World War II
By 1935, a new power had appeared through the entire length of the Danube — Nazi Germany, whose new self-propelled barges swiftly moved up and down the river outside Germany's borders, "the pioneers of the new order. They flew the Swastika and were built of bullet-proof steel."
The Germans were held to the Danube as it moved the Roumanian oil in barges from Ploesti back to the Fatherland for use in industry. Germany invaded Hungary in 1944 ending the Horthy regime and the puppet state.During the Third Reich era, the DDSG was involved in transporting Jews after Kristallnacht.
The Allies counteracted--RAF 205 Group flew 152 night sorties against Danube shipping and US bombers attacked the river ports by day. The steamers were sunk at the quayside in the air raids, but the worst menace were the air dropped mines in the river which sunk 40 percent of the vessels. See Nazi rule over the Danube River
Read more about this topic: Steamboats On The Danube
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
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Doom on the sun!”
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