The Nazi UFO Conspiracy
A long-standing and pervasive conspiracy is that of the Nazi UFO base in Antarctica. The story basically goes like this…
Nazis went to Antarctica to look for possible sites for submarine bases just before the outbreak of World War 2. In their search they stumbled across ice caverns that led to a meeting with a reptilian race of aliens with advanced technology.
They built their own base there and combining alien technology with German science led to the development of Germany’s advanced aircraft, including towards the end of the war some saucer based designs.
When Germany lost the war, Hitler and many of his followers, along with Nazi treasures, fled Germany in two submarines and settled into their Antarctic base.
The Americans supposedly discovered the base and in 1946-47 Operation Highjump, under the command of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, was sent to destroy the Nazi base.
Byrd’s naval fleet and aircraft encountered the Nazi UFO’s and four aircraft and one ship was sunk leading to a retreat by the Americans. The British then supposedly sent the SAS in to clean up the Nazis under the secret, Operation Tabarin, but it too failed
The Americans came back a few years later (1958) and dropped three atomic bombs on the base and finally wiped out the Nazis. Or so the story goes. There is more to it but that outlines the basics.
Did the Nazi’s build a base in Antarctica?
The Deutsche Antarktische Expedition 1939-40
Well, in 1938/39 the Nazis did actually send an expedition to Antarctica on a ship called the Schwabenland. They were searching for sites for whaling stations so that they could remove their dependency on Norwegian whale oil in readiness for the coming war (WWll).
They mapped large areas of what they named New Swabia (now Queen Maud Land), charted large areas of what they called ‘New Schwabia’, dropped some swastikas from planes to claim land and took lots of photos, before returning to Germany.
Operation Highjump
Admiral Byrd did lead an expedition called Operation High Jump to test military operations in extreme cold and set up an American base on Antarctica (Little America). It was the height of the cold war and Antarctica was a great opportunity to test their men and equipment with the risk of confrontation with the Soviet Union if they had done the same thing in the Arctic. One ship did go to the area where the German Base was supposed to be (present day Queen Maud Land) but only landed twice for a day and left. All up Operation Highjump only lost one aircraft in a blizzard. After they completed their mission they returned home. Conspiracy theorists often claim that they returned early (driven off by the Nazis) but the reality was that they actually left the U.S.A. late in the season and had limited time available in Antarctic waters due to the onset of winter.
Operation Tabarin
Conspiracy theorists love to turn Operation Tabarin into a secret SAS operation by the British government to destroy the secret Nazi UFO Base in Antarctica But it wasn’t there to find Nazi UFO’s.
In 1942, While Britain was distracted by the war, Argentina annexed Deception Island and announced the foundation of Argentine Antarctica (Antartida Argentina). Threatened with the loss of British control over the far South Atlantic territories, Britain sent the Royal Navy merchant cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle to sort things out.
In 1943, a British party from the ship went ashore on Deception Island and destroyed all trace of the Argentine visit and hoisted the Union Jack, but when they left the Argentinians returned and raised the Argentinian flag again.
In response the British set up Operation Tabarin and sent two ships (HMS William Scoresby and the steamship Fitzroy) to Deception Island. They established a permanent meteorological station there (Base B) and another one at Port Lockroy (Base A) on the Antarctic Peninsula and later, an additional one at Hope Bay (Base D).
The members of the expedition carried out a scientific programme as well as manning these observation points/radio stations to locate German raiders and submarines. However, the underlying reason for Operation Tabarin was to assert British sovereignty over the sub-Antarctic Islands and deprive Argentina of territorial intrusion into the Falkland Islands Dependency
George James, one of the last surviving members of Operation Tabarin recounts that a year after the mission began they spotted their first Argentines defending their meteorological station on Laurie Island
But as Mr James explained many of the Argentine crew had died and they had no supplies for 18 months “They were lovely to us. They came down to the beach to meet us, crying. We gave them cigarettes and edam cheese. The wireless operator got so excited that he put his arms round me. He took all the badges off his uniform and gave them to me.”
Operation Tabarin became the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey and then the British Antarctic Survey which has done such great scientific research in the Antarctic region (they were the first to discover the hole in the Ozone layer, for instance). Well done, and not a Nazi UFO in sight.
There were three former SAS members who signed civilian contracts with FIDS in 1946 (the SAS was disbanded in October 1945) and there were only a handful of men at each of the Tabarin bases so it is highly unlikely that they had enough men to conduct an operation against any Nazi UFO base which was thousands of kilometres from their position
Operation Argus
The USA did explode three atomic bombs at very high altitudes during the International Geophysical Year as part of Operation Argus to investigate the effects of nuclear explosions outside the atmosphere.
But they were conducted more than 2000 km away from New Swabia so if the intention was to destroy the Nazi UFO base….they missed!!!
Was there ever a Nazi UFO base in Antarctica?
Are there Nazi UFO’s in Antarctica? Well that would be really interesting if there are but considering that a number of modern scientific bases are in the area and thousands of people have been there without anyone reporting anything unusual then I would say probably not. Pity😁
Colin Summerhayes wrote a very good paper that recounts the story and puts an end to the speculation here
However, to be fair, a secret Nazi base is actually plausible (without the UFO’s) because in 2016 the Russians discovered a secret Nazi base on Alexandra Island in the Arctic, about 1000km from the North Pole. It was set up by Hitler in 1942 as a tactical weather station but the scientists were withdrawn by U-boat in 1944 due to poisoning from eating Polar Bears (probably from eating their livers due to high Vitamin A toxicity).
But the Antarctic is a much harsher environment than the Arctic
Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole built a small hut in Antarctica in 1911, which took 14 days to build with the use of 80 dogs to haul materials. The Norwegian/British/Swedish Antarctic (NBSA) Expedition of 1949-52 took 18 days to build a hut in 1950 and they had mechanised transport
Admiral Byrd had the might of American warships, machinery and thousands of crew to build his Little America base and really only managed a rudimentary base that mainly consisted of a few buildings and a lot of tents. Considering that the Germans were only in Antarctica for a month, had no motorised equipment and considering the difficulties of building anything in Antarctica, it is highly doubtful that an Antarctic Nazi base was ever built
So I think it is pretty safe to say that the Nazis never got a foothold there.