PROJECT HIGHJUMP- Did the US battle Nazis in Antarctica, or was it really just about exploration?

Hey guys,

First, though there are many threads on Antarctica on ATS, I did a quick search and didn't find anything on this topic, all by itself... so, since it's interesting, I figured that I should start one.

I'm sure you guys all know who Admiral Richard Byrd was. In a nutshell, he was a famous aviator who explored both the north and south poles... in his time he was a rival to Lindbergh when it came to public recognition.

He conducted several expeditions to Antarctica -- though an officer in the US Navy, he was usually acting on behalf of non-military groups for his initial expeditions. That changed for his last Antarctic adventure, however...

Though he had only used the 'minimum' needed in terms of men and equipment before (he even manned one station by himself, once... though that was also somewhat of a publicity stunt), for the 1946-47 'Highjump' expedition, Byrd led a small fleet of US Naval vessels to photograph and map Antarctica's coast and interior. This fleet included destroyers, cruisers, submarines, and AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER along with the utility craft (icebreakers, oilers, supply ships) one would expect to find on a scientific survey mission.

This has led many people to speculate that Byrd was really dispatched to destroy a secret Nazi base that had escaped detection at the end of WW2 (wouldn't it have been embarrasing to declare and end to major combat operations and then find out that the war wasn't over.... oh, yeah...). Others have argued that Byrd was sent to find an ET/UFO base...

Now... I thought this was an interesting story when I came across it this morning, so I did a SMALL amount of research during my lunchbreak at work. It turns out that Byrd DID command a relatively large task force in the Antarctic region for HIGHJUMP... but that the carrier, USS Phillipine Sea, was only in the area long enough to launch Byrd's heavier cargo planes.

Still... there might be more to the story... so I'm providing these links as a starting point for the conversation:

Ships that were in HIGHJUMP (others may have been rotated in and out):
www.south-pole.com...

the history of the carrier in question (look below the history of the modern ship of the same name to find the WW2 era ship):
www.globalsecurity.org...

Movements of the USS Phillipine Sea:
www.south-pole.com...

A giant land cruiser used in the expedition (note the weird fact that Byrd was at the Japanese surrender in 1945):
www.qsl.net...

An overview:
www.antarcticconnection.com...

Now... when I went looking for conspiracies related to this, I really only found stuff that told amazing stories... but without back-up evidence (there are many stories regarding air to air battles and commando raids out there).

As a sample of the conpsiracy stories I found, I'm providing these links:
www.fortunecity.com...
www.worldofthestrange.com...


Now... I haven't found any solid evidence that proves that an actual battle of some sort occured... But I DO believe that it's weird to bring several submarines and destroyers along for a survey mission. So, what are your thoughts: Was this a secret battle group... or just a display of american mobility intended to scare the Soviets?

[Edited on 28-5-2004 by onlyinmydreams]

Forgive my ignorance but what possible strategic merit is there of a millitary base in the antartic?

If you think about it, those ships could have been just escorts in case they met any German ships on the expedition.

Originally posted by Azrael
Forgive my ignorance but what possible strategic merit is there of a millitary base in the antartic?

None that I can think of other then it being hidden from your enemy and hard for your enemy to attack.

If I wasn't being clear before... Operation Highjump took place in 1946-47, years after Nazi germany was defeated, during a period where escort ships wouldn't be needed.

The idea in the folklore concerning this mission was that the Germans had a secret base here that we either never knew about or got around to destroying in WW2. Yes, a base in antarctica wouldn't be able to control anything... but it would be a good place to hide if you were the last remnant of an ideologically fanatic regime. Also... it would be a good place to develop weapons you could blackmail the world with.

I'm not saying that I believe all the legends that have popped up over this... I just think it's extremely unusual to see such a heavy military escort for a scientific expedition in an undefended region of the Earth. It's overkill... and overkill matters in government because it equals waste and the possibility that the taxpayers will get mad at you.

I can see sending one cruiser or obsolete 'escort carrier' down there to serve as a command ship... but this task force included a brand new aircraft carrier and several submarines. Really, why send several submarines on a mission that can be done with converted icebreakers and cargo ships?

And the destroyer escorts... make you think that 'enemy subs' were around (and, again, remember that this is two years after the end of WW2)...

hey guys, I apologize for starting a thread when an active one was still here. I feel rotten about that.... I must've screwed up my search because I couldn't find Lythium's:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

If the mods want to close my thread and remove ATS points from my profile that's A-OK. I apologize for sloppy site checking.

One thought on the significance of Antarctica relates to the theory that it is actually Atlantis, victim of a disastrous climate change caused by a 15-20 degree shift in the physical poles. Consequently, anyone with a base there has the theoretical potential to tunnel below the existing mantle of ice and find Atlantean "mysteries" of potential military, political, or economic value.

Interesting stuff, sounds almost like a claim-jump doesn't it?

I don't have links at the moment but I will find them later if nobody else can find them.

In the 30s the germans asked Byrd to lead their expedition be said no. The germans went anyway of course, and they discovered ice-free portions of antractica, like Bunger's Oasis.

At the beginning of the war, German Uboats sunk and captured whaling fleets in the area of Antarctica, despite the lack of military value.

In 1942, Nazi collaborating Argentina laid claim to large portions of British claimed Antarctica. In 1943, Britain sent 3 ships, including a troop carrier (supposedly without troops) to establish weather stations on the disputed territory.

In 1945, U-234, a transport, was caught in the Atlantic, supposedly on the way to Japan with Uranium and V-2 rocket parts. Antarctica was a possible alternate destination.

When German submarine pens were captured, many of the new type 21 Uboats were missing, and have never been accounted for. In Nordhausen, untried plans for an antigravity propulsion system were supposedly found.

After the war had ended, two german transport subs attempted to make port in Argentina, where many War Criminals had fled. The U-boats were turned over to the US, but had apparently expected to be welcome. The captains were interrogated by US and British Intelligence.

After this incident, amidst a major demobilization of the US Navy, a task force of 13 ships and 4700 men was sent on operation highjump. It was a serious rush- the carrier Phillipine Sea was fresh of its shakedown cruise, and NOT action-ready. The force made a two-pronged landing and converged on queen maud land antarctica. They were equipped to operate for 8 months but turned back after about 3, before reaching the pole. At one point a plane went down due to an instrument malfunction and blinding light, officially explained as an iceflash (refracted light in an atmospheric pocket of moisture). When the survivors were found, the rescue plane immediately dropped rifles for them... In antarctica, all alone.

After the return of Operation Highjump, Admiral Byrd began to advocate using the poles for nuclear testing. When the idea went to congress in 1952, a UFO event known as "the washington marry-go-round" violated the restricted airspace over the capital, and fighters were scrambled. One pilot in this event experienced a strange light and instrument failure characteristic of "foo fighters" which some allied pilots had encountered over Germany during the war. A similiar event downed PBM George 1 during Operation Highjump. The idea was dopped.
Also in 1947, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal began to go insane, and suffered severe personal criticism and professional opposition from the Attorney General and the secretary of the airforce. Eventually he lost his job and was committed to an institution for his babbling about Zionist Conspiracies and an imminent communist invasion. He improved rapidly at Bethesda Naval Hospital, before jumping out a 16th story window at 1:45 AM on the day he was to be released.

I know this is sloppy, but I can put it together as questions arise. I'm just tired and trying to make this quick. the long story short is that there was a German submarine base in Antarctica, probably built to hide secret technology. It also may be connected to the mythology of the German cult Thule, which founded the Nazi party. They believed in a subterranean world occupied by the Aryan race, and according to some traditions, believed the earth was hollow with massive openings at the poles.

Didnt Byrd end up in a lunatic asylum.

This is all very interesting but nothing like what really happened.

The Antarctic is a very big continent, and since the turn of the century many very brave explorers have visited the place and planted flags claiming part of it for various nations.

In 1958 which was the IGY (international Geophysical Year) many nations decided to combine resources and explore and research many areas of the earth, but mainly in the the Antarctic. This was also the time when the Antarctic treaty was being drawn up between all the various nations that had claimed sovereignty down there.

Now the US had never had a single antarctic expedition up to that date, and would have been excluded from being part of the Antarctic treaty.

So as part of the IGY scientific program, the US offered to use its vast military resources to fly over the whole continent and photograph it and produce accurate maps and other scientific data. The name says it all "operation high jump"and that is exactly what it was.

There are no alien bases, no Nazi submarine pens, no secret underground cities. Only the conspiracy nuts believe this stuff. I have never before heard that 1000 americans died down there, that is a lot of people and is just not believable. Anything like that would have become famous and extremely well known and be a part of general knowledge.

I have spent two winters and nearly three years of my life in the Antarctic and have had a long thirty year interest in the Antarctic and all the bases down there. It never happened, sorry......

There is still no American Antarctic Territory, look for yourself on a map. But America does have several bases down there, and is now a signatory to the Antarctic treaty. This was agreed to by all the other countries because of the valuable work done during "high jump" in 1958.

There is a lot of information at :

www.bibliotecapleyades.net...

about this .

Bunger and his men carefully reconnoitered the area before racing back to the Currituck with news of their find. The ‘oasis’ they had discovered covered an area of some three hundred square miles of the continent and contained three large, open water lakes along with a number of smaller lakes. These lakes were separated by masses of barren, reddish-brown rocks possibly indicating the presence of iron ore.

Several days later, Bunger returned to the area, and found that the water was warm to the touch and the lake itself was filled with red, blue and green algae giving it a distinctive colour. Bunger filled a bottle with the water which later,

"turned out to be brackish, a clue to the fact that the ‘lake’ was actually an arm of the open sea." (19)

This is important for two reasons; warm, inland lakes connected to the surrounding oceans would be perfect for submarines to hide within, and similar lakes have been noted in Neu-Schwabenland, the site of the alleged Nazi base.

There is no conclusive evidence of a Nazi base on Antarctica, however that something untoward was happening on, or around, the frozen continent appears, on balance of probabilities, to be likely. The evidence is there:

i) The Germans invaded and claimed part of Antarctica on the very eve of the war when all of their activity was geared towards the war machine and the establishment of a 1000-year Reich.

ii) There was ongoing ship and submarine activity in the South Atlantic and polar regions throughout and after the war had apparently ended.

iii) The US invaded the continent itself with considerable naval resources leaving mainland America exposed and vulnerable as the world edged into the Cold War. The task force limped home as if defeated only weeks later, and the local South American press wrote of such a defeat.

iv) Admiral Byrd spoke of objects that could fly from pole to pole at incredible speeds being based on Antarctica.

v) Hundreds of thousands of Germans and numerous U-boats were missing at the end of the war.

The connection between Antarctica and the UFO phenomenon was sealed with claims made by one Albert K. Bender who stated that he,

"went into the fantastic and came up with an answer … I know what the saucers are."

[edit on 18-12-2007 by Gun Totin Gerbil]

Could it be possible that the Nazis did establish a base of some sort in Neuschwabenland? If so, considering their obsessivness with science and technology, why couldn't it be possible they went to establish a research station of some sort? They beleived in the hollow Earth theories, so a research station set up by them to send out teams to look for the openings makes some sense to me.

Also, the missingU-boats could have just been going to pick up their reasearchers in Antartica and dispose of the research station using commandos on board the subs. I know it sounds outlandish, but I am simply stating a thought on this subject that I haven't read anywhere else.

[edit on 6-1-2008 by seeker83]

oh yes ive found a home ATS
i have lots of information to share on the above topic case ive been researching
this topic for quite a while on my own. Ok I've got to bring the op and anyone interested up to speed! its quite a long read but it will answer about 60% of your questions. READ IT don't skim it theirs way too much information on this
page to skim and later ill post more links and pics!

greyfalcon.us...

reply to post by ST SIR 86


I am grateful to the poster. This greyfalcon site has an absolute riot of information on the subject of Project Highjump. There are few subjects more likely to generate ridicule than "Nazi UFOs from the South Pole" but it is another one of those stories that just won't go away...like the Philadelphia Experiment...

So many undercurrents to the conventional history of WWII...

Guess what all, new dilemma

after posting the link above to greyfalcon and i promised more and pics

so i was about to put links for the Google earth locations of both highly secret ww2 Nazi bases with overlays and as of downloading the latest GE update, they don't work anymore.... in fact if i double click them it zooms in and shows me a big fat red "X" where the overlay was.....is there a fix for this ( patch ) or has it been hidden from public eyes?.

as for the pics

try this......its a fake or drawing.....

principality-of-sealand.eu...

i cant show you the flying saucers ( HAUNEBU ), but i can show a modern pic
of the flying wing ( ho ix v1 ) look halfway down the page it hasn't any wings just the fuselage..... the white fonts are in German but it has Grey fonts next to the white in english

www.pilotenbunker.de...

and heres the web site for Horton aircraft......scratch that the website's now gone too!.... try the wiki explanation...

en.wikipedia.org...
gone too....im not having much luck!

Operation High jump and the UFO event over washington DC afterwards are more or less not easy to explain without some sort of conspiracy edge. If the US needed to run to the antarctic for treaty reasons why exactly did they send a FLEET?

I know its been a little while since anyone has read or posted on this thread, But this is a must listen-to interview on the subject and subjects regarding this..

Aaron Kaplan on Red Ice Radio

www.redicecreations.com...

I loved it and I know you all will

The amazing UFO saucer craft has to remain hidden because
if the secret is out chaos will result.
Imagine anyone from any country could fly anywhere they wanted.
And with great speed.
In the hands of armies the craft would be horded and mass produced
as the warplane in WWII.
We all know the knowledge of the UFO must never be revealed.
If we think we know the secrets at least we know what the owners know.
Thus I feel most stories bantered about are diversions and have origins
that get re energized.
I think the last round on the Antarctic story came from FOIARs that
helped someone write a few more books on the old script when
Adm Byrd was alive.
The 'information' was just a story line feed out as authentic.
Old authentic malarkey just became new authentic malarkey.