BUDAPEST, Hungary — Soldiers from throughout Europe suited up in heavy diving gear inside a cavernous flooded stone quarry deep beneath the Hungarian capital. Once their air tanks, flippers and waterproof diving fits had been secured, they slipped beneath the chilly water and, flashlights in hand, disappeared into the darkness.
The army divers from Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Lithuania had been taking part in a global coaching train in Budapest to organize them for a wide range of eventualities: restoration operations after a ship accident, rescues throughout a catastrophic flood, or the elimination of unexploded underwater ordnance following an armed battle.
“The most important thing is to strengthen our capabilities and work together internationally, underwater, and to know each other’s equipment, techniques and procedures,” stated Maj. Csaba Horvath, the chief of coaching for the Hungarian Defense Forces 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Riverine Guard Regiment. “That’s helping us to find and dispose of underwater munitions and explosive remnants of war.”
This was the second yr in a row that Hungary hosted the 10-day train, which offered the troopers with hands-on coaching in a wide range of environments: diving 24 meters (79 toes) deep into the flooded passages of a former limestone quarry, submerging into lakes and caves, and going through the highly effective present of the Danube River.
For Hungary’s EOD and Riverine Guard Regiment, such duties are a every day routine. They are known as round 2,000 instances throughout a yr to take away explosive supplies from the Danube and different websites in Hungary.
The Central European nation, and particularly its capital, had been closely bombed by each Germany and the Allied forces throughout World War II. After the top of the conflict, a lot of these explosives had been tossed into the Danube to scale back the hazard to civilians. Nearly 80 years later, a lot of that ordnance stays lodged within the riverbed.
PHOTOS: Hungary hosts worldwide coaching for army divers who salvage unexploded munitions
The lasting affect of such unexploded munitions is being felt at this time in war-torn international locations like Ukraine. Alexander Lobov, a army engineer and mine motion professional with the U.N. Development Program, advised UN News that 540,000 gadgets of unexploded ordnance had already been cleared in Ukraine as of June of this yr.
The Mines Advisory Group, a U.Ok.-based humanitarian and advocacy group that finds, removes and destroys unexploded bombs and different munitions from locations affected by battle, says that “landmines and unexploded ordnance will threaten and endanger the lives of Ukrainian people for years to come.”
When the Kakhovka dam ruptured in southern Ukraine in June, it despatched a torrent of water from the nation’s largest reservoir into cities, cities and lowlands downstream on the Dnieper River. Minefields had been inundated, elevating the prospect that mines and different explosives had been dislodged and carried into the Black Sea.
It is simply such eventualities that make it essential for the army divers to coach in a wide range of demanding environments, together with in speeding rivers just like the Danube. Speaking from a ship anchored in the midst of the river close to Budapest’s Megyeri Bridge, Horvath stated circumstances there make detecting and eradicating munitions a specific problem.
“Here we have a high rate of flow, a lot of current, and the visibility is very low, somewhere between 10 centimeters (4 inches) and one meter (3.2 feet),” he stated. “It’s extremely difficult to dive in a very high-flow and high-current river.”
The power of the present – the stream of the Danube close to Budapest averages greater than 2,300 cubic meters (2.3 million liters) per second – makes Europe’s second-largest river a really perfect staging floor for making ready divers for excessive circumstances, particularly when such eventualities are troublesome to copy in their very own international locations.
Belgian divers suited up in vests laden with lead plates and boots product of steel to maintain them anchored to the river mattress as the present rushed by. Diving with out air tanks in a quick water atmosphere, they wore heavy steel helmets which had been related to the boat by an extended air hose.
“You can feel it, you can feel the current, and you have to fight it going under,” stated Staff Sgt. Tommy Lefere, a salvage diver within the Belgian eleventh Engineer Battalion who was collaborating within the coaching. “It’s not something we’re used to doing in Belgium.”
Warrant Officer Laszlo Torok, Hungary’s solely licensed grasp diver, stated placing the divers by way of such troublesome workouts will assist them to keep up their focus and sense of calm when they’re known as to behave in real-world eventualities.
“It provides mental preparation for divers, which is extremely important in our work, to always remain calm and thoughtful,” Torok stated.
