A hoard of Nazi artefacts - including the only known copy of a memo announcing the death of Adolf Hitler - have been uncovered from a U-boat almost 80 years after it was sunk.
Hundreds of items have now been uncovered from U-boat 534, including the incredible enigma decoded message which informs the crew of their new Führer.
The U-boat is part of a display at Birkenhead’s dock on Merseyside, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The items uncovered include secret dispatches from Nazi high command, a rare enigma machine and even condoms.
The hoard has been under wraps since U534 was sunk by the RAF off the coast of a Danish island on May 5 1945- the same day Hitler’s successor ordered the partial surrender of German forces.
It is now thought the sub might have been trying to escape to South America.
The sub was raised from the seabed in 1993 and its contents were conserved, though left untouched and under wraps - until now.
Although based in the Baltic Sea was found filled with tropical gear such as lightweight uniforms and guides to South America.
Founder of Big Heritage, Dean Paton, said: “The things we’ve found go from secret documents to personal letters. One was complaining about the cows on their farm not giving them enough milk.
“We’re finding photographs and cards with peoples’ names on them which we can trace. It’s really interesting. When they raised the U-boat in the early Nineties the Danish team rapidly conserved and saved anything they could without then going through box by box to see what it was. They just kept it safe and stabilised.
“Those boxes have been passed on and they’ve not been looked at, not been opened. Things we’ve found include what was once considered tens of thousands of reams of paper that was first assumed to be blank but is actually just very faded.
“So there’s all sorts of new documents now just being seen for the first time since the 40s - from some quite mundane shopping lists and letters to some quite serious stuff like enigma decoded messages informing the crew of their new führer - which, between the lines, means Hitler’s dead and they’ve now got a new boss.
“It’s the only known paper copy of that dispatch in the world.
“We have got some quite interesting technology on U 534. It was one of the later boats [made], and it didn’t surrender. We think that there was probably an intention to take some of this brand new, high tech military equipment somewhere else.
“That could’ve been to Argentina. It had the range to get to Argentina and that is where a lot of senior Nazis disappeared to after the war, or it could’ve even been intended to go to America - which offered some sort of safe harbour if you brought technology that they could take, or even Japan.
“The interesting thing will be to piece this together over the next few years as more information comes to light. It’s not just about the artefacts its about the story behind it that we’re really piecing together for the first time.”
Many of the artefacts will be on display later this year.
U534 was hit by a depth charge from an RAF Liberator bomber of the 52 crew 49 survived. The U-boat is one of four in the world to survive.
