KOTA KINABALU: Australian and Singaporean divers have discovered the wreck of a Dutch World War II submarine, missing for the past 70 years, off the northern coast of Borneo.Disclosing the discovery, the Netherlands Defence Ministry said the wreckage was discovered following a “tip-off from a local fisherman”.
“The Hr Ms KXVI , which has been missing with a crew of 36 since 1941, has been found. It was discovered by Australian and Singaporean sport divers in the waters ‘above’ the island of Borneo after a tip-off from a local fisherman,” the ministry reportedly told a Dutch news portal 9News yesterday.
The report did not, however, state the exact location of the wreck out of respect for the dead crew and their descendants.
The 1,000-tonne KXVI was part of the Allied fleet tasked with stopping the Japanese invasion of the then Dutch East Indies.
It torpedoed the Japanese submarine hunter, Sagiri, on Christmas Eve, 1941, only to be sunk itself the following day by a Japanese submarine.
The latest find brings to six the number of Dutch submarines lost during the war that have now been found, the ministry said.
Only one wreck, –Hr Ms O 13 – remains missing somewhere in the North Sea.
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