Operation Davy Jones' Locker (orDavey) was a U.K. and U.S. military operation from 1946 to 1948. It involved the dumping at sea of captured German chemical weapons following the end ofWorld War II.
In the aftermath of the Nazi defeat in World War II, the occupying allies found large amounts of stockpiled Germanchemical weapons. They quickly convened theContinental Committee on Dumping and came to agreement pertaining to the destruction and disposal of the chemical stockpile. The allies decided that each of the four nations would destroy the German weapons, on their occupied territory, in whatever manner was most convenient. A total of 296,103 tons of chemical weapons were found, divided amongst each of the four zones ofoccupied Germany.[1] The name refers toDavy Jones' Locker, anidiom for the sea bottom.
The United States undertook Operation Davy Jones' Locker between June 1946 and August 1948, and it involved thescuttling of 38 ships containing between 30,000 and 40,000 tons of captured German chemical weapons.[2] Nine of the ships were scuttled inSkagerrak Strait in theBaltic Sea while two more were sunk in theNorth Sea.[1][2][3] The eleven ships were scuttled over the course of five separate dumpings in the region ofScandinavia.[1]