On the trail of the “sea fighters”

It has now been almost three years since the publication of the book “Of the Sea Fighters”. In it, master diver Walter Lewandowski describes in detail his training as a sea fighter and his daring missions on the Eastern and Western fronts. His book inspired experts in the field, and he told interested young people about his life in lectures.

On January 30, 2021, I was saddened to receive the news of Walter's death. Until the end of his life, he was in good physical and mental health. Since then, I have often thought back to our brief but very meaningful friendship. My interest in the history of his special commando unit never left me. I also wanted to try to understand his experiences as best I could on a personal level. For a vacation in Italy in September 2022, stays in Valdagno and Venice were planned, the former training locations of the “Lehrkommando 700”.

The small town of Valdagno seemed rather sleepy to us. It seems that tourists rarely find their way there, although the valley can be reached from Verona or Vicenza by car in half an hour. A brief internet search had revealed that the swimming pool in Valdagno is still in operation today. On arrival at the site, it quickly became clear that the building had been almost completely preserved in its historical structure. It was easy to see where the photographs in Walter's photographic estate had been taken.

The swimming pool, which is now run under the name “Aquaemotion”, is not designed for visitors from outside. The facility is used by the local population, in particular school classes and swimming courses for sporting activities. After a cumbersome procedure, in which we had to deal with an Italian-language membership application to the local swimming club, we were still allowed access. Even inside, it looked as if time had stood still. The pool, diving board and changing rooms looked much the same as they had 80 years ago. Only a few local historians are aware of the purpose of the facility during the war years. At least there was no visible indication of the history of the swimming pool.

We were able to swim a few laps, watched in amazement by a senior swimming class that had turned up out of the blue. With a little imagination, it was easy to picture the training combat swimmers in this historic atmosphere. How do you think Walter felt in this pool? What drove him to keep swimming when he was on the verge of total exhaustion?

A visit to the training center in the Venice lagoon proved to be much more complicated than the visit to Valdagno. Before our visit, I was only able to find out very little about what happened on Alga Island after the combat swimmers had left. The stationed anti-aircraft guns remained manned even after the withdrawal of “Lehrkommando 700” in November 1944. In the last days of the war, several air raids took place, but there are no records of the damage or deaths that occurred. Since the end of the Second World War, the island had remained uninhabited, and the remains of the buildings had been left to nature and thus to decay. Although there were repeated considerations to develop the island into a foundation or university, none of these projects has been realized so far and Alga remained in the possession of the municipality of Venice until today.

Although the almost rectangular island is located directly in front of the old town of Venice, right next to a busy shipping lane, it seems that only rarely do visitors, let alone tourists, find their way there. My internet request to a local water taxi company remained unanswered. However, an analysis of satellite images on Google Earth showed that it should be possible to make the crossing independently. According to the applicable shipping guidelines in the lagoon, motorized boats up to a specified horsepower limit may be operated without a boat license. An explicit ban on entering the island was not apparent in the Italian regulations.

In the end, the choice fell on a small motorized inflatable boat. When we arrived on site, we could not find a suitable place to put the boat in. The harbor area directly opposite the island was cordoned off by fences. Apparently, there was a lot of activity there and I didn't want to attract more attention with my rubber boat than absolutely necessary. Finally, we found a quiet place with a parking lot at a canal near the village of Malcontenta. The boat was quickly inflated, the engine lifted in and the fuel lines connected.
We passed the countless small fishing boat sheds at a slow pace. We had to cover several kilometers through the intricate network of waterways before we reached the actual lagoon. When we reached the beginning of the large waterway, the island emerged in the distance. On the satellite images, the crossing had seemed like a mere stone's throw. Had we taken on too much with this venture? Did the rule of keeping to the right also apply on a waterway? Not even 200 meters ahead of us, a large cargo ship steamed past. The small inflatable boat chugged leisurely along the boundary posts towards the island. The captain of an oncoming tourist ferry looked down sceptically at our boat.

Finally arriving at the island, the small entrance on the north side was approached. There it became apparent that the small bay had apparently been used for years for the illegal disposal of waste. The remains of two rotted rowing boats were visible, and rusty scrap piled up just below the water surface in the murky water. The engine was immediately turned off, and the bottom was carefully probed with an oar. Waves rocked the dinghy closer to the jetty. Great care was needed to avoid damaging the rubber boat on one of the rusty metal parts.

The shore was safely reached, and a first glance at the nearby ruins of the buildings was possible. The main building was preserved up to the second floor. Creepers had almost completely enveloped the remains of the walls, and dense undergrowth had grown around the building. Although the walls had holes in places and some of the floors had been broken out, the building itself had largely been preserved. It was not clear to me whether the damage to the buildings came from the air raids in the last days of the war or whether it happened later by other means. But it was quite obvious that these were traces of destruction that were certainly not caused by natural weathering processes, but rather by people, arbitrarily and without any recognizable purpose.

From the landing stage, we worked our way along the outer wall to the remains of the former nave, which later became the dining room. On the way, the entrance to an air-raid shelter had become visible in the undergrowth. It was easy to distinguish between the structure of the historic monastery and the additions made during the war years. The concrete buildings of the Kriegsmarine stand out from the red bricks that were otherwise used.

In addition to the air-raid shelters, there were still numerous cellar rooms that were accessible, as well as a vault under the nave of the church. It was not possible to inspect the anti-aircraft gun emplacements in the eastern part of the island. The undergrowth had grown too thickly in the past decades, making it impossible to get through without a machete.

During our tour through the ruins, no graffiti was found, as is usually the case in such abandoned places. Although the entire island looked very neglected, the amount of modern rubbish to be expected was limited. In the mountains of debris next to the buildings, some relics of the Lehrkommando could still be found superficially. In addition to a few glass bottles dating back to the 1940s, porcelain shards of the Kriegsmarine canteen dishes were found. Inside the building at the landing stage lay the rotten and smashed remains of the furniture. Whether this was brought there while the Navy was using the building or only later can no longer be determined beyond doubt. Should the island be used in the distant future and expanded as a result, it is to be hoped that attention will be paid during the construction work to traces of the “Lehrkommando 700” that are likely to be found. Almost involuntarily, we would have become long-term guests on the island, because it was only on the ninth attempt that the boat engine started again and the return journey could begin.

I would have liked to have told Walter Lewandowski about the condition of “his” combat swimmer island in person. Many other unanswered questions arose during my research. Using newly discovered documents from his estate and information from archives, we are currently working on a new edition of the book. Do you still have any documents or photographs of the Kriegsmarine Kampfschwimmer? I would be very happy to receive any material that is made available to me.

You can find the new edition of the book from 2023 in my shop (english and german).

Adrian Matthes, Erlangen, November 2023