Decades of rumours the Nazi leadership escaped the Allies' clutches at the end of World War II and escaped to South America appear to have been sunk - literally.
The wreck of a then state-of-the-art U-3523 submarine has been discovered at the bottom of the North Sea, 73 years after it left port - just two days before the Allies declared victory.
It was found by researchers at the Sea War Museum Jutland in Denmark, half-buried and jutting out from the seabed on a 45-degree angle.
"This was the most modern submarine the Germans built during [World War II]," Gert Normann Andersen, director of the museum, told Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad.
"Only two of the 118 that were ordered actually entered service."
The U-3523 was said to be capable of staying underwater for so long it could have made it all the way to South America.
"After the war, there were many rumours about top Nazis who fled in U-boats and brought Nazi gold to safety, and the U-3523 fed the rumours," the museum said in a statement.
"But nobody knows if this was the U-boat's destination, and nobody knows if the U-boat had valuables or passengers aboard in addition to the 58 crew, all of whom perished."
- Hans Asperger gave autistic children to the Nazis - report
- Nazis and pyramids: What's really going on in Antarctica?
The sub was found 16km north of Skagen in Denmark, 123m below the surface of the North Sea.
Books and TV documentary series have been made exploring the theory top Nazi officials, including Adolf Hitler, escaped to Argentina after the Third Reich fell.
Newshub.
