Submarine fleet of the Third Reich. Misconceptions of the depths of the sea What do we need children for? What do we need farms for? Earthly joys are not about us. All we live in the world now is a little air and an order. We went to sea to serve the people, but there is something around people... The submarine goes into the water

Legacy of the Third Reich The first jets At the very end of the war, already in the battles for Berlin, our pilots first encountered unprecedented machines. The planes didn't have a propeller! Instead, there was some kind of hole in the nose! Me-262 fighter jet That's how it was

Hipsters of the Third Reich When the Third Reich is mentioned, heavily armed Wehrmacht or SS soldiers are usually imagined. It seems that nothing could escape the Nazi state; all areas of life were under control. However, this is not entirely true.B Lately V

There are many mysteries, theories and assumptions firmly associated with the Third Reich - both frankly fantastic and completely scientifically reliable or at least explainable. "Flying saucers" of the Nazis, bases on the Moon and Antarctica, as well as developments nuclear weapons: Which of this is true, and which is fiction of the yellow press of the nineties?

"Base 211" - a Nazi stronghold in Antarctica

At the beginning of the last century, the so-called “hollow Earth theory” was popular. Its supporters believed that inside our planet there is empty space where organic life can exist. Famous Russian geologist, geographer and writer V.A. Obruchev even wrote a science fiction novel “Plutonia”, where he described a journey into the Earth. The scientist himself, however, had no intention of popularizing views that were not confirmed scientific evidence. He used the “hollow Earth theory” to give the new generation knowledge about the prehistoric past of our planet in an accessible and interesting way (the book’s characters meet representatives of ancient fauna and primitive people).

The ardent followers of this theory believed that people really lived underground, and dreamed of someday meeting the “underground Aryans.” It was claimed that one could get into these dungeons through a system of caves in the Himalayas, Tibet, Pamirs, the Andes, the Carpathians and other mountain formations. The easiest way, in their opinion, this could be done in Antarctica.

Influenced by the “hollow earth theory”, as well as esoteric teachings about ancient civilizations, ice continent The Nazis also became interested. It is known that they actually sent two expeditions to Antarctica - in 1937-1939. One of them was led by Captain Alfred Richter.

Luftwaffe planes accompanying the expedition took aerial photographs of vast Antarctic territories, and dropped several thousand pennants with swastikas in the area of ​​Queen Maud Land. In April 1939, Ritscher reported to Goering that about 9 thousand square meters of Antarctica were covered with pennants, and 350 thousand square meters had been photographed. The part of the territory where the pennants fell was called New Swabia and was declared part of the future thousand-year Reich.

It is alleged that after the end of World War II, the Allies received certain documents indicating that German submariners managed to discover in Antarctica a system of interconnected caves with warm air. Allegedly, the Nazis called them “paradise.” There is no direct evidence of this, but it is very likely that there were some attempts by the Germans to build fortifications in New Swabia. For example, in 1943, Admiral Karl Dönitz stated:

“The German submarine fleet is proud to have created Shangri La, an impregnable fortress, for the Fuhrer on the other side of the world.”

Proponents of the theory of the existence of a Nazi base in Antarctica suggest that cargo for construction was transported by submarines from the Fuhrer Convoy, which included 35 submarines. There are unconfirmed reports that two aircraft-carrying cruisers, including the Schwabenland, took part in the operation. They also say that at the beginning of 1942 in New Swabia began to transfer Ahnenerbe specialists, scientists and selected members of the Hitler Youth - carriers of the “Aryan gene pool”. It is also alleged that at the very end of the war, in the port of Kiel, several submarines were removed from their torpedo armament due to the fact that they were strictly prohibited from engaging in combat while sailing. To top it off, they were loaded with containers of unknown cargo and received mysterious passengers whose faces were hidden by surgical bandages (presumably due to plastic surgery). There were reports in the press that at least 100 submarines were busy transporting people to Antarctica.

It is believed that the mysterious passengers of the submarines were not only privileged Nazis, but also concentration camp prisoners who were supposed to carry out the construction of underground bastions. Obviously, others were brought in to replace those who could not stand the hard work in the harsh climate. As a result, none of them, apparently, survived, since not a single witness to the grandiose construction remained.

There is a hypothesis according to which Hitler and Eva Braun managed to stay alive, and the version of their rescue is the use of one of these submarines, on which the Fuhrer and his girlfriend, as well as many other mysteriously disappeared leaders of the Reich, were taken to Antarctica. In January 1948, the Chilean magazine Zig-Zag even published an article in which it was reported that on April 30, 1945, Luftwaffe captain Peter Baumgart took Hitler on board his plane and delivered him to the deserted coast of Norway. There, the Fuhrer allegedly boarded a submarine, which headed for Antarctica.

Most often, the underground Nazi shelter in Antarctica appears under the code name “Base 211”. Over time, it gradually grew to the size of a huge underground city New Berlin with a population of about two million people. Supporters of the existence of this object believe that it exists in our time. It is even claimed that its inhabitants are engaged in space flights and genetic engineering. There is an opinion that at the end of the war the Nazis created interplanetary aircraft capable of reaching the Moon and other objects of the solar system.

The large-scale American expedition “High Jump” (1946-1947) under the command of polar explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd is used as confirmation of the Germans’ success in the field of creating a new generation of aircraft. This expedition included 14 ships, as well as 25 aircraft and carrier-based helicopters. The number of participants exceeded 4000 people. The main goal of this expedition, as stated by the authors of numerous publications, was the elimination of the Nazi “Base 211” and German submarines based off the coast of Queen Maud Land. But something strange happened - at the end of February 1947, the expedition hastily left Antarctica. According to the official version, the reason was the completion of all assigned tasks. However, supporters of the hypothesis of the existence of “Base 211” argue that the American landing force sent ashore to eliminate the German base was destroyed and the ships were bombed from the air. One of the destroyers was sunk, 9 aircraft were destroyed, and Baird was forced to enter into negotiations with the Germans and accept their terms.

This story has a seemingly unshakable basis - an interview given to the press by Admiral Byrd himself. In it, he said that he was very concerned that the flying ships he saw in Antarctica could attack the United States. He cited certain discoveries that “are of great importance for the security of the United States” as the reason for curtailing the expedition. The press seized on this sensation, which periodically appears in the modern press. Meanwhile, fellow journalists, as a rule, omit one very important detail in this whole story: after the completion of the expedition, Admiral Byrd ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where he spent five long years. This is generally considered to be the result of shock from what he saw, but the researcher’s mental problems were discovered during the second American expedition of 1933-1935. Byrd, then a rear admiral, spent the winter of 1934 alone at the Bowling Advance Base weather station. Staying in polar night conditions with temperatures of minus 50-60 degrees and faulty heating greatly undermined his health. It is noted that during the evacuation he was found to have carbon monoxide poisoning and mental disorders.

Over time, the story of “Base 211” acquired more and more fantastic details. The admiral's widow, referring to her husband's logbook, reported that Baird came into contact with a highly developed civilization that had mastered new types of energy and with their help received food, lighting and fuel for aircraft. According to the woman, residents of Antarctica tried to make contact with the Americans, but were attacked.

Then even more shocking information appeared - allegedly, Admiral Byrd met with a representative of the German Antarctic base, who conveyed demands to the US government to stop nuclear tests threatening the well-being of the settlers. Later, the admiral met with the leadership of the base and signed an agreement on peaceful coexistence and the exchange of American raw materials in exchange for German advanced technologies...

Despite the fact that the existence of a German base in Antarctica is questioned, it can be assumed that there were attempts to create one. It is known that during the war the Germans managed to build a jump airfield in the Arctic and, based there, shot down planes ferrying from the USSR to the USA. The remains of this airfield were discovered only in the 1970s.

Nowadays, the Russian polar stations “Molodezhnaya” and “Novolazarevskaya”, as well as the Japanese “Mizuho”, South African “Sanae” and others operate on the territory allegedly occupied by the Nazis. It is difficult to imagine that the mysterious “Base 211” itself, or at least traces of its presence, have not yet been discovered by polar explorers. The “settlers” themselves, having the ascribed to them powerful weapon, would hardly have tolerated the presence of strangers in New Swabia.

Nazis on the Moon

In 2012, two films on the theme of myths about the Third Reich were released worldwide - the American “Nazis at the Center of the Earth” and the European “Iron Sky”. The first exploits the myth of the German base in Antarctica, the second talks about “ space program Nazis" and their lunar settlement. The American film, judging by its quality, was put together hastily and with minimal investment, and therefore it did not gain much success. The joint work of Finland, Germany and Australia, according to many critics, became a real masterpiece of political satire, alas, not recognized by the general public.

We, of course, mentioned this film in the article for a reason - it is based on another popular myth associated with the Nazis. We are, of course, talking about the “German space program”.

A few months after the crash Berlin Wall A sensational message appeared in the Western press - allegedly, one former resident of the GDR, who served in the Luftwaffe, declared that he was the first cosmonaut in history. According to him, in 1943 he took a rocket into space. The piquancy of this story was given by the fact that in his native GDR, the “cosmonaut”, after his confession, was immediately placed in a psychiatric clinic, from where he was not released for a long time.

The story has been discussed in the media for some time mass media, after which, of course, they happily forgot. But the “German space exploration program” itself was popular for a long time, and periodically materials on this topic still appear. For example, there is a version that, under the leadership of Wernher von Braun, back in 1945, a rocket capable of reaching New York was created. A person had to control this rocket. It is believed that at least one such flight took place.

Other interesting stories they say that during World War II, German cosmonauts not only went into orbit, but were also able to visit the Moon - two decades before the Americans. There was also an explanation for the “saucer boom” of the late 40s: it was believed (and some still believe) that UFOs are spaceships of the surviving Nazis, which are based not only on the “Base 211” described above in Antarctica, but also on the dark side of the Moon.

And just a few years ago, pictures taken by the Cassiopeia space probe from that same dark side our companion. The photo shows a swastika-shaped structure in Schrödinger Crater near the Moon's south polar region. The photographs immediately aroused conspiracy theorists, who announced that they had finally received documentary evidence that the Nazis had conquered the Moon back in 1945.

The official NASA report, according to which the mysterious image appeared due to interference from a weather balloon between the satellite and Cassiopeia, was, of course, immediately declared “indistinct.”

The casket actually opened simply: at the beginning of 2010, Jarmo Puskala, marketing director of the Iron Sky film project, created a sensational photograph in just 15 minutes using a graphics editor, after which he posted it on one of the sites dedicated to conspiracy theories. In just a week, the photo gained sensational popularity, Puskala admitted to being the author of the “duck,” but it was too late. The photograph still circulates on the Internet as if it were genuine, despite the confession of the Finn’s joker and the fact that all this was intended for one of the episodes of the film we have already mentioned. The NASA report, called "muddy", was also originally a fabricated canard.

"Flying saucers" of the Third Reich

In the late 80s - early 90s, publications about “secret developments of the Nazis” often began to appear in the domestic press, equipped with suspiciously clear photographs of “flying saucers” with German crosses on the sides.

It was reported that work on flying discs began in 1941. They were handled by four designers: the Germans Schriever, Habermohl, Mithe and the Italian Bellonzo. Schriever and Habermohl worked in Prague, where they tested their brainchild - a “flying saucer” with a diameter of about 68 meters. The test took place on February 14, 1945. The device reached an altitude of more than 12 kilometers in just three minutes and reached a speed of over 2000 km/h in horizontal flight. already before the attack Soviet troops the prototype “plate” was destroyed. The third designer, Mithe, worked in Breslau (Wroclaw), testing a 42-meter jet-powered disk.

Different sources provide contradictory information, to put it mildly. For example, it is reported that the first “flying saucer” was built by Schriever and Habermohl back in 1940, and the 68-meter disk was created by Bellonzo together with the Austrian engineer Schauberger. All that is known about the engine, “smokeless and flameless,” is that “the principle of its operation was based on an explosion, and during operation it consumed only water and air.” Schauberger, who moved to the United States, was allegedly offered three million dollars by the Americans for the secret of the flying disc, but he allegedly showed integrity and refused to do so until the signing of an “international agreement on complete disarmament.”

However, a number of serious military experts, for example, G. Mielke, and even the recognized authority Professor Oberth, who ended up in the USA after the war with Wernher von Braun. We are, however, talking about a device of more modest size, equipped with a screw engine, which in turn was driven by a conventional piston motor. “Saucers” with a diameter of almost 70 meters, reaching speeds of over 1000 km/h, obviously should be classified as fiction or at least an exaggeration.

According to experts, to achieve such a speed, a seventy-meter “saucer” would require an engine with a power of over 100 thousand hp. - of course, reactive. All turbojet engines of those years (no matter whether English, German or Soviet) had power of the order of several hundred hp. Therefore, an engine that consumes only “air and water” and has such monstrous power, of course, could hardly have been created in those days.

So “flying saucers” with crosses and swastikas on their sides can also be safely relegated to the category of tales for the yellow press.

"Underground boat" and other developments

Perhaps it’s worth saying a few words about the projects that German specialists actually worked on during the Third Reich.

For example, the Nazis had a project for a real underground train. The Midgard Serpent, capable of moving underwater, on land and underground, was supposed to drill through the earth's thickness, detect and destroy the enemy's secret underground bunkers, lay mines under enemy fortifications and land troops.

The length of the car was 7 meters, their number varied depending on the task and could reach several dozen. The project provided for the presence of a camp kitchen (a kind of “dining car”), periscopes, a radio station, repair shops and bedrooms for staff. The air was planned to be stored in compressed cylinders. It was assumed that the speed of the train (or “subterrine”, underground boat) through soft ground should have been 10 km/h, through hard rock - 2 km/h, on the surface of the earth - 30 km/h. The project itself dates back to 1934; in 1935 it was accepted for consideration and... rejected due to the “lack of sufficient quantity calculation data".

The above-mentioned Hermann Oberth seriously thought about creating space weapons capable of burning cities and evaporating water bodies. It was planned to build a huge mirror in Earth's orbit - a project worth 3 million marks was to be implemented within 15 years. Initially, the purpose of the space mirror was not to destroy the enemy, but to provide people with sunlight on demand anywhere in the world.

Despite the fact that the implementation of this project was obviously difficult, the Nazis seriously envisaged the creation of such a mirror. The altitude at which construction was planned to begin was 22,236 km above the Earth's surface. The object was supposed to be controlled by a manned space station, which could move it to the required point.

And we will end our story, perhaps, with projects of super-heavy tanks, the dimensions of which simply amaze the imagination. We are talking about the so-called P1000 Ratte (“Rat”) and P1500 Monster. These were supposed to be real mobile fortresses on tracks, weighing 1000 and 1500 tons, respectively (for comparison, the Tiger tank weighed only 60 tons). The crew of the “Rat” was supposed to consist of 20 people, the “Monster” would have needed much more - about a hundred.

Shells for the “Monster” had to be transported by truck and supplied on board by cranes. Upon closer examination, both of these projects were rejected, since for all their threatening appearance, such vehicles would be too vulnerable to air attacks and anti-tank mines.

Finally

Of course, conspiracy theories about the “first German cosmonaut”, a military base in Antarctica and a settlement on the Moon will be popular for a long time, despite all the counterarguments. People are always interested in sensations, but it’s a pity that truly interesting facts pale in comparison to outright fiction.

For example, the Germans had their own nuclear program - in 1939-1945. The Nazis were actually developing nuclear weapons. Fortunately for all mankind, they ultimately failed in this field. Otherwise, reality would be much worse than the fantastic “Base 211” and “flying saucers” with crosses on their sides.