Torpedownia – Abandoned German Torpedo Testing Station Remains Off Poland’s Coastline (Pictures)

Wikipedia / Czonek / GFDL
Wikipedia / Czonek / GFDL

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_017CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Remnants of World War Two are ever present across Europe even though the war ended over 70 years ago. One of those is a torpedo testing station that is still standing off the coast of Poland in the Bay of Puck.

The Kriegsmarine Submarine Arms Research Centre dates back to WWII – a German centre testing the torpedoes fired at Jastarnia and Jurata on the Hel Peninsula. It consisted of a Torpedo Launcher in Babie Doły and two minor buildings placed across the Gulf, in the vicinity of Jastarnia, between which a torpedo scavenging net was spread. The abandoned station has since been nicknamed ‘Torpedownia’.

Once the war ended and Poland came under Soviet authority, the military continued to use the building and its area for training military divers.

Today it has been left to rot and remains abandoned, but swimmers are able to swim out to investigate what remains, whilst some can take boats out to visit it.

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_018Torpedownia in 1954 CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Torpedownia,_Babie_Doly_(zdjęcie_lotnicze,_2007)By I, Jack11 Poland, CC BY-SA 3.0, $3

Torpedownia_1 (Medium)By CzonekOwn work, GFDL, $3

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_006 (1)CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_013CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Torpedownia_2By CzonekOwn work, GFDL, $3

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_002CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_014CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_015CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Torpedownia_Babie_Doly_Torpedowaffenplatz_Hexengrund_007CC BY-SA 3.0, $2

Video

Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE