LONDON, July 27 (UPI) -- Polish divers have solved a nearly 60-year-old mystery when they discovered the wreckage of Adolf Hitler's aircraft carrier in the Baltic Sea.
The Graf Zeppelin was Nazi Germany's only aircraft carrier when it was launched in 1938. Hitler planned for the warship to become the master of the northern seas, The Times of London reported Thursday.
This week, Polish divers searching for oil in the Baltic Sea near Gdansk, found the aircraft carrier.
Krzysztof Grabowski, employed with the Petrobaltic exploration group, told the newspaper, "We were carrying out soundings for possible oil exploration. Then we stumbled across a vessel that was over 850 feet long at a depth of 820 feet."
In April 1945, German sailors scuttled the warship in what was believed a casualty of infighting between the Nazis facing a war defeat.
The Soviet Red Army captured the Polish harbor of Szczecin and recovered the Graf Zeppelin in shallow waters. Instead of destroying the warship, the Russians repaired it for their own use. In 1947, under unknown circumstances, the Graf Zeppelin sank for a second time.
