History regularly reappears along the Danube River near the Serbian town of Prahovo, but it’s likely never been more visible than this summer. The story begins in the fall of 1944, as German naval forces attempted to retreat from the Soviet Red Army. These included the squadrons sailing on the Danube River, but their plans were more focused than simply sinking their ships as soon as possible. To make matters worse, the abandoned Nazi vessels still hinder trade along that section of the river after more than eight decades. In 2024, Serbian national authorities began collaborating with the EIB to remove 21 selected shipwrecks along a 3.1-mile-long bottleneck of the Danube during similar receding conditions.