Wreck of Soviet submarine S-2 found

[Tretov]

Follow-up on the submarine S-2:
Ryska anhöriga hedrar sina döda i sprängd ubåt - �landstidningen

Translation:

Russian relatives to submarine crew to honor those lost at sea in the sunk submarine

January 3rd 1940, the soviet submarine S-2 struck a mine near Market lighthouse. All 50 aboard perished.

On tuesday, relatives to the crew members will attend to a memorial service at the place for the sinking. Two russian TV-channels will document the event.

In June last year (2009), Alandstidningen (local newspaper) spread the news that Bjorn Rosenlof and his fellow divers had found the soviet submarine S-2 in the Aland sea. Already in February, sonar images had revealed the shadows of a sunken and demolished submarine. In the early spring, dives were initiated on the wreck.

69 years had passed since the S-2 struck a finnish mine near the Market lighthouse. All 46 crew members plus the commander of the 13th submarine division, his assistant and two engineering students perished.

The S-2 had left the submarine base in Liepaja, Latvia SSR, on the January 1st 1940 carrying orders to patrol the northern baltic sea. Awaiting further instructions, S-2 waited in the Aland sea until the order to patrol further north came on January 3rd.

However - near the Market lighthouse the patrol came to and end as the S-2 struck a finnish mine and exploded. No survivors were ever found.

When the diving team found the submarine, the russian authorities were informed. Things went on, and on tuesday next week, relatives of the lost crewmembers will arrive to the Aland Isles for a memorial service at the wreck site.

The group of 17 includes relatives to the crew but also a priest and the retired submarine commander Igor Kurdin, chairman of the submariners club in S:t Petersburg. Kurdin has been the one in touch with the Aland isles authorities and gathered the relatives.

The group will be accompanied by two russian tv-teams as well as journalists from the news agency ITAR-TASS; a total of seven persons.

The memorial service will be carried out aboard the finnish borderguard vessel Uisko near the Market lighthouse. The head of the russian consulate on Aland isles, Vasilij Jakovlev as well as personnel from the russian embassy in Helsinki will attend as well. The local autonomous government will be represented by the chairman of the local parliament, mr. Roger Nordlund and the antiquarian mr. Kenneth Gustavsson. The finnish state will be represented by mr. Peter Lindback and the local commander of the borderguards, Timo Hissa. The diving team led by Bjorn Rosenlof and a swedish marine attaché, Christian Allerman, will also attend.

According to the representative of the Finnish state, mr. Peter Lindback, none of the local representatives will hold any speech nor lay down any flowers. " - We assist the relatives with a worthy and honorable ceremony", mr Lindback says.

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attached: Igor Kurdin. Kurdin was Executive Officer of Crew One on the K-219 from 1983 until September 1986. He lives in Russia.