On February 1, 1947, an expedition led by Rear Admiral Richard Byrd landed in Antarctica in the area of ​​Queen Maud Land and set about studying the territory adjacent to the ocean. The studies were designed for 6-8 months. But already at the end of February, all work was suddenly stopped, and the expedition urgently returned to the United States.

The idea of ​​such a naval expedition was born in the autumn of 1945. Divers from the crews of several German submarines interned in Argentina told the American intelligence services that before the end of World War II, they allegedly carried out special flights to supply some Nazi base in Antarctica.

The Americans took this information seriously. They decided to send an entire squadron in search of a mysterious base, led by the most experienced polar explorer at that time, Admiral Byrd.
Richard Bird knew Antarctica well. In 1929, the expedition under his leadership founded the base "Little America" ​​in the Bay of Whales.

In 1929, he and his partner made the first flight over the South Pole. In 1939-1941, he undertook an expedition to the west and south of Antarctica: to the area of ​​the Ross barrier, Mary Bird Land, Greim Land, and the Edward VII Peninsula. And when World War II began, Byrd commanded the so-called Greenland Patrol and fought the Nazis in the Arctic.

Admiral Bird is back in Antarctica

At the end of 1946, the admiral was placed at the head of a new military and scientific expedition to Antarctica. The US Navy has allocated serious forces for these purposes: an aircraft carrier, 13 cruisers and destroyers, a submarine, an icebreaker, more than 20 aircraft and helicopters, and only about five thousand personnel.

Within a month, the expedition members managed to take about 50,000 photographs, map several previously unknown mountain plateaus, and equip a new polar station. One of the destroyers conducted a practice bombardment of ice hummocks with torpedoes. And suddenly the Americans were attacked ... by devices resembling "flying saucers". By the way, such a term did not yet exist.

Byrd allegedly reported on the radio that after a short battle, an unknown enemy sent truce truants. They were two young men, tall, blond and blue-eyed, dressed in a uniform of leather and fur. One of the parliamentarians in broken English demanded that the Americans urgently, in a couple of hours, leave the area.

tragic collision

Byrd rejected these claims. Then the parliamentarians withdrew towards the snowy ridge and seemed to have vanished into thin air. And an hour or two later, enemy artillery hit the cruisers and destroyers. After 15 minutes, an air attack began. The speed of the enemy aircraft was so great that the Americans, who fired oncoming anti-aircraft fire, only managed to keep the enemy at a distance of aimed fire at the ships.

Expedition member John Syerson many years later recalled: “They jumped out of the water like mad and literally slipped between the masts of the ships at such a speed that radio antennas were tore with streams of disturbed air. Several "corsairs" managed to take off from the "Casablanca", but in comparison with these strange aircraft, they looked like hobbled ones.

I didn’t even have time to blink an eye, as two “corsairs”, struck down by some unknown rays that splashed from the bows of these “flying saucers”, dug into the water near the ships ... These objects did not make a single sound, they silently rushed between ships, like some satanic, blue-black swallows with blood-red beaks, and ceaselessly spitting deadly fire.

Suddenly, the Murdoch, which was ten cables from us (about two kilometers. - Approx. Aut.), blazed with a bright flame and began to sink. From other ships, despite the danger, lifeboats and boats were immediately sent to the crash site. When our "pancakes" flew into the battle area, shortly before that they were relocated to the coastal airfield, they could not do anything either. The whole nightmare lasted about twenty minutes. When the "flying saucers" again dived under the water, we began to count the losses. They were terrifying…”

By the end of this tragic day, about 400 Americans were killed, about 20 planes and helicopters were shot down, one cruiser and two destroyers were damaged. Losses would have been even greater, but night fell. Admiral Bird in those conditions made the only right decision: to curtail the operation and return home with the whole squadron.

Ufologists today are convinced that alien bases were located in this sector of Antarctica. In any case, the bases of those who controlled these "flying saucers". And the aliens reacted accordingly to the arrival of uninvited guests. It is unlikely that the Germans had aircraft with such crushing weapons then. And the German soldiers themselves, after the surrender of Germany in May 1945, no longer remained in Antarctica. They scattered all over the world, most of them were in Argentina.

When the American squadron finally reached its shores and the fate of the expedition was reported to the command, all its members - both officers and sailors - were isolated. Only Admiral Byrd remained at large. However, he was forbidden to meet with journalists.

Then he began to write memoirs about this period of his life. It was not possible to publish the manuscript, but it fell into the "high spheres". Byrd was dismissed, moreover, declared insane. In recent years, the admiral lived practically under house arrest, did not communicate with anyone, could not even see his former colleagues. He died in 1957. Nobody remembered the famous polar hero then.

New expedition

It must be assumed that in 1947 the top American leadership treated the report of Admiral Byrd with due attention, since in 1948 the 39th operational unit of the US Navy was sent to this area of ​​​​Antarctica. It was equipped with the latest radar equipment and reinforced with naval special forces. Undoubtedly, the Americans expected to take revenge for the battle lost by Bird. But a new meeting with the mysterious strangers did not happen, although the helicopters scrupulously examined the coast, and the caterpillar transporters went deep into the continent.

The new expedition managed to explore only some of the ice caves on the coast. The results were modest. Construction and household debris, broken drilling rigs, some mining equipment, torn mining overalls. There were signs "Made in Germany". Surprisingly, not a single spent cartridge case was found that was related to German weapons from the Second World War.

The fact that the Germans spent more than one year here was beyond doubt. But when did they disappear from the icy continent? Where are the mythical underground factories that produced this alleged superweapon? The Americans stumbled only on dilapidated barracks. Admiral Gerald Ketcham, not meeting anyone but penguins, ordered to sail home ...

Until now, little is reliably known about the expedition of Admiral Byrd in 1946-1947. Information about the stay of the military and scientists in the Queen Maud Land area at the beginning of 1947 is mostly classified. Most likely, the expedition members encountered aliens there. And all the materials related to them, and today in the United States are under the heading of secrecy.

Vasily MITSUROV, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Operation High Jump has been approved at the highest level in the US government. The general management of the operation was carried out by the Secretary of the Navy, and the direct management of the planning and implementation of the operation was entrusted to the Commander of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet Chester Nimitz (now one of the most modern US aircraft carriers bears his name) and his deputy Vice Admiral Forrest Sherman and Rear Admiral Roskoy Hood.

Byrd, it took a lot of effort to convince the US government (using his personal connections at the highest level) to send an expedition on behalf of the US government and thereby declare American interests in Antarctica. Well, when it comes to American interests, then the naval fist is the best argument.

Now about the purpose of the expedition. Churchill will deliver his speech, marking the beginning of the Cold War in four years, but the spirit of not only the Cold War, but the Third World War was already in the minds of the military-political leadership of the West.

The Navy force was already on its way to Antarctica when US President Truman delivered a speech in which he outlined his doctrine, called the Truman Doctrine, which called for stopping the spread of communism, including by military means.

The main enemy in this war, of course, was the USSR, and the region of the circumpolar and polar regions of the NORTH POLE was considered as a possible theater of operations in a future war.

Regarding the secrets that allegedly surround the Antarctic expedition of Richard Byrd in 1946-1947, there is also a very skeptical opinion, the essence of which is that no emergencies were observed during its course. It’s just that people love everything mysterious, mysterious, and therefore they strive to find “conspiracy theories” even where they don’t exist.

The official goals of Byrd's expedition

Not all goals, some:

To give practice to commanders and staffs in organizing and conducting combat operations in the polar regions.

Work out the issues of navigation and navigation in the polar regions, depending on the ice situation.

To train the crews of regular aviation assets of ships in ice reconnaissance.

To test in practice the possibility of using aircraft carriers for the delivery and use of heavy bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.

Conduct practical takeoff and landing exercises for heavy reconnaissance aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier using rocket boosters.

to train the crews of heavy aviation equipped with wheel-ski chassis in the use of field ice airfields.

Train the crew in the use of reconnaissance equipment for aerial photography of the area. Conduct aerial photography of large areas of the Arctic in the interests of the preparation and production of maps.

To test in practice the possibility of using submarine forces in the polar regions in conditions of rapidly changing ice conditions.

Work out the issues of search and destruction of submarines by anti-submarine aviation.

Check the ability to land marines on the ice and march over long distances.

Evaluate the possibility of using Marine Corps transporters in low temperature conditions.

Train engineering units in conducting civil engineering and demolition work in extreme temperatures.

The composition of the expedition

In total, the expedition included 13 ships of the Navy, including:

In total, over 4,000 people participated in the expedition, as Admiral Byrd noted.

The main grouping was divided into three groups: Eastern, Central and Western. The task of the Eastern and Western groups, each of which included an air tender with amphibious aircraft on board, was to go as far as possible along the coast in order to study it and conduct aerial photography, while practicing purely military tasks set by the command of the Navy.
The central group, which formed the core of the expedition, had the goal of organizing a field airfield and a base in the area of ​​the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea, from which to conduct aerial photographic reconnaissance of the continental part of Antarctica. The coast of the Ross Sea was considered for a century the best way to land an expedition to explore the continent.

It was expected that this would make it possible to cover the entire perimeter of the coast of the continent with research and learn more about it than in the entire previous century.

What stopped Admiral Byrd?

This is where the mysteries begin. Some write that an expedition of such imposing forces was planned for six months, but lasted only a few weeks. Others write that there were no such long terms in Bird's plans.

There are testimonies of alleged eyewitnesses and participants that they saw incomprehensible aircraft (they thought that the Russians, of course). In Runet, you can find links to the testimonies of the wife of the famous rear admiral, who, it seems, read his logbook. From these records of Bird, which became known as if from the words of his wife, it follows that during the Antarctic expedition of 1946-1947 he came into contact with representatives of a certain civilization, which was far ahead of the earth in its development. Residents of the Antarctic country have mastered new types of energy that allow you to start vehicle engines, get food, electricity and heat literally from nothing.

Representatives of the Antarctic world informed Bird that they were trying to make contact with humanity, but people were extremely hostile towards them. However, "brothers in mind" are still ready to help humanity, but only if the world is on the verge of self-destruction.

Whatever it was, the fact remains that after Byrd's return to the United States and his report in Washington, all expedition journals and rear admiral's personal diaries were seized and classified. They remain classified to this day, which, of course, feeds an endless stream of rumors and speculation. It is clear why: if the diaries of Richard Byrd remain classified already over 60 years, so there is something to hide.

eyewitness accounts

However, there are quite direct eyewitness accounts of what happened during the Fourth Antarctic Expedition of the United States in 1946-1947. Henry Stevens in the study mentioned above provides the following data. In order to give credibility to the version of the exclusively scientific goals of this expedition of Richard Byrd, a small group of journalists from different countries was included in its composition. Among them was Lee Van Atta, a correspondent for the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, based in Santiago. In the issue dated March 5, 1947, signed by van Att, a short article was published in which the words of Rear Admiral were quoted.

In the very first paragraphs of the article, its author wrote: “Today, Admiral Byrd told me that the United States must take effective measures to protect against enemy aircraft arriving from the polar regions. He further explained that he had no intention of scaring anyone, but the bitter reality was that in the event of a new war, the United States would be attacked by aircraft flying at fantastic speeds from one pole to the other.

As for the recent termination of the expedition, Bird stated that its most important result is the identification of the potential effect that the observations and discoveries made in the course of it will have on the security of the United States.

Skeptics note the other side of this expedition - approaching the Antarctic, the ships unexpectedly encountered an ice field 1000 km wide. At the same time, only one Northwind icebreaker was available, which significantly delayed the entire group.

Despite the fact that the Eastern Group took up its positions and began air flights over the continent at the end of December 1946, the Central Group, in conditions of heavy ice conditions, was not able to begin equipping the base until January 15, 1947.

Winter was coming and the weather began to deteriorate sharply, and therefore all work was curtailed on February 23, in order to have time to get to clean water without damaging the ships. By this time the icebreaker "Burton Island" had approached and helped in escorting the ships.

Strange, but very few researchers (including Joseph Farrell) pay attention to the fact that lies literally on the surface. Richard Byrd's expedition to Antarctica was hastily canceled on March 3, 1947. And since mid-May 1947, unidentified flying objects - UFOs - began to be observed in the sky of the United States almost en masse.

Antarctica–1947th. Great Mystery of Ufology

In the early 60s, excerpts from the diary of the famous American polar explorer Richard Baird, who at the very beginning of 1947 led a major expedition to the eastern shores, became the property of ufologists. And so, knowledgeable people claim that in this very diary, only in another, still secret place, Baird allegedly states that during one of his reconnaissance flights over the icy desert of the Sixth Continent, he was allegedly forced to land ... strange aircraft, " ... similar, - I quote from the book of the English ufologist Winston Flammel, - to flat british helmets!" What Admiral Richard Byrd describes is simply inconvenient to repeat after him, because even children will not believe it. However, in any case, it becomes clear that even if we exclude some “misunderstanding” that happened on February 25, 1942 over (“Battle over Los Angeles”) from the longest list of “observations”, then the chronology of “indisputable UFO sightings” is as simple as a eaten egg - Admiral Richard Baird was the first American to see the CLASSIC "flying saucer", and it happened not over America, but over the Sixth Continent.

It is from this incident that all stories on the history of UFOs should generally begin.

Admiral Baird's Expedition

The prehistory of this story begins even, so to speak, in "prehistoric" times. Many knowledgeable experts argue that some “ancient high cults” are directly involved here - in a word, magic, occultism and other palmistry. More “mundane” researchers start counting from later dates, and specifically from the year 1945, when the captains of two Nazi internees in Argentine ports told the American intelligence services that “received” them that at the end of the war they allegedly carried out some kind of special supply flights Hitler's Shangri-La - the mysterious Nazi base in Antarctica.

The American military leadership took this information so seriously that they decided to send in search of this very base, which the Germans themselves called "New Swabia", a whole fleet led by its most competent polar explorer, Rear Admiral Richard Baird. This was the fourth Antarctic expedition of the famous admiral, but unlike the first three, it was entirely funded, which predetermined the absolute secrecy of its goals and results.

The expedition included the escort aircraft carrier "Casablanca", converted from high-speed transport, and on which 18 aircraft and 7 helicopters were based (helicopters would not have turned their tongue - very imperfect aircraft with a limited range and extremely low survivability), as well as more 12 ships, which accommodated more than 4 thousand people. The whole operation received a code name - "High Jump" ("High Jump"), which, according to the plan, was supposed to symbolize the last, final blow to the unfinished Third Reich in the ice of Antarctica ...

So, the 4th expedition of Admiral Baird, covered by such an impressive fleet for a simple civilian expedition, landed in Antarctica in the area of ​​Queen Maud Land on February 1, 1947 and began a detailed study of the territory adjacent to the ocean.

During the month, about 50 thousand photographs were taken, or rather - 49563 (data taken from the geophysical yearbook "Bruker Kast",). Aerial photography covered 60% of the area Baird was interested in, the researchers discovered and mapped several previously unknown mountain plateaus and founded a polar station. But after a while, the work was suddenly stopped, and the expedition urgently returned to America.

Expedition map of Admiral Byrd

For more than a year, no one had absolutely no idea about the true reasons for such a hasty "flight" of Richard Byrd from Antarctica, moreover, no one in the world then even suspected that at the very beginning of March 1947 the expedition had to engage in a real battle with the enemy , whose presence in the zone of her research allegedly did not expect at all. From the moment of its return to the expedition, it was surrounded by such a dense veil of secrecy that no other scientific expedition of its kind was surrounded, but some of the most cunning newspapermen still managed to find out that Byrd's squadron had returned far from being at full strength - it was supposedly off the coast of Antarctica lost at least one ship, 13 aircraft and about forty personnel... Sensation, in a word!

And this very sensation was duly “formulated” and took its rightful place on the pages of the Belgian popular science magazine Frey, and then was reprinted by the West German “Demestish” and found a new breath in the West German “Brizant”. A certain Karel Lagerfeld informed the public that, after returning from Antarctica, Admiral Byrd gave lengthy explanations at a secret meeting of the presidential special commission in , and her summary was as follows: the ships and aircraft of the Fourth Antarctic Expedition were attacked ... by strange "flying saucers" that " ... emerged from under the water, and moving at great speed, caused significant damage to the expedition.

In the opinion of Admiral Byrd himself, these amazing aircraft must have been produced at Nazi aircraft factories camouflaged in the thickness of the Antarctic ice, the designers of which mastered some unknown energy used in the engines of these devices ... Among other things, Baird told high-ranking officials the following:

As for France, there is nothing particularly surprising here. Despite the fact that this country belongs to the so-called capitalist camp, at that moment the communists led by Maurice Thorez ruled with might and main in its government, and even when the rights of the communists were subsequently significantly curtailed, relations between France and the Soviets still remained, if not friendly, then trusting - anyway. In order to realize this fact, it is enough to note that when in 1966 (even two whole years after the death of Torez, a permanent member of parliament) France withdrew from, Lyndon Johnson in a private conversation with his special assistant for national security M. Bundy literally stated the following:

“Despite all the minuses, there is still one wonderful moment in this story: now our military secrets that we shared with these French will no longer go straight to the Russians ...”

Another interesting detail is that in the immediate vicinity of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica there is a group of islands belonging to Kerguelen, Crozet and Saint-Paul. All the islands are uninhabited, and on the latter, among other things, there are very convenient bays with calm waters, most suitable for anchoring ocean-going ships. After the war, both the Americans and the British repeatedly turned to De Gaulle with a proposal to provide them with these islands to create their military bases, but the communists, firmly entrenched in the French Provisional Government, and then in the government of the newly formed Fourth Republic, rejected these proposals outright (* 37 ). It is not officially known whether Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin made such proposals on his part, but Soviet ships, until his death in 1953, could very often be observed in various French naval bases around the world, and especially in Haiphong, New Caledonia and Caribbean Sea. So we will not find anything surprising in the report that in 1946 one of the new destroyers of the "Antarctic Navy of the USSR" was also observed in the waters of the French island of Kerguelen ...

By the time of the attack on the USSR, ANNENERBE had more than fifty scientific institutes under its jurisdiction, the activities of which were coordinated by Professor Kurt Wurst, a man who, according to Schellenberg, was "... a famous scientist rogue of all times and peoples, posing as a recognized expert ancient cult texts ... "At the Nuremberg trials, when the case of the leaders of ANNENERBE was heard (those, of course, the few who, for some not entirely clear reason, did not have time to hide in other" friendly "countries and fell into the hands of the allies) , it turned out that by the end of the war, huge sums of money had gone through the channels of this organization in an unknown direction - something like 50 billion gold Reichsmarks. When the investigators asked Wurst's assistant, Reinhard Zuhel, what, exactly, this fantastic money was spent on, he, pretending to be a “guy not in his right mind”, repeated only something about SHAMBALA and AGARTA ... (* 42) . What these same SHAMBALA and AGARTA are, in principle, was clear to some of the most enlightened investigators, but it still remained incomprehensible what exactly the gold Reichsmarks could have to do with these rather vague things ... Zukhel was never “talked” to the very end of his life, which came under very strange circumstances a year later.

Official sources claim that in the early spring of 1945, after some heavy deliberation, Hitler approved the project plan "" developed earlier by his henchmen-occultists, which provides for the shelter of the most valuable, secret, esoteric relics of the Third Reich. Among the items allegedly most valued by Hitler himself was the most ancient spear, currently known as the “Spear of Cassius Longinus” (this spear, according to a stable legend, was made 5 thousand years ago from a meteorite, belonged at different times to King Solomon, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne , Napoleon Bonaparte, and besides, he himself was killed on the cross (* 43)). Professor Brian Zetius, author of The Encyclopedia of the Occult World, claimed that Hitler seriously believed that with the appropriation of the Spear of Longinus, he had the key to world domination in his hands. Like it or not, some more or less competent researchers have every reason to believe that Hitler himself had nothing to do with it (* 44).

As already mentioned, all the problems in studying the history of the German race were "buried" exclusively by Himmler, who had more imagination than many other leaders of the Reich. Very significant amounts of money left the state treasury for the tricks of this "hussar", and they liked it less and less, especially since Himmler's research (their results) almost did not at all correspond to his optimistic statements about the significance of the German peoples in world history. In another conversation with the same Speer, Hitler once again remarked, this time sarcastically:

“It’s not enough for us that the Romans built their gigantic structures when our ancestors lived in primitive huts ... so Himmler still orders to dig out these clay villages and comes into idiotic delight at the sight of every clay shard and every stone ax that they managed to dig up! By this, we only show the whole world that we threw stone darts and danced around the fire like savages, while Greece was already at the highest stage of its cultural development ... We have every reason to keep quiet about our past, and Himmler is ringing about it all over the world, completely unaware of what a disservice he renders to the entire German people. I imagine what contemptuous laughter these revelations cause in the Roman Mussolini!

In 1938, the all-powerful Himmler managed to win over Reichsmarschall Goering, Admiral Raeder and some other persons from the top leadership of the Reich to his side in order to get Hitler's consent to send a major expedition to Antarctica. There is a version that Professor Wurst convinced Himmler that Antarctica is the legendary one sought by all scientists of the world, which was considered the ancestral home of the entire Aryan race. It is not clear how funds were squeezed out of tight-fisted Hitler to carry out this expensive action, but in the spring of 1938 the first Nazi expedition went to Antarctica under the command of Captain Adolf Ritscher, the former head of the 3rd operational intelligence department of Admiral Canaris.

A lot has been written about Admiral Canaris and his intelligence (Abwehr), but almost no one has ever attached importance to his involvement in Hitler's (Himmler's) attempts to "colonize" Antarctica. However, many declassified materials in recent years indicate that the sad end of the spy admiral was predetermined precisely by his overly heightened awareness of some secret matters, namely, and to no small extent, “Antarctic secrets”. And although Ritscher, who returned after the first campaign, reported that he “fulfilled the mission entrusted to him by none other than Marshal Goering himself,” it was Canaris who took over the “technical support” of the expedition (* 45). Many sober-minded researchers later admitted in their numerous works that they could not find a more or less reasonable (and at the same time technically competent) explanation for the interest shown by the leaders of Germany the day before in this distant and lifeless region of the globe, although this interest was on surprise exceptional (*46). However, for some reason they stubbornly bypassed the reasons for the interests that guided the Americans themselves, sending their own expeditions to the same Antarctica at the same time. The third expedition of Admiral Byrd, for example, carried out "in hot pursuit" in West Antarctica, set itself, as you know, the task of asserting American sovereignty over the Antarctic Peninsula located in the Wedell Sea and the land of Mary Byrd, where a few years earlier the same Byrd had been huge deposits of coal have been discovered.

As you know, the Americans in the entire history did not take out a single ton of coal from Antarctica, the Germans were not interested in it either (the Saar coal basin, captured in 1935 under the pretext of demilitarization, more than provided absolutely all the needs of the Reich in this type of fuel and was even exported to some other countries). But the German "researchers" in 1938-39 were so hastily engaged in the "attachment" of territories covered with many kilometers of ice to their distant Reich that it actually looks too suspicious.

At the beginning of 1947, sensational news shook the whole world. During the military and scientific expedition in Antarctica, the powerful American squadron of Admiral Byrd was defeated.

The result of the 20-minute battle was stunning: about 400 dead, more than 20 planes and helicopters shot down, one cruiser and two destroyers were damaged! Huge losses were inflicted by unknown aircraft flying straight out of the water...

Squadron of Admiral Byrd

At the end of 1946, by personal decree of the American President Truman, the famous polar wolf, Rear Admiral Richard Byrd, was appointed head of a new military and scientific expedition to Antarctica.

Serious forces were allocated to him: an aircraft carrier, 13 cruisers and destroyers, a submarine, an icebreaker, more than 20 aircraft and helicopters, and about five thousand personnel. All tasks were supposed to be completed in eight months.

But when the ships of Admiral Byrd entered the Lazarev Sea off the coast of the icy Queen Maud Land, the unimaginable began.

Enemy artillery hit the cruisers and destroyers, and then an air attack began. Here is what expedition member John Syerson recalled many years later:

“They jumped out from under the water like mad and slipped literally between the masts of the ships at such a speed that the radio antennas were torn by streams of disturbed air ... I didn’t even have time to blink an eye, like two corsairs, struck down by some unknown rays that splashed from the bows these "flying saucers", dug into the water near the ships ... These objects did not make a single sound, they silently rushed between the ships, like some kind of satanic, blue-black swallows with blood-red beaks, and continuously spat deadly fire " .

In these tragic conditions, Admiral Byrd decides to curtail the operation and return home with the entire squadron. And upon his return, some oddities began: all members of the expedition - both officers and sailors - were isolated, and Admiral Byrd appeared before the presidential special commission at secret hearings in Washington, after which he was declared insane, dismissed from military service, and at the same time he was categorically forbidden to meet with journalists. What so alarmed the members of the special commission?

According to Admiral Byrd himself, these amazing aircraft must have been produced at the Nazi aircraft factories camouflaged in the thickness of the Antarctic ice, the designers of which mastered some unknown energy used in the engines of these vehicles ... But was it possible?

FLYING SUBMARINE

In the 30s of the last century, many scientists and designers worked on the implementation of the idea of ​​creating a new type of weapon that combines the advantages of an aircraft and a submarine.

For example, in 1934, Boris Ushakov presented one of these solutions. His apparatus looked more like an airplane than a submarine. An all-metal machine weighing 15 tons with a crew of three was supposed to reach speeds of up to 200 km / h with a flight range of up to 800 km. Estimated speed: air - 100 knots (185 km / h), underwater - up to 4 knots (7.4 km / h). The maximum diving depth is 45 m, the range of navigation under water is 5-6 km, the maximum flight altitude is 2500 m, underwater autonomy is 48 hours, the dive time is 1.5 minutes, the ascent time is 1.8 minutes. Armament - two 450 mm torpedoes and two twin machine guns. Let's just say it's very good.

It was proposed to make a model and test it in the pool. And there is no more mention of Ushakov's Soviet submarine. But there were other projects of this kind.

Unexpectedly for everyone, Truman's Secretary of State James Byrnes, who has always advocated the toughest sanctions against the USSR, resigns early. Byrnes's last words in public office were: “The damned Russians turned out to be impossible to frighten. In this matter (meaning Antarctica) they won.”

Maybe a dog is buried here? And not aliens, but Russians weighed heavy "cuffs" on Byrd?

5th ANTARCTIC FLEET of the USSR Navy

For a long time it was believed that the 5th Fleet was Stalin's unfulfilled desire. But naval historians disagree. Here is just one of the illustrations.

In January - June 1945, the destroyers of project 45 - "Vysokiy", "Important" and "Impressive", on which the keel structures were completely redone and reinforced, the hull was strengthened and additional equipment was installed for navigation in difficult conditions of high (and maybe low!) latitudes.

On the destroyer Vysokiy, the keel structures were altered to provide increased stability, on the Vyazny, the bow turrets were dismantled and a hangar for four seaplanes and a catapult were installed instead.

These ships did not take part in the war with Japan, and in December 1945 all three ships made brief visits to Qingdao and Chifu (China). The ships went south and did not return. One of the destroyers, accompanied by a submarine, was allegedly seen off the coast of the French island of Kerguelen, located in the southern Indian Ocean. And that's it, no more information!

Did the Soviet Union have anything else in this part of the World Ocean? Of course. Back in January 1947, the waters of the Lazarev Sea were quite officially plowed by the Soviet whaling and research flotilla Slava under the command of Captain Voronin, as well as the diesel-electric ship Ob. According to many researchers, the general leadership on the spot was carried out by the legendary Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin - rear admiral, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, doctor of geographical sciences.

And one more touch. At the cemetery of polar explorers near our Antarctic station Novolazarevskaya there is the grave of the pilot Chilingarov, in the pedestal of which a four-blade aircraft propeller is mounted and the date of death is indicated - March 1, 1947. And the date of foundation of the Novolazarevskaya station itself is 1961. That is, there was no station yet, but our pilots with planes were already there. Now it is necessary to reconstruct what actually happened to Admiral Byrd's squadron.

RECONSTRUCTION

When Admiral Byrd's ships anchored in the Lazarev Sea off the coast of the icy Queen Maud Land, just where our Novolazarevskaya polar station is now located, Soviet warships were already there. Perfectly equipped, led by experienced admirals and officers who went through the war.

It is known for certain that the ships of the American squadron fired torpedoes at ice hummocks for scientific purposes. Aha! Probably, from idleness, Admiral Byrd decided to shoot at the endless expanses of ice in Antarctica.

Most likely, the brave admiral, seeing one of our warships, decided to immediately show "who is the boss in the house", not suspecting what power is concentrated here. Immediately, the entire American squadron was covered by artillery fire from our fleet's naval batteries. And then our air aces flew to combat work. No, not from under water, but from a well-prepared airfield.

From the memoirs of Admiral Byrd, it is known that during the expedition he came into contact with representatives of a certain civilization, which was far ahead of the earth in its development.

And here is how the writer Alexander Biryuk translates these same memories into a public language:

“On February 27, the plane in which Admiral Bird flew east to find and photograph the airfield where the Soviet attack aircraft that attacked his squadron were based was suddenly attacked by two P-63 fighters with red stars on their wings.”

The American plane was forced to land, and the admiral was simply taken prisoner. "The Russians treated him with all the complacency and good-heartedness that they were capable of in relation to a worthy adversary."

At the same time, they explained to him that if President Truman did not go to peace negotiations, then ... Apparently, Truman agreed to the conditions set, and the released admiral stopped the expedition and went home with his squadron.

Alexey Maksimov.

Experts predict Russia almost a war for the redistribution of spheres of influence in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every year more and more strong players appear in the battle for resources. 65 years ago, our country already resisted the attempts of the Antarctic expansion of the Germans and Americans, and resisted successfully.

The bowels of the Antarctic contain many minerals - iron ore, coal, reserves of copper, nickel, lead, zinc, molybdenum, rock crystal, mica and graphite. The British have found considerable reserves of oil on the Antarctic shelf and are going to start extracting it. In addition, about 80% of the world's fresh water is located in Antarctica. And since this land is formally a draw, then the wealth, it turns out, is ownerless. The great powers and their vassals have been trying to eliminate this disorder since the late 1930s.

Admiral Dönitz reported to the Fuhrer in 1943 that his Kriegsmarine had established in Antarctica "an impregnable fortress, the Shangri-La of the Third Reich

In November 1945, the Pacific Fleet received three of the newest destroyers, Vysokiy, Impressive and Important, at the disposal of the Pacific Fleet. The sailors called these destroyers ghost ships - none of the mere mortals had ever seen them up close, today there is not a single photograph and not a single diagram of the arrangement of these ships in running order.

Formally, these destroyers were subordinate to the command of the Pacific Fleet, but they never participated in naval exercises or maneuvers. They were not observed in the ports where Soviet warships usually called. The project under which these destroyers were built was called 45-bis. They built "ghost ships" in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, completed them in Vladivostok, and the work teams at the 202nd plant were specially created.

It is known that the keel structures were redone on the Vysoky to ensure increased stability, the bow towers were dismantled on the Important and a hangar for four seaplanes and a catapult were installed instead, and the German KR-1 missile systems were installed on the Impressive. In December 1945, three new top-secret destroyers made brief visits to the Chinese ports of Qingdao and Chifu. Nobody has seen them since. But archival documents about the decommissioning of these ships date back to 1964. Where were these destroyers for almost 20 years?

In the summer of 1946, Juan Domingo Peron was elected president of Argentina. And the first country where the future dictator sent his diplomats was the Soviet Union, and not at all the United States, to which all the predecessors of Peron went to bow. Relations unexpectedly quickly improved: formal agreements provided for the supply of Argentinean wheat and beef to the USSR, as well as important strategic raw materials in the form of tungsten and beryllium ores. But Stalin and Peron also had informal agreements - today these documents no longer represent a secret. The main thing that Peron managed to agree with Stalin was guarantees for the German war criminals who had settled in Argentina. The USSR pledged not to persecute them anymore. Why Peron needed such guarantees is understandable. The fugitive Nazis invested about 30 billion dollars in the economy of Argentina - in 1946 it was an unheard of, astronomical amount. And in return, Perón pledged to keep them safe—even damaging relations with America. And the Soviet Union received not only food and strategic raw materials, but also the so-called subantarctic base of the Argentine Navy. It was the southernmost naval base in the world at that time.

At the end of February 1947, a strange scientific expedition left the USA towards the Antarctic. There were only 25 scientists as such in its composition - against 4 thousand military men. The squadron - the 68th operational formation of the US Navy - included the Philippine Sea aircraft carrier with 25 aircraft on board and 13 warships of various types. The squadron was led by Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. The operation was called "High Jump" - "High Jump".

The formal purpose of the expedition was to open an American Antarctic research station, informally - to search for the so-called New Swabia, a German colony in Antarctica, where, according to American intelligence, experiments were conducted for several years to create the latest types of weapons.

Coincidentally or not, the beginning of the expedition coincided with the completion of the interrogations of the former commanders of the German submarines U-530 and U-977 - these boats were involved in the transport of secret cargo from Germany to Antarctica in 1944-1945. The transfer was codenamed "Valkyrie-2". At the end of the operation, the U-530 boat openly entered the Argentine port of Mar del Plata, and its crew surrendered to local authorities, who later handed over the captured Germans to American intelligence. Actually, the testimony of the captain of the submarine Schaeffer became the only real basis for equipping Byrd's expedition.

There were many legends about New Swabia. It was said that the Nazis from the secret society "Ahnenerbe" built flying saucers there and almost came into contact with alien civilizations. There were also rumors that Adolf Hitler fled to New Swabia. In general, the myth-making around New Swabia was the most improbable, but much, oddly enough, was confirmed by the reports of American intelligence officers. In particular, they confirmed that the Nazis had assembled in New Swabia the secret weapons of the Third Reich - the flying saucers of the Vril project and even the first Thule spacecraft with a mercury engine. Bird's expedition had to check what was true and what was fiction in the reports about New Swabia. On March 1, 1947, the expedition reached Antarctica. And then the Americans had problems.

Just in case, Bird instructed to check if there were any other ships in the area. Checked. In the waters of the Lazarev Sea, a single Soviet research vessel "Slava" was found. And not a single boat. And then, right on the course, out of nowhere, two destroyers without identification marks appear. And to the right of the course from the Americans is another one. Destroyers open fire, they are supported from the air - either aircraft, according to Bird's official report in 1947, or not quite aircraft, according to his own interview, which he gave The New York Times nine years later, shortly before his death. One ship goes to the bottom, four American planes lifted into the air fall into the icy water. Bird commands "Full back!" and takes his squadron to the shores of America. Today we can say with certainty that the three destroyers that deployed the US Navy's Antarctic expedition were the same "Vysokiy", "Important" and "Impressive", which came across the squadron - from the Argentinean "subantarctic base" and from the Rio Grande base in Tierra del Fuego . But what kind of aircraft they were - it's hard to say.

To date, Russia owns six permanently operating Antarctic stations and five mothballed ones. Seven more stations were declared non-existent - we handed over Oasis to Poland, and abandoned the rest. One of these abandoned stations is called the Pole of Inaccessibility. They closed it in 1958. Several runways were equipped at the station's airfield, and the runways were rather strange. One of them was intended for landing military transport Li-2. And three more were too short to take a transport plane. But their width was almost twice as large as usual. What kind of aircraft were supposed to take off and land at the Pole of Inaccessibility is unknown.

Currently, in the territories south of 60 degrees south latitude, the Antarctic Convention is in force, prohibiting any work and activities, except for research. New Swabia is located just in this zone, on Queen Maud Land. Today, the German Antarctic station "Neumeier" operates here. Conspiracy theorists claim that relics of the Third Reich are hidden somewhere near this German station.

The Germans have been exploring Antarctica since the late 1930s and have found a lot of things there that are still legendary. For example, the Schirmacher Oasis is a place where volcanic activity and hot springs have created a warm microclimate. where 5,000 people can live and work at the same time.” Dönitz's report said that several warm-air oases had been found in Antarctica - gigantic underground cavities quite suitable for life.

There is also such a version. There is evidence that on April 30, 1945, Luftwaffe captain Peter Baumgart flew from Germany to Norway with Hitler on board. There the Fuhrer boarded a submarine heading for Antarctica. The assumption, to put it mildly, is bold, but there are grains of common sense in it. By the end of the war, the so-called base 211 in New Swabia had about 4,500 employees. 35 submarines from the Fuhrer's Convoy were assigned to the same base. It was Baumgart who first voiced the version that the Soviet destroyers did not allow Byrd's American expedition to New Swabia. But why they did it - it's hard to say ...