Europe’s latest heatwave and drought have dropped the Danube to critically low levels. In eastern Serbia, near the port town of Prahovo, that has done something the river does every dry summer – only this year it’s worse: it has dragged dozens of rusted German WWII ships back into the daylight.

In September 1944 the retreating Kriegsmarine deliberately scuttled roughly 200 vessels – warships, barges, tugs, the lot – to slow the advancing Red Army. Most of them are still down there. Some still carry live ammunition and unexploded ordnance. Right now the wrecks have narrowed the navigable channel so badly that cargo traffic (steel, coal, grain) is crawling or stopped, and river cruises are largely grounded. Heavy industry’s river logistics are taking a proper beating.

At the same time the low water has turned the wrecks into an accidental tourist attraction. Locals and visitors are swimming near them, climbing on the corroded hulls, and hiring fishermen to motor them out for a closer look. A temporary curiosity boom in a handful of small Serbian river towns while the rest of the industrial Danube chokeholds itself.

A long stretch of brutal heat and no rain doesn’t just make everyone sweaty and grumpy. Sometimes it casually resurrects an 80-year-old naval graveyard, blocks modern shipping, and hands a few people a weird summer photo opportunity before the water rises again.

A coin always has two sides. This one just happens to be covered in rust and high explosives.

If you’ve got better photos or local stories from Prahovo, drop them in the comments – or just tell me which side of this particular coin you find more ridiculous.