Tireless trackers scouring all over Europe in search of the famous Amber Room may have to expand the geography of their searches. There is a possibility that this unique treasure was hidden by the Nazis … on one of the islands in the Arctic Ocean
Interesting discoveries were made by the participants of the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition, which has been working for several years in various places of the Russian North. About the traces left by the Third Reich on the islands of the Arctic Ocean, "MK" was told by Pyotr Boyarsky - the head of the MAKE, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage. D. S. Likhacheva.
Polar bear victims
- From the very beginning of the war, the Germans quite actively tried to "colonize" the Soviet Arctic. They needed bases and meteorological stations that would help support cruisers and submarines raids deep into our territorial waters along the Northern Sea Route.
In addition, many of the top leadership of fascist Germany, as is known, were very fond of all kinds of mysticism and adhered to very peculiar "scientific" views. Among them, for example, there was a belief that the Earth is hollow, and you can get inside it through ice caves in the polar zones. The Nazi bonzes were aware of the existence of vast caves on Novaya Zemlya, on Franz Josef Land, and they were sure that this was the real path to the underworld. Therefore, the naval special expeditions organized by the Reich to our Arctic rear had not only military, but also scientific research goals.
It is known that the Germans managed to equip several autonomous weather stations in the Arctic. On Novaya Zemlya, such stations operated on Cape Pinegin, on Cape Bear (this point was used by the Nazis under the code designation "Erich"), on Mezhdusharsky Island there was also the "Krot" station, and near it a runway for aircraft was cleared …
There was a project coded by the Nazis called "Wonderland". It was about creating a base on the island of Alexandra Land, which is part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago. The Germans carried out this operation in 1943. They delivered all the necessary equipment, materials and supplies to the island on ships and submarines, and dropped something from aircraft. The meteorological station, equipped there, was named by the Nazis "Treasure Hunter". It worked until July 1944, and traces of this fascist special object have survived to this day.
Back in 1985, Pyotr Boyarsky had a chance to hear a curious story by the famous polar navigator Akkuratov: “A few years after the end of the war, we somehow flew over Alexandra Land and noticed a white bright rectangular spot against the background of the rocky thawed tundra. It was completely incomprehensible what it was. We decided to sit down and check. When we approached the spot, it became clear: in front of us is the roof of a dugout, painted with white paint. The door opened easily. We went inside, shone a flashlight, and there … Schmeisser machines hang on the walls, German uniforms are scattered on the couches, in the middle of the table are cans of canned food, spoons, and bowls. The feeling is as if people still live here … Apparently, the Nazis once left this base in a great hurry."
- There really was a story with a hasty evacuation, - confirms Pyotr Boyarsky. - As far as I was able to find out, then, in the summer of 1944, the Nazis were let down by the lack of Arctic experience. They shot a polar bear and decided to eat an exotic northern dish. The Fritzes did not know that such a bear meat must be cooked for a very long time - well, they got a serious stomach illness. They were so twisted that they had to call the plane by radio and urgently take out the whole team from the base. Of course, they did not have time to find replacements, and then it became useless: the last months of the war were going on, and the fascists had no time for the Arctic …n
What does the secret bunker store?
Not so long ago, Petr Vladimirovich and his colleagues from MAKE managed to visit Alexandra Land. Unfortunately, the visit turned out to be short - about three days, but the members of the expedition still managed to inspect what remained of the Hitlerite Treasure Hunter.
- They justified themselves very thoroughly. The location for the base was chosen very well. There is a large deep bay, and a strip of rubble tundra of many kilometers adjoins it - the largest piece of land in the entire archipelago free of glacial shells. And a little to the side there is a lake with fresh water. From the side of the bay, the base was covered by a machine-gun pillbox - its ruins are quite clearly visible. Minefields were set up to protect the facility from land.
The remains of a house and a dugout have also survived … Among the stones lie metal containers that look like aerial bombs, in which the Nazis dropped a part of the cargo delivered to the Treasure Hunt by air. In addition, we saw scraps of old camouflage nets, sheets from books with Hitler's speeches about the importance of the Aryan race … Surprisingly, the huge amount of shoes and other equipment brought by the Germans to the island - we can assume that they assumed their Arctic military base in Franz Josef Land subsequently expand significantly. Some of this "good" is still lying around on the territory of the former meteorological station, and in the 1960s-1970s, when our frontier post appeared on Alexandra Land (it is located about 10-15 km), the garrison removed it from Treasure hunter "a lot of good ammunition,and the border guards then used free German boots for a long time.
“Closer to the water, we found a pipe going into the bowels of the island,” says Pyotr Boyarsky. - Perhaps this is part of the ventilation system for some secret structure. I do not exclude the existence of a natural grotto in that place, which the Germans managed to find and adapt for their purposes. It is quite possible that this cavity in the rock mass of the island is so large that submarines could enter it. It is known about the existence of similar huge caves on other Arctic islands connected with the sea by underwater corridors. German sources contain information that they were able to find such caves in the north and even start their submarines in them.
Such natural bunkers are very convenient for setting up secret vaults in them. It is known that at the end of the war, submarines left the ports of Germany, on which they sent some equipment, archives, valuables in an unknown direction … Some of them died, some reached the shores of South America … But some of the ships could deliver their cargo to the uninhabited arctic islands, where he was safely hidden in huge caves. There is an assumption that the famous Amber Room is still located in one of these Nazi "caches" …
The existence of a well-hidden grotto in Alexandra Land is highly probable. Now our expedition will, at the first opportunity, again go to this island with divers and thoroughly examine its coast in the area of the former German base.
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