The commander-in-chief of the German Navy, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, in October 1944, speaking to the cadets of the naval school, said literally the following: "The German submarine fleet is proud that far on the edge of the earth it has built an earthly paradise for the Fuehrer, an impregnable fortress."
The word is not a sparrow
This statement was recalled by Doenitz during the Nuremberg trials, when it turned out that some high-ranking Nazi leaders had fled in an unknown direction. And the burnt corpse of Hitler raised some doubts. Investigators were persistently interested in Doenitz's detailed coordinates of the "earthly paradise for the Fuhrer", but the admiral, both on trial and already sitting in prison, limited himself only to general words and took this secret with him to his grave.
But the existence of a mysterious Nazi base haunted the victors. Investigators soon recalled that back in the fall of 1938, Germany had shown a strange interest in Antarctica, the most mysterious continent on our planet. The Germans invited the famous American polar explorer, professor and admiral Richard Evelyn Bird to participate in an expedition to the southern polar continent. And he almost agreed and even flew to Hamburg for negotiations. But having discovered that in addition to scientific instruments, an incredible amount of weapons and ammunition was loaded into the holds of a research vessel, Byrd categorically refused to participate in the campaign.
New Swabia
German scientists, led by renowned oceanographer Alfred Ritscher, set out on their first ice trip on the Schwabenland seaplane base. On January 19, 1939, the ship reached Antarctica in the area of what is now Queen Maud Land. Scientific research was carried out from the side of the ship using seaplanes. The Germans have done a gigantic job. A huge area of the southern continent was surveyed from 13 degrees west longitude to 22 degrees east longitude, more than 11,000 photographs were taken, covering approximately 360,000 square kilometers. During the flights, the commander of one of the seaplanes, Schirmacher, was lucky enough to make a remarkable discovery - he discovered a unique piece of nature with an amazing landscape for Antarctica, in the full sense of the word, an oasis with an area of 32 sq. km, which was named after him. This oasis still exists. It is never covered with ice, has a very mild microclimate and several non-freezing fresh water lakes. There were even rumors that under the oasis there are huge natural voids filled with warm air.
The Germans called the entire surveyed area New Swabia and declared the territory belonging to the Third Reich. The Nazis staked out for themselves a good piece of Antarctica the size of Germany and, in support of their rights, scattered a huge number of metal plates with the image of Nazi symbols from planes throughout the area.
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Witnesses
Investigators, who were figuring out the true purpose of the Nazi campaign in Antarctica, soon managed to find two members of the Schwabenland crew - engineer Sievert and ship carpenter Verend. They said that immediately after the end of the first expedition, the ship regularly, once every three months, until the start of the war, visited the open lands, but no one conducted any scientific research. A huge amount of equipment was unloaded from the ship, which was necessary for large-scale construction in the mountains, including for drilling ice tunnels, generators, rails, trolleys.
While witnesses were being questioned in Europe, and the location of the impregnable fortress was found out, American sailors seized two German submarines off the coast of Argentina. Interrogation of the crews showed that these were special submarines from the so-called "Fuehrer's Convoy". The Americans allegedly managed to find out the following: “In April 1945, the submarines U-977 and U-530 (commanders Heinz Schaffer and Otto Verhmuth) took on board a highly classified cargo and five passengers whose faces were covered with masks. The route ran to the area of the Schirmacher oasis in Antarctica. There, the masked men went ashore, the mysterious boxes were unloaded, and the boats went to Argentina, where another secret Nazi base was located. Then they were spotted by American warships.
Interestingly, not so long ago, the personal records of the commander of the U-977 submarine Heinz Schaffer were found, fully confirming what he said during interrogation. His submarine did indeed visit Antarctica before flying to Argentina. Moreover, according to the records, Schaffer himself landed on the beach and saw with his own eyes the base built by his compatriots, which he once "forgot" to tell the Americans about.
The admiral's strange testimony
But the information received in 1945 was enough for the Americans to urgently equip a military expedition to Antarctica with the participation of Admiral Richard Byrd. The secret Nazi hideout was code-named Base 211, and the operation to capture and destroy it is known as High Jump. However, judging by the fragmentary newspaper reports of that time, the Americans could not jump high. There was information in the press that Admiral Bird met powerful fire resistance off the coast of Antarctica, lost several ships and as a result was forced to retreat. They also wrote that the squadron was attacked by flying discs with a swastika on board, against which anti-aircraft artillery was powerless. After an unsuccessful campaign, the admiral appeared before a state commission. Allegedly, there is one of the fragments of the declassified transcript of the testimony of Richard Byrd: “We need protection from the 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, completely, from metal smelting to the last screw, are produced under the ice, in factory buildings, equipped in cavities of natural origin. " To top it off, Richard Byrd showed the members of the commission leaflets dropped from an unidentified plane onto American ships. On yellow paper over a red swastika it was printed in Gothic script: "Dear guests, are you tired of the hosts?"“We need protection from high-speed and highly maneuverable German fighters, which 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, completely, from metal smelting to the last screw, are produced under the ice, in factory buildings, equipped in cavities of natural origin. " To top it off, Richard Byrd showed the members of the commission leaflets dropped from an unidentified plane onto American ships. On yellow paper over a red swastika it was printed in Gothic script: "Dear guests, are you tired of the hosts?"“We need protection from high-speed and highly maneuverable German fighters, which 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, completely, from metal smelting to the last screw, are produced under the ice, in factory buildings, equipped in cavities of natural origin. " To top it off, Richard Byrd showed the members of the commission leaflets dropped from an unidentified plane onto American ships. On yellow paper over a red swastika it was printed in Gothic script: "Dear guests, are you tired of the hosts?"those that inflicted damage on our expedition, from metal smelting to the last screw, are completely produced under the ice, in factory buildings, equipped in cavities of natural origin. " To top it off, Richard Byrd showed the members of the commission leaflets dropped from an unidentified plane onto American ships. On yellow paper over a red swastika it was printed in Gothic script: "Dear guests, are you tired of the hosts?"those that inflicted damage on our expedition, from metal smelting to the last screw, are completely produced under the ice, in factory buildings, equipped in cavities of natural origin. " To top it off, Richard Byrd showed the members of the commission leaflets dropped from an unidentified plane onto American ships. On yellow paper over a red swastika it was printed in Gothic script: "Dear guests, are you tired of the hosts?"aren't you tired of the owners? "aren't you tired of the owners?"
Naturally, the Americans did not calm down and soon embarked on a second and then a third expedition to find and destroy Base 211. The results of these campaigns still remain a mystery.
Who lives in Antarctica?
Many questions arise. If a base located in Antarctica existed, how would the problems associated with its regular supply with everything necessary for everyday life, primarily food, fuel, and energy sources be solved? It is impossible to imagine that after the war the voyages of ships or submarines carrying out this supply would go unnoticed.
It is worth adding that after World War II, dozens of scientific expeditions were carried out in the area of Antarctica where a refuge for Hitler was allegedly prepared. Scientists from Norway, South Africa, the USSR, the GDR, India have worked on this land for many years, and no one has found the envoys of the Third Reich here.
There is one small detail. Since 1961, the Soviet (Russian) Antarctic station Novolazarevskaya has existed in the Schirmacher oasis. At one time, the GDR opened its base not far from Novolazarevskaya, which was named "Neumeier" in honor of the German geophysicist and explorer of Antarctica of the 19th century Georg von Neumeier. The station immediately began to function actively. And although we were then considered brothers in the socialist camp, and the German station was built with the help of the USSR, cooperation with German colleagues was, to put it mildly, limited. Our polar explorers had an idea of what kind of research the neighbors from South Africa and India were doing, but what the Germans were doing at their station, no one had any idea.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №42. Author: Konstantin Karelov