ATLAS

VariantOMEGA-24-8-2Sheet 2 of 5 of the dossier Operation Highjump

Nazi saucers against Highjump

The version in which the Navy attacks a secret German base in Antarctica and is beaten by advanced craft.

Photograph of the German seaplane catapult ship MS Schwabenland.
The catapult ship MS Schwabenland, which carried the German expedition to Antarctica in 1938-1939 (photo published by Lufthansa, 1938). Unknown authorUnknown author · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Summary

In the Nazi variant, Operation Highjump becomes a secret war: the Navy sailed in 1946 to destroy a hidden German base and was defeated by disc-shaped aircraft, which would explain why the expedition ended early. Its backers rely on a real German episode, the 1938-1939 expedition of the ship Schwabenland, which named a sector of Antarctica New Swabia, and on the notion that the Third Reich had advanced saucer projects. The sources show how the legend was assembled rather than how a battle was fought. The Schwabenland expedition was a single ship scouting for the whaling industry and returned to Hamburg in April 1939, and Germany built no lasting structure in the region until 1981. The saucer literature has dated authors: a 1974 book placing launches in an Antarctic base, whose publisher reportedly admitted it was a hoax to attract publicity, and earlier press stories of a Hitler hideaway from 1947. The quote about "flying objects" that fly "from pole to pole" is a free rendering of Byrd's March 1947 warning about aircraft crossing the poles. A 2007 article in Polar Record, by Colin Summerhayes and Peter Beeching, tested the claims against declassified records and treats the German base as a myth. What the thesis shows, then, is a post-war genre that turned a genuine expedition and a genuine admiral's warning into a battle story.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    In this version, Highjump was sent to find and destroy a secret Nazi base in Antarctica and was beaten back by advanced German craft; popular retellings say the saucers shot down several American aircraft.

  2. Thesis

    The phrase "flying objects that could fly from pole to pole at incredible speeds", attributed to Byrd, circulates in Nazi-UFO writing; a historian blogger traces it to a 1975 book and calls it a very free rendering of the Spanish original.

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    A real German expedition did go to the region: the ship Schwabenland left Hamburg on 17 December 1938, returned on 11 April 1939, and the area between 10°W and 15°E was named New Swabia.

  2. Verified fact

    That expedition was small: one ship, sent to scout territory for the German whaling industry, and Germany built no lasting structure there until the Georg von Neumayer Station in 1981.

  3. Verified fact

    Nazi-UFO literature has identifiable authors: a 1974 book, UFOs – Nazi Secret Weapon?, placed saucer launches in an Antarctic base, and Wikipedia reports that its publisher privately admitted it was a deliberate hoax to build publicity.

    • Nazi UFOs, Wikipedia
      UFOs – Nazi Secret Weapon?
  4. Verified fact

    The tale of a Hitler refuge in Antarctica was already being published in 1947, when a Hungarian writer exiled in Argentina wrote it up for the newspaper La Crítica.