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Video: Why Hitler Organized a Secret Antarctic Expedition: New Swabia
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
There are still a lot of rumors and legends about this operation, and sometimes it seems simply impossible to separate truth and fiction. It is indisputable that the secret expedition sent by Hitler to the shores of Antarctica had a very definite goal. And the tasks assigned to the participants in the operation were very far from mysticism. Rather, the goal was set very practical and quite achievable, as it seemed to the Fuehrer.
Long-term plan
Even during the First World War, when Adolf Hitler took part in the hostilities, he saw how the British naval blockade influenced Germany, effectively cutting off the country's supply lines. Having assumed the post of head of state, the Fuhrer planned to learn from the experience of his predecessors.
In 1936, the idea of creating a four-year plan appeared, as a result of which Nazi Germany would become independent of food supplies from other countries. Hermann Goering was instructed to develop an operation to achieve Germany's complete economic and military self-sufficiency. In the period of preparation for a protracted total war, serious reserves should have been made. The main task was to expand the sources of raw materials and food.
At that time, margarine occupied a significant place in German cuisine, and its consumption per year reached almost 8 kg per person. The production of margarine from whale oil seemed to be very promising in this respect. Moreover, with the advent of kerosene, an excess of rather cheap whale fat was formed, which manufacturers began to include in margarine.
In addition, whale oil could be used for the military industry: in a liquefied form, it could become a machine lubricant, and it was also widely used in the production of nitroglycerin, which is necessary for explosives. German and British companies bought 83% of the whaling industry in 1938.
In 1938, the decision was made to send an ambitious expedition to Antarctica to Queen Maud Land in order to destroy Norway's claims to this territory and gain access to resource-rich waters.
To the shores of Antarctica
In December 1938, a motley crew of scientists, soldiers and whalers, led by Captain Alfred Ritcher, set out on a cruise in a modernized vessel that could catapult two ten-ton seaplanes borrowed from Lufthansa airlines.
The team members were selected based on their experience of polar expeditions, but there was a German official on board who monitored the observance of party standards and personally obliged all participants in the campaign to listen to Adolf Hitler's Christmas speech. The ship was named "Schwabenland" after the region in Bavaria, and the land that was the object of German claims was to become New Swabia (Neu-Schwabenland).
On January 14, 1939, when a secret German expedition was already approaching the Arctic Circle, Norway officially declared its rights to Queen Maud Land. Nevertheless, German seaplanes, by dropping swastika darts, marked the boundaries of the future New Swabia, covering a distance of 600 thousand square kilometers. The expedition explored the coast and increased the size of Antarctica known until that time by 16 percent.
Exploring a huge territory, fixing magnetic pennants, more than 11 thousand photographs, the discovery of the Schirmacher oasis and new mountain ranges, in fact, did not bring any benefit to Germany itself. Old German maps still show New Swabia around Queen Maud Land, but no country recognized the claims of Nazi Germany.
The only result of the expedition was research into the operation of aircraft at low temperatures, which were used later in the invasion of the Soviet Union. As history has shown, this did not affect the outcome of the war.
Already in mid-February, "Schwabenland" left Antarctica and two months later docked in Hamburg. Almost immediately, preparations began for a new expedition, in which it was planned to use a large number of aircraft, but after the outbreak of World War II, the expedition was canceled.
Nevertheless, there are still myths about a certain Base 211 on the territory of the Schirmacher oasis and another oasis allegedly discovered by a German expedition. Rumors were spreading about the entrance to a cave with a rather comfortable temperature inside, where the mysterious Nazi base was located. It was assumed that communication with her was maintained with the help of submarines from the Fuehrer's convoy.
As evidence, the words of the commander of the German submarine fleet Karl Dönitz were cited, who claimed that German submariners had built an impregnable fortress in Antarctica for their Fuhrer. But no documentary or factual confirmation of Dönitz's words was found either in documents or on the lands of Antarctica.
The history of World War II consists of many separate episodes, each of which can become a monument to human heroism, generosity, cowardice or stupidity. The story of the collection collected by the Nazis in the Altaussee salt mines is probably one of the brightest pages in history. because, if not for a happy ending, humanity in April 1945 could have lost a significant part of its cultural treasures.
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