A German warship sunk by a torpedo during World War II has been found on the seabed off Norway, more than eight decades after it was attacked. During the operation it came under fire from Norwegian artillery, was torpedoed by a British submarine and was finally submerged by the Germans themselves. A power grid operator made this astounding discovery of the lost Karlsruhe cruiser around 1,600 feet (488 meters) below sea level.The vessel, which measures 571 feet long and still bears the Nazi swastika, led an assault on the southern Norwegian city of Kristiansand in the April 1940 invasion of the country.
When World War II had broken out seven months earlier, in September 1939, Norway declared itself neutral. Hitler ordered its invasion on April 9, 1940, however, and German troops quickly occupied Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik. Backed by Allied forces, the Norwegian Army mounted a resistance effort, but the Nazis ultimately took control in June 1940 until liberation in April 1945.
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