Several wooden piles sticking out of the snow, half-rotted tarpaulin of tents, cans and rusty parts of scientific equipment - today this is all that remains of the German meteorological station "Treasure Hunt" (German "Schatzgraber"), based on one of the islands of the Franz Land archipelago. Joseph - Land of Alexandra. Now, not far from the ruins of the base, there is the northernmost border post of Russia - "Nagurskoye".
Weather hunters
The Nazis set up a meteorological post at Cape Nimrod in September 1943 and closed it in July 1944 - according to one version, the polar explorers were urgently evacuated after being poisoned with undercooked polar bear meat and infected with trichinosis.
What kind of scientific data they managed to collect is not reliably established, however, judging by the traces of their stay, they settled here seriously and for a long time. So, along the perimeter, you can still distinguish holes dug in the correct order and similar to crumbling trenches or machine-gun nests. Four thick wooden pillars, apparently, remained from the insulated dugout or bunker. One of the first to discover the abandoned base was the Soviet polar explorers from the research icebreaker Semyon Dezhnev, who landed at Cape Nimrod in September 1951.
Leading navigational marks on Alexandra Land. Photo Andrey Stanavov / popmech.ru
According to their recollections, then there were still radio and meteorological stations, a radio mast, household and residential buildings with stocks of canned food and weapons in excellent safety. A well-fortified secret base number 24, which was under the jurisdiction of the German Navy, was deployed five kilometers from the Treasure Hunt. In order to disguise the roofs of the dugouts and buildings, they were painted white.
According to a study by the Russian historian Andrei Fursov, the Nazis used a whole network of weather stations similar to Schatzgreber to support military operations in the Soviet Arctic: Hadegen, Zugvogel, Edelweiss, Basgeiger, Kreuzritter, Nusbaum, Holzauge "," Knospe "," Mole "," Gerhard "," Cellist "and" Arctic Wolf ". Thirteen in total. The stations were scattered along the coast of the continent and numerous islands in the Arctic Ocean. In addition, there were radio technical posts in Greenland, Svalbard and Northern Canada (Bell Island).
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From such bases, operational information about the weather and ice conditions in the areas of combat patrols flowed to surface ships, submarines and aircraft of the Kriegsmarine, and intercepted radiograms from Soviet and allied military convoys were received. Many meteorological stations had powerful equipment for radio reconnaissance and direction finding. Meteorological parties, food and equipment to the remote islands were delivered by steamers of the Arctic group "Kedingen", submarines and transport planes.
Obstinate north
It is no secret that with the beginning of the war, the Northern Sea Route became the subject of close attention of the admirals of the Kriegsmarine. It was the key transport artery of the USSR, along which convoys with coal, timber, nickel, weapons, non-ferrous metals for defense plants and food regularly went. During the four years of the war, more than four million tons of cargo were transported along the Northern Sea Route. Despite the powerful and well-armed naval forces, Germany did not manage to take control of the Arctic.
Plan of the German weather station on Alexandra Land. From the book "War in the Arctic (1939−1945)". Arkhangelsk, 2001. S. 147.
This was hampered by the actions of the Northern Fleet, unpredictable ice movement and extremely capricious weather. An extensive network of weather stations allowed the Kriegsmarine to at least partially track the ice situation and coordinate operations. "The Hitlerites needed such stations to support cruisers and submarines raids along the Northern Sea Route," Pyotr Boyarsky, head of the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition (MAKE), tells Popular Mechanics. “Such sorties without accurate weather and ice reports were very dangerous. The Germans understood this. " One of these raids took place in August 1942, when Germany tried to conduct a covert operation "Wunderland" ("Wonderland"). During it, it was planned to cut the Northern Sea Route with large surface ships, send as many Soviet transport ships to the bottom as possible,destroy ports and bases on the coast. For this, the heavy cruiser "Admiral Scheer" with a group of submarine cover was sent to the Kara Sea.
Building materials at the site of a German weather station, Franz Josef Land. Photo by Andrey Stanavov.
All plans were canceled at once by a chance meeting with the old Soviet icebreaking steamer "Alexander Sibiryakov", which took place off Belukha Island on 25 August. The icebreaker was sailing from Dikson with cargo for polar stations on Severnaya Zemlya. The ship was quickly sunk by the cruiser's side artillery fire, but the radio operator still managed to broadcast the alarm signal and his coordinates. The surprise effect was lost - everyone knew about the fascist raider prowling in the internal waters. The Germans, who wanted to find out the state of the ice in the Kara Sea and the routes of the polar convoys, were forced to hastily retreat.
Special attention zone
It should be noted that Germany showed interest in the Arctic and Franz Josef Land in particular even before the war and more than once. In 1931, the islands of the archipelago were filmed in detail from the board of the German airship "Graf Zeppelin". And although Soviet polar explorers provided assistance in organizing the expedition, no one later shared the aerial photography materials with them. The Germans used this data to create accurate maps of the archipelago.
Remains of a German dugout in Alexandra Land. Photo Andrey Stanavov / popmech.ru
German burner. Photo Andrey Stanavov / popmech.ru
Remains of a tent at the site of a German weather base, Franz Josef Land. Photo Andrey Stanavov / popmech.ru
Alexandra Land, Franz Josef Land Archipelago / popmech.ru
Cross-country vehicle of the border service of the FSB of Russia, outpost 'Nagurskoe', ZFI. Photo Andrey Stanavov / popmech.ru
The death of the icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov".
Heavy cruiser "Admiral Scheer".
A year later, in 1932, the icebreaking steamer Malygin set off from Arkhangelsk to the islands, bringing to the station a change of winterers headed by Papanin. Among them was the German scientist Dr. Joachim Scholz. The second flight "Malygin" took there foreign tourists, among whom was the secretary of the international society "Aeroarktic" German professor Walter Bruns. His task was to study the possibilities of landing airships in polar latitudes.
In addition, in 1940, the German auxiliary cruiser "Komet" passed the Northern Sea Route, the crew of which received invaluable experience in navigation and navigation in the Arctic, and also made many frames and measurements, which after a couple of years were useful for other cruises by the Kriegsmarine. Not so harmless anymore.
Probably, new pages will soon appear in the thick folder with evidence of the large-scale military activities of the Reich in the Soviet Arctic. As Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the end of March, the military department intends to send a special expedition to Franz Josef Land, which will include sailors of the Northern Fleet and employees of the public organization Russian Geographical Society.
They will carefully study the places where the German troops are based and will try to find artifacts that shed light on the events of almost a century ago. In addition to Franz Josef Land, the Ministry of Defense will study the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, Cape Schmidt and Sredny Island.
Author: Photographer and traveler Andrey Stanavov