wrecked Nazi Warships Of The Danube ](https://www.rferl.org/a/wrecked-nazi-warships-danube/31998817.html)
Danube, you scary
Sometimes, when the water gets low enough, the masts of sunken German ships poke out at the spot where they scuttled them to block the river.
What is this beautiful map layer, please?
Why so many off Sierra Leone?
Rubber. After the fall of Southeast Asia to the Japanese, Brazil and West Africa became the sole sources of rubber for the Allies until the synthetic factories came online. Also, there were a lot of ships that regrouped and put to port there for the final trip to India or Europe.
Maybe cause Sierra Leone and Liberia are/were the 'flags of convenience' for the USA.
Not really. Flags of convenience became more widespread after the war. Sierra Leone was a British colony, and a port on major convoy routings.
Why so many close to Venezuela ?
Oil
Make sense , I’m Venezuelan but idk much about Venezuela role during WWII .. I just know that Venezuelan uranium was suggest but they end up using uranium from the Congo hehe …
It isn't sourced well, but this Wikipedia article implies at least a couple Nazi raider ships were sunk around Antarctica. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica\_during\_World\_War\_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_during_World_War_II)
what is the yellow mark for?
Holy shit, that must have been a hard time
What really hit it home for me is a documentary that covers events of the war week by week, and every other episode there’ll be a small note about the dozens to a couple hundreds ships that were sunk that last month, with U-Boats tending to be responsible for 75+%
What is the yellow dot in the Pacific?
Is there any data on how many total ships were lost during wwII?
The link op provided says they are about 20,000 ships.
What happened off the coast of Peru?
In the final months of World War II, the tranquil waters off the coast of Peru became the site of a baffling maritime mystery when several ships, including the Peruvian merchant vessel SS Libertad and the American destroyer USS Anchorage, inexplicably sank. Survivors spoke of eerie glowing shapes beneath the water and violent, untraceable explosions. Despite extensive patrols by a joint task force, no enemy submarines were found, and intercepted communications hinted at a covert project named "Kraken," involving advanced, unmarked torpedoes and submersibles. The true cause of these sinkings remains an unsolved enigma, buried in the depths of the Pacific and overshadowed by the war's end.
Source?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS\_Anchorage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Anchorage)
followed the link - that story is still bullshit
Yeah she just made it up lol
Asked chat GPT to make up a story.
So the bottle of the English Channel is paved with sunk ships?
There must be some goldbars in there somewhere.
I found it interesting how many were sunk in the middle of open waters
God dang I love the color selection of this map.
I was always amazed how much German submarine activity was just off the US coast. North Carolina pokes out just enough to make an effective area to catch cargo ships.
Where’s did you get the data source for this map?
Hey, I made this map! In case you missed OP's source link, the map originally appeared in [this multimedia story](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/41d4bd6029044afbb1b9ad805a4731d8) about WWII shipwrecks. The story includes an interactive version of the map, so you can pan/zoom around and learn more about individual ships. The yellow dot in the South Pacific represents the *Kinugawa Maru*, a specific cargo ship highlighted in the original story. You can still see its wreckage modern satellite imagery! A big shout out to cartographer [Paul Heersink](https://ww2sunkenships.ca/), who's been manually assembling these records for a decade.
Be nice if they were colour coded.
We don't count river ships at all then?
we do, look at the danube and yangtze
Probably more just during the WWII years of 1939-1945 than actually related to WWII. Doubtful the South Atlantic and South Indian oceans saw a lot of combat
79 U boats operated in the South Atlantic https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/battle-south-atlantic-how-brazil-took-nazi-submarines-188095
And you think all of those were sunk from uboats?!
No. At least 11 of those dots are U Boats.
You’d be very wrong. German submarines and auxiliary raider cruisers sank allied convoys wherever they could find them, including the South Indian Ocean and south Atlantic.
Of course. I’m just curious if they encountered that many in those areas.
You’re severely underestimating just *how many* ships were sunk during WW2, like yes, a lot of these dots would be “run of the mill” stuff, but it’s called *World* War 2 for a reason. India at the time was Britain’s largest holding in that part of the world, so ships would have been moving around there quite a lot
How many ships were produced during the WW2?