Around 200 vessels were scuttled in September 1944 across the Danube river as Nazi troops retreated west, sinking the ships to slow the Red Army's advance and to stop them falling into Soviet hands. Today, a Serbian operation to clear the ships, many of them laden with unexploded ordnance, will bring relief to vessels struggling to navigate the waters. "When divers came here and saw what there was," says historian Velimir Miki Trailovic, "we became aware of the great dangeir." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES