Conspiracy theorists love to turn Operation Tabarin into a secret SAS operation by the British government to destroy a secret Nazi UFO Base in Antarctica (see my earlier post https://bit.ly/2vUYlmm). 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.
