Summary
The scholarly answer to the thesis comes mainly from a 2007 paper in Polar Record by Colin Summerhayes of the Scott Polar Research Institute and the historian Peter Beeching. Using documents and knowledge of Antarctica, they conclude that there was no secret wartime German base in Dronning Maud Land and that the two U-boats could not have reached Antarctica, among other reasons because the Antarctic winter pack ice blocked the coast. They also show that Operation Highjump was designed to train the US Navy for a possible war with the Soviet Union in the Arctic, not to attack a German base, and that the 1958 Argus nuclear tests took place over the ocean more than 2,000 km north of Dronning Maud Land.
Official records agree. Highjump, officially the United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, set up the research base Little America IV on the Ross Ice Shelf, on the opposite side of the continent from the German survey area, with 4,700 men, 13 ships and 33 aircraft. Operation Tabarin was a secret British expedition meant to strengthen British claims to the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Finally, the Antarctic Treaty reserves the continent for peaceful purposes, bans military operations and nuclear tests, and opens all stations and installations to inspection at any time.
Official version
- Official version
A peer-reviewed study demonstrates that the two U-boats could not have reached Antarctica, that there was no secret wartime German base in Dronning Maud Land and that SAS troops did not attack one.
- Hitler's Antarctic base: the myth and the reality, Polar Record, Cambridge University Press (C. Summerhayes, P. Beeching), January 2007
that the two U-Boats could not have reached Antarctica; that there was no secret wartime German base in Dronning Maud Land; that SAS troops did not attack the alleged German base;
- Hitler's Antarctic base: the myth and the reality, Polar Record, Cambridge University Press (C. Summerhayes, P. Beeching), January 2007
- Official version
The same study finds that Operation Highjump was designed to train the US Navy for a possible war with the Soviet Union in the Arctic, not to attack an alleged German base.
- Hitler's Antarctic base: the myth and the reality, Polar Record, Cambridge University Press (C. Summerhayes, P. Beeching), January 2007
that Operation Highjump was designed to train the US Navy for a possible war with the Soviet Union in the Arctic, and not to attack an alleged German base in Antarctica;
- Hitler's Antarctic base: the myth and the reality, Polar Record, Cambridge University Press (C. Summerhayes, P. Beeching), January 2007
- Official version
Operation Argus took place over the ocean more than 2,000 km north of Dronning Maud Land.
- Operation Argus, Wikipedia
Operation Argus was a series of United States low-yield, high-altitude nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted from 27 August to 9 September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean.
- Hitler's Antarctic base: the myth and the reality, Polar Record, Cambridge University Press (C. Summerhayes, P. Beeching), January 2007
that Operation Argus took place over the ocean more than 2000 km north of Dronning Maud Land.
- Operation Argus, Wikipedia
- Official version
The U-boats were in the southern ocean in the Antarctic winter, when pack ice would have made it impossible for them to reach the coast.
- Hitler's Antarctic base (news column on the Polar Record paper), Nature, March 2007
The U-boats were in the southern ocean during the Antarctic winter, when the pack ice would have made it impossible for them to reach the coast.
- Hitler's Antarctic base (news column on the Polar Record paper), Nature, March 2007
- Official version
Highjump, officially the United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, aimed to establish the research base Little America IV and had 4,700 men, 13 ships and 33 aircraft.
- Operation Highjump, Wikipedia
was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV.
- Operation Highjump, Wikipedia
- Official version
Highjump was based on the Ross Ice Shelf, on the opposite side of the continent from Queen Maud Land, and had 11 journalists embedded on its ships.
- Hitler's Antarctic Fortress Unmasked (Skeptoid #559), Skeptoid (Brian Dunning), 21 February 2017
Highjump was also a real event, though it took place exactly at the opposite side of Antarctica. It was also covered in detail by 11 embedded journalists.
- Hitler's Antarctic Fortress Unmasked (Skeptoid #559), Skeptoid (Brian Dunning), 21 February 2017
- Official version
Operation Tabarin was a secret British expedition whose primary aim was to strengthen British sovereignty claims to the Falkland Islands Dependencies.
- Operation Tabarin, Wikipedia
its primary objective was to strengthen British claims to sovereignty of the British territory of the Falkland Islands Dependencies (FID)
- Operation Tabarin, Wikipedia
- Official version
The Antarctic Treaty reserves the continent for peaceful purposes, bans military operations and nuclear testing, and opens all areas to inspection at all times.
- Antarctic Treaty System, Wikipedia
The treaty prohibits nuclear testing, military operations, economic exploitation, and the making of new territorial claims in Antarctica.
- The Antarctic Treaty, Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty
Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only
- Antarctic Treaty System, Wikipedia