There are many myths associated with the Third Reich, reflecting not only the mystical views of the leaders of Nazism. Under some of them there is quite real soil, but for a person who is used to relying on facts, they look even more fantastic than statements about the magical power of the Spear of St. Mauritius, which can influence the fate of mankind. A striking example of this kind of myth is the stories about the existence of a Nazi military base in Antarctica, known in military history as Base 211.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was the so-called "hollow earth theory". According to this theory, there is an empty space inside our planet where organic life can exist. We can recall the scientific and artistic novel of the famous Russian geologist, geographer and writer V. Obruchev "Plutonium", where he described a journey into the Earth. His heroes saw an underground luminary, prehistoric animals and primitive people. But the scientist was far from the idea of popularizing views that are not supported by scientific evidence.
He used the theory of the "hollow earth" to give the younger generation knowledge about the prehistoric past of the earth. On the contrary, the followers of this theory firmly believed that the existence of people is possible in hypothetical underground cavities, and dreamed of establishing a race of "underground Aryans" there. They were convinced that it was possible to penetrate these caves through the system of caves in the Himalayas, Tibet, Pamir, Andes, Carpathians and other mountain formations. But, according to them, the easiest way to do this was in Antarctica.
The theory excited the minds of some scientists, and even more, ordinary people. It is not for nothing that the writer Howard Loughcraft, quite well-known at that time, in his famous novel "Ridges of Madness", which is still popular among a certain circle of readers, depicted underground Antarctica as the habitat of the ancient prehuman race of the Elders, who arrived on our planet from another Galaxy.
But along with this race, the author placed in the depths of the planet the terrible Shoggoths, who accumulated all the evil of the Universe and tried to gain supreme power over the world. Loughcraft's novel is difficult to call prophetic. But attempts to establish an evil inclination in Antarctica have obviously been made. And this is due precisely to the Third Reich. The reader is to judge to what extent the information is plausible.
The myth of the Nazi military Base 211 in Antarctica looks like this:
Under the influence of esoteric teachings about prehistoric civilizations and the theory of the "hollow earth", the Nazis became interested in the fifth continent. There is information that in 1937-1939 they actually sent two expeditions to Antarctica. One of them was headed by Captain Alfred Ritscher.
The Luftwaffe aircraft that were part of it photographed vast Antarctic territories, and in the area of Queen Maud Land dropped several thousand pennants with a swastika. 1939, April 12 - Ritscher reported to Goering that his team had covered an area of about 9,000 m2 with pennants and photographed 350,000 m2 of Antarctic territory. So the Nazis sought to declare the right of the Third Reich to this part of Antarctica, rich in uranium deposits. The part of the peninsula where the pennants fell was named New Swabia and was declared part of the future millennial Reich.
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After the end of the Second World War, the Allies allegedly had some documents in their hands, indicating that Nazi submarines managed to find a system of interconnected caves with warm air in Antarctica. The Nazis allegedly called them "paradise".
It is possible that after reconnaissance, the Nazis began to build their fortifications in New Swabia. This can be evidenced by the statement made in 1943 by Admiral Karl Doenitz: "The German submarine fleet is proud that at the other end of the world it created an impregnable fortress for the Fuhrer Shangri-La."
Supposedly, cargo for construction was transported by submarines from the "Fuehrer's Convoy" unit, which included 35 submarines. There is information about the participation in the operation of two aircraft carrier cruisers, in particular, "Schwabenland". There is evidence that from the beginning of 1942, on the personal instructions of Adolf Hitler, Ahnenerbe specialists, scientists and selected members of the Hitler Youth were transferred to New Swabia as carriers of the Aryan gene pool.
Evidence is also given that at the very end of the war in the port of Kiel, torpedo armament was removed from several submarines, because they were strictly forbidden to engage in battle during this voyage, and were loaded with containers with unknown cargo. In addition, the submarines took on board mysterious passengers, whose faces were hidden by surgical bandages, perhaps due to plastic surgery. There were reports in the press that at least 100 submarines were involved in the transfer of people to Antarctica.
As you can see, the passengers of the submarines were not only privileged Nazis, but also prisoners of concentration camps, who were supposed to build underground bastions in the harsh conditions of Antarctica. It is clear that others were brought in to replace those who could not stand it. Probably, none of them could survive, since there were no witnesses of the grandiose construction.
Supporters of the hypothesis that the Fuhrer and Eva Braun survived, as a version of their miraculous rescue, call the use of one of these submarines in order to hide Hitler, Eve and other mysteriously disappeared leaders of the Third Reich in Antarctica. 1948, January 16 - Chilean magazine Zig-Zag published an article that reported the following. Allegedly, on April 30, 1945, Luftwaffe captain Peter Baumgart took the Fuehrer aboard his plane and delivered him to the uninhabited coast of Norway. There Hitler boarded a submarine, which headed for Antarctica.
Three months after the end of the war, off the coast of Argentina, two German submarines 11-977 and 11-530, under the command of Heinz Schaumfler (Schaeffer) and Otto Vermount (according to other sources, Wilhelm Bernhart), were captured by the Americans. As it was found out, they were part of the "Fuehrer's Convoy" unit and in April 1945 they took on board a highly secret cargo and 5 passengers, whose faces were covered with masks. Mysterious passengers left the submarines in the area of the Schirmacher oasis in Antarctica. Later, G. Schaumfler was repeatedly accused of the fact that it was he who transported the Fuehrer to South America.
The captain vehemently denied this during interrogations by American and British officials. 1952 - he repeated all this in a book that was dryly and succinctly called "11-977". And when his friend and colleague, the captain of submarine 11-530, wanted to publish his manuscript about this expedition, telling the whole truth in it, Schaumfler wrote to him in a letter stating that all three submarines that took part in that operation were now peaceful sleep at the bottom of the Atlantic and "maybe it's better not to wake them up?"
Then he reminded a friend of the military oath and advised not to be frank: “We all took an oath to keep a secret, we did nothing wrong and only followed the order, fighting for our beloved Germany. For her survival. Therefore, think again, and maybe it's even better to present everything as an invention? What can you accomplish by telling the truth about our mission? And who can suffer because of your revelations? Think about it!" But "old friend" Willie did not heed his advice. The version of events presented by him confused historians even more, who found many oddities and inconsistencies in it.
The fascist Antarctic underground shelter most often appears under the code name Base 211. Over time, in the imagination of the supporters of the existence of Base 211, it grew to the size of a huge underground city "New Berlin" with a population of two million, which supposedly still exists today. Its inhabitants are said to be engaged in space flights and genetic engineering. The last branch of science, however, emerged in the early 1970s, because the Nazis did not have access to its secrets.
The same can be said for space flights, which began to develop in the late 1950s. And yet, there is an unconfirmed opinion that at the end of World War II, the Nazis built interplanetary aircraft capable of flying to the moon and other planets of the solar system. In addition, German engineers allegedly created supersonic discs powered by rocket and nuclear engines (it is known that the development and implementation of such engines dates back to the post-war period).
The success of the Germans in creating new-generation aircraft was allegedly confirmed by the large-scale American polar expedition "High Jump" (1946–1947), headed by the famous polar explorer, Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. It consisted of 14 ships, 25 aircraft and carrier-based helicopters. The number of participants was over 4,000. All this armada after a while came to the shores of Queen Maud Land.
The main goal of the expedition was the elimination of Base 211 and German submarines. At first, the events unfolded successfully. The researchers took about 49,000 shots of the coast. However, then something strange began to happen. At the end of February 1947, the expedition was forced to hastily leave Antarctica. According to the official version, she completed all the tasks. But fans of the sensation assure: in fact, on February 26, 1947, the American landing party sent ashore to eliminate Base 211 was destroyed, and the ships attacked with aircraft. The destroyer "Murdoch" was sunk, 9 aircraft were destroyed. Byrd was forced to enter into negotiations with the Nazis and accept their terms.
The question arises whether it is possible to trust Byrd's interview, taking into account his mental state. By the way, mental problems were discovered in him during the second American expedition of 1933–1935. Byrd, then still a rear admiral, spent the winter of 1934 alone at the Bowling Advance Base weather station. Staying in a polar night at a temperature of minus 50-60 degrees and faulty heating severely undermined the health of the polar explorer. During the evacuation, he was diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning and mental disorders.
Shortly after the completion of the expedition, Byrd ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where he spent 5 long years. According to the logic of lovers of historical secrets, real or imaginary, the cause of his illness was the shock of what he saw. Immediately upon his return, the admiral managed to give an interview to the journalist of the International News Service, Leah van Atta. In it, he said that he was deeply concerned that the flying machines he saw in Antarctica could attack the United States. And the reason for the curtailment of the expedition was named discoveries that are of great importance for the security of the United States. The press eagerly seized on the sensation. Since that time, the situation has acquired new details, sometimes rather strange.
1948 - The Western European magazine Brizant reported that the Americans were attacked from the air during the fourth Antarctic expedition. One warship and four combat aircraft were destroyed. The servicemen who took part in the expedition, who wished to remain anonymous, gave evidence that they were attacked by "flying discs emerging from under the water." In addition, they witnessed strange atmospheric phenomena, and many received mental disorders.
An excerpt from Byrd's report at a secret meeting of a special commission was also cited, where he allegedly stated: “America needs to take protective actions against enemy fighters flying out of the polar regions. In the event of a new war, the United States may be attacked by an enemy capable of flying from one pole to another at incredible speeds! But there was no official confirmation or refutation of this publication.
1959 - a certain Amadeo Giannini published a message that Richard Byrd encountered an inexplicable phenomenon during one of his research flights: “Near the Pole, the Rear Admiral drew attention to a mysterious spot that shone yellow, red, or purple. Having flown up to him, he noticed something resembling a mountain range. Byrd flew over it and thought that he was seeing a mirage: forests, rivers, meadows on which animals grazed, as well as strange apparatus that resembled "flying saucers", and something similar to a city with buildings carved from crystal.
The external thermometer began to heat up sharply until it froze at the stunning mark: +23 ° C! And this is the South Pole! There was no radio communication with the ground … But by that time Byrd had already died and could neither confirm nor deny the information made public by Giannini. In addition, it was clearly not said about the expedition of 1946-1947. At that time, Byrd was already an admiral, not a rear admiral. The question arises why he, faced with an unexplained phenomenon during previous expeditions, did not make this fact known to his leadership or the public.
The admiral's widow added fuel to the fire. Referring to her husband's logbook (if all the materials of the expedition were classified, it is unclear how he could have fallen into the wrong hands), she said that Byrd had come into contact with a highly developed civilization, which mastered new types of energy and with their help received food, lighting and fuel for transport. According to her, the inhabitants of Antarctica tried to establish contact with people, but their aircraft were destroyed.
Ernest Zündel put forward the hypothesis about discs built by the Nazis in 1938-1939. It should be noted that to confirm his conclusions, he used the fantastic novel Idols against Thule by SS Ober-Sturmführer Wilhelm Landig, published in 1971. engine. Because Tsyudel does not refer to more reliable sources to confirm his thesis, his statements should hardly be taken into account.
But to a greater extent, the shocking information is associated with the Nazis. Oddly enough, in this situation, they act as peacekeepers. There is a version that Baird in 1947 met with a tall blue-eyed blond (typical Aryan), a representative of the German Antarctic base. In broken English, he conveyed to the American government demands to stop nuclear tests that threaten the well-being of the Germans in Antarctica. Later, Byrd allegedly met with the leadership of the German Antarctic colony and signed an agreement on peaceful coexistence and the exchange of American raw materials for advanced German technologies.
An indirect confirmation of this is allegedly a fragment of the recently declassified transcript of Byrd's testimony, where he testified:
“We need protection from high-speed and highly maneuverable German fighters that are actively operating in the polar latitudes. Such aircraft do not need multiple refueling to hit targets anywhere in the world. These machines, which caused damage to our expedition, are completely produced, from metal smelting to the last screw, under the ice, in factory buildings, equipped in cavities of natural origin. Getting ahead of the reasonable question about energy sources, I will say that there is a nuclear power plant operating there. The Germans carried out the transfer of specialists, food, everything necessary to establish production and everyday life from 1935 to 1945. We were not allowed there."
Because since that time, nothing similar to diskettes has appeared in service with the Americans, as well as information about the use of previously unknown production technologies, including in Antarctic conditions, this information should be considered fictional.
The information about Byrd's fate is also puzzling. According to one version, shortly after the 1946-1947 expedition, he died of a massive heart attack and was buried in Arlington Cemetery. In reality, he was supposedly being prepared for the next expedition to Queen Maud Land, where he had to meet with Colonel Maximillian Hartmann, the keeper of the Spear of Destiny, thanks to which Hartmann had the powers of protector of the Nazi colony in Antarctica.
The result of the meeting was the "Intent for Cooperation" signed by Hartmann. The Protector Colonel allegedly guaranteed the transfer of technical documentation to the aircraft, which is capable of becoming invisible to people and locators when certain speeds are reached.
Contrary to elementary logic, Byrd allegedly brought to America not only a protocol of intent, but also a sample of the latest aircraft. Outwardly, it resembled a flatfish, in the first minutes of the flight it emitted a blinding light, and then it became invisible and was able to hit any enemy target.
It is difficult to say how, if this version is true, the "resurrection" of Byrd was arranged. It is even more difficult to explain the claim that the admiral died as a result of an accident on one of the first nuclear submarines en route to Antarctica and sunk along the road. After all, it is reliably known that he died on March 12, 1957 in Boston and was buried with military honors. And shortly before his death, for the third and last time he flew over the South Pole.
Thus, it can be stated that the existence of a Nazi base in Antarctica is unproven. Although, perhaps, attempts were made to create it in wartime. The Nazis were generally adept at creating such shelters. In particular, it is known that they set up a jump airfield in the Arctic and, based on it, shot down planes that were ferried to the Soviet Union from America through the Far East. Its remains were discovered beyond the Arctic Circle only in the 70s of the XX century.
So, there is no reason to assert that the High Jump expedition was of a purely military nature. It is known that it had the goal of testing personnel and equipment in the event of a war in Antarctic waters. But it included not only the military, but also scientists and various specialists, including cartographers. They studied in detail the coastline of the mainland, mapped the outlines of West and East Antarctica (Queen Maud Land belongs to East Antarctica). Aerial photography, geographical, geological, meteorological and seismological studies were carried out.
In our time, the polar stations Mizuho (Japan), Sanae (South Africa), Novolazarevskaya (Russia), Molodezhnaya (Russia) and others operate on Queen Maud Land. It is unlikely that the mysterious base or traces of its presence would not have been discovered by them, and the Nazis, having the most powerful weapon in the world, would have suffered such a neighborhood at their side.
I. Rudycheva
