Some inspiration for some WWW games:
UFOs, Nazis, Atlantis, alien biological weapons, and the quest for the lost land of Thule all
sound like a recent episode topics of Stargate SG-1. But these are just some of the stories
associated with a sizable military project called Operation Highjump that was conducted by the
U.S. Navy in 1946 in Antarctica.
In 1943, German Navy Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz stated that the German submarine fleet had “built
for the Führer an impregnable fortress at the other end of the world.” in the region of Queen
Maude’s Land, later renamed Neuschwabenland
According to German naval archives, two months after Germany surrendered to the Allies in April,
1945, the German submarine U-530 left the Port of Kiel bound for Antarctica. Once the submarine
arrived at the South Pole, 16 members of its crew were ordered to construct an ice cave in the
region of Neuschwabenland. When construction was complete, several boxes of relics from the Third
Reich, including Hitler’s secret files, were supposedly stored there. The sub then entered the
Argentinean port of Mar-del-Plata and surrendered to authorities. It is also rumored that the
submarine U-977 delivered the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun to Neuschwabenland, for DNA
cloning purposes. In August, 1945, one month and seven days after the surrender of U-530, U-977
also entered the waters of Mar-del-Plata and surrendered to authorities.
In 1946, U.S. Navy Admiral Marc A. Mitscher appointed Captain Richard H. Cruzen as commander of
Operation Highjump, whose purported purpose was to map the frozen continent of Antarctica while
looking for uranium deposits in the region. But several conspiracy researchers assert that they
were actually looking for the underground Nazi base that supposedly warehoused German treasure and
Hitler’s DNA.
Cruzen had expeditionary experience in Antarctica, having served with Rear Admiral Richard Byrd on
the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition from 1939 to 1941. In 1947, Operation Highjump commenced as
part of the U.S. Naval Antarctic Developments Project.
Mapping or Reconnaissance
Operation Highjump commenced as part of the U.S. Naval Antarctic Developments Project, organized
by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. The task force consisted of over 40 ships, including two
destroyer class vessels and the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Philippine Sea, and a number of planes
that were outfitted with a trimetricon (a secret spying camera), a magnetometer (to record any
magnetic anomalies), and the recently developed jet-assist takeoff bottles (JATO) which helped
with takeoffs from the short runway on an aircraft carrier or for takeoffs on hard surfaces such
as ice.
According to government documents, members of Operation Highjump took over 70,000 aerial
photographs of select inland areas of Antarctica. Yet most of the photographs were declared
unusable for mapping purposes, due to the dearth of adequate ground control points (cartographers
need these points when creating maps).
It has been long thought by researchers that the Navy’s mapping story was nothing more than a
cover to shield the real operation, which was reconnaissance and recovery of Nazi/Alien hybrid
technology. It was also rumored that abandoned Nazi buildings and a downed Nazi plane was
photographed, but this rumor has never been substantiated.
In 1947, Admiral Richard Byrd said, “the project was necessary for the USA to take defensive
actions against enemy fighters which come from the polar regions.” Was he referring to potential
Soviet aircraft or Nazi Luftwaffe attacking the States from Antarctica? He never clarified this
cryptic statement, which has only served to fuel further conspiracy theories.
Shortly after Admiral Byrd’s press conference the Soviet naval journal, Red Fleet, stated that “US
measures in Antarctica testify that American military circles are seeking to subject the Polar
Regions to control and create permanent bases for their armed forces.” In another odd twist, the
governments of New Zealand, Australia and Chile asked for their militaries to join the Operation
Highjump expedition but were denied participation. Official government sources say the US was
doing nothing more than mapping the frozen continent, though looking for uranium deposits seems to
have been on the agenda as well. While others insist they were looking for the underground Nazi
base that warehoused German Vril flying discs known as flugscheiben and Thule mercury-powered
spaceship prototypes also known as jenseitsflugmaschines.
In 1948, a second task force named Operation Windmill was also sent to take photographs of
Neuschwabenland, again supposedly for mapping purposes. Although they apparently succeeded in
their task, the government has yet to make these photos available to the public and no reason has
ever been given for their nondisclosure. Some believe that the reason the photos have never been
released is that this military operation was actually a reconnaissance and recovery mission.
In 1949, when James Forrestal began to suffer from a mental breakdown, he was sent to convalesce
at Bethesda Naval Hospital. But when he began to discuss Operation Highjump with the hospital
staff, talking wildly about UFOs, Atlantis, and an underground Nazi city, he was denied visitors,
including his wife. Shortly afterwards, he fell out of his hospital window to his death. The
official report said that he committed suicide but persistent rumors say that he was murdered by
government agents to keep him from talking further about what was really found in the Antarctica
wilderness during Operation Highjump.
The truth of the matter may never come to light, but what is known is that several U.S. military
personnel surprisingly lost their lives during Operation Highjump; a supposed mapping operation
that should have been an entirely safe endeavor. Also, multiple planes were downed during the
operation, including the George One which, according to Naval documents, mysteriously “just blew
up” over the ice during its initial flight in Antarctica.
Beyond the legends of Nazi gold and Hitler’s DNA, could the Germans have been hiding advanced
technology, or at least the blueprints for such, in Antarctica? Could the Nazis have hidden highly
advanced foo fighters or even a nuclear bomb there? According to British Intelligence, we know
that advanced, stealth foo fighters and Vril flying saucer-shaped craft were on the drawing board
at the German Institute for Aerial Development. We also know that Austrian Viktor Schauberger
discovered that physics operates with a dual principle of centripetence and centrifugence, also
known as vortex dynamics. One of the experiments headed up by Schauberger included the apparent
levitating of aircraft by the use of a water and hydrogen mixture coupled with vortex energy. This
could have been a foo fighter prototype. According to records seized by Allies from the archives
of the German High Command, the Nazis were also developing a series of A9 and A10 nuclear missiles
with the goal of destroying New York City and Washington, DC. It was said that Schauberger’s air
ships were the vehicle of choice for the delivery of these bombs. Though we know that such
missiles were in the early development stages, blueprints for such weapons were never found. What
is known is that these blueprints never fell into British or Russian hands. However, several of
Schauberger’s prototype repulsine vortex machines were confiscated both the US and Russian
military. After the war, Schauberger lived in the US and was rumored to be employed by the US
government working as a consultant on a top secret UFO project in Texas, though his whereabouts
also were also placed at Area 51, in the New Mexico desert.
Another rumor associated with Nazi involvement in Antarctica and Operation Highjump is that
Antarctica was the lost Aryan homeland of Thule. While Antarctica has been linked to the lost
continent of Atlantis, the linkage to Thule is less apparent. Thule (also known as Thula, Thyle,
Thila, Tila, Tyle, or Tylen, among other cognates) was first written about by the Greek explorer
Pytheas after his travels between 330 BC and 320 BC. In 150 AD, Greek writer Antonius Diogenes
wrote The Wonders Beyond Thule, a most likely fictional account of adventurer’s tales. While of
literary interest, this work did little to reveal any secrets about Thule. Based upon writings by
the Roman poet Virgil and by Roman Historian Pliny, scholars traditionally believed that Thule was
most likely a reference to either Iceland, Greenland or Scandinavia. In medieval geographies Thule
was referred to as distant place located beyond the “borders of the known world.”
Nazi mystics believed in historical Thule (also referred to as Hyperborea) as the ancient origin
of the Aryan race. The Thule Society or Thule-Gesellschaft was founded in 1918 by German occultist
Rudolf von Sebottendorff to pursue research on Thule. The Nazis utilized the Thule Society as a
focus point for all sorts of “black ops” projects. This is where the basis for Antarctica not only
being a secret UFO base, but the lost land of Thule first originated. Legends and urban myths
about Nazi-driven Thule Society exploits have persisted into the 21st century.
Just what was the US military doing in Antarctica in 1946 and 1947? Were they searching for
uranium deposits or were they engaging remnant Nazi fighters in a battle for hidden alien/Nazi
technology? Did the Nazis truly bury military secrets in the Antarctic or hide vast amounts of
gold there in hopes of funding a future effort to resurrect the Fourth Reich. Or did they, as some
claim, discover the lost land of Atlantis or Thule?
We may never know for sure but in 2001, the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the
Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research confirmed the existence of a magnetic anomaly on the
eastside shore of Lake Vostok, in Antarctica consistent with a man-made construct. Could this
anomaly be part of an underground Nazi base that U.S. agents searched for during Operation
Highjump?
Currently several organizations including U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the
Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR), the Earth Observatory of Columbia University
and the British Antarctic Survey are performing research in Antarctica. In fact, the British
Antarctic Survey is researching the magnetic anomaly, as well as other Antarctic phenomenon
including the recently discovered subglacial lake, as part of the multinational task force mission
known as the Antarctic Magnetic Anomaly Project. This project also involves research teams from
Ohio State University, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), NASA and various
members of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy as well as the International
Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. The Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) is
also currently performing magnetic and subglacial like research projects in Antarctica.
Something has indeed been discovered in Antarctica. One of the questions that begs to be asked is
did the Nazis find, whatever it is, first? Did we send our military to Antarctica in 1946 to seize
this discovery, thus laying claim to it before any other government could do so? In his
groundbreaking bestseller Map of the Ancient Sea Kings, Charles Hapgood (1904-1982), History
Professor at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, first put forth the theory that
Atlantis resided in Antarctica and was destroyed by crustal displacement. In his bestseller, When
The Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis, Rand Flem-Ath furthered this idea that under the ice of
Antarctica exists the remains of Atlantis. Could they be right?
Additional Notes
In 1999, with assistance of the Freedom of Information Act, I requested and was able to obtain a
sizable file on Operation Highjump. Nothing too startling existed in the dossier but it did
contain declassified military documents, ship manifests, official communiqués, etc. But in 2005
when I sent in a second request for information on Operation Highjump I received much less
documentation than before. I guess in a post 9/11 world, information has become more restricted
than before, though with this particular project it’s difficult to imagine why that would be the
case.
One scientific discovery that was made during Operation Highjump was quite possibly the first
evidence of global warming. Researchers on the expedition discovered that a region of Antarctic
glacier had melted and came to the conclusion that it was due to the negative impact of pollution
on the environment.
More recently, in October 2006, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography reported that they
discovered several previously unknown lakes of water underneath the vast ice sheet of Antarctica.
These lakes lie beneath 2,300 feet of compressed snow and ice. To detect the subglacial lakes the
Scripps Institute used data from NASA’s ICESat, which sends laser pulses down from space to the
Antarctic surface and back, much as sonar uses sound pulses to determine underwater features. The
satellite detected descended anomalies in the surface that moved around as the hidden lakes
continuously drain and fill beneath the surface glaciers. The Scripps Institute made observations
from 2003 through 2006 of the Whillans and Mercer Ice Streams, two of the fast-moving glaciers
that carry ice from the Antarctic interior to the floating ice sheet that covers parts of the Ross
Sea. This project was conducted as part of a global warming assessment. This melting and draining
was not because of global warming but of natural processes. Their report made no mention of the
magnetic anomaly.
About Michael Lohr:
Michael Lohr is a professional journalist, outdoorsman, music critic, treasure hunter and
adventurer. His writing has appeared in such diverse magazines as Rolling Stone, Esquire, The
Economist, National Geographic Adventure, Cowboys & Indians and Men’s Journal, to name a few.
His webpage can be found at:
http://www.internet.is/artist/writer/michael_lohr.htm
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