Battle in Antarctica?!? Military pensioners for Russia and its armed forces, Antarctica, 1947.

Beginning of 1947. The next expedition of the legendary American polar explorer Richard Byrd approached the shores of Antarctica.
A very strange expedition. Unlike the first three, it is entirely funded by the US Navy. And it has a military name - Operation Haijam.

Bird Richard, admiral

Admiral Byrd has a powerful naval squadron under his command. The aircraft carrier Casablanca, 12 warships, a submarine, two and a half dozen airplanes and helicopters. Almost five thousand staff. An unusual composition for a research expedition.
On December 2, 1946, before the squadron set out on an Antarctic expedition, Admiral Byrd remarked at a meeting with the press: My expedition is of a military nature. He didn't say a word about the details. At the end of January 1947, aerial reconnaissance of the Antarctic continent began in the area of Queen Maud Land. Everything goes according to plan.

Expedition emblem

Tens of thousands of aerial photographs were taken in the first weeks. And suddenly something mysterious happens. The expedition, designed for six months, hastily winds up after two months and leaves the shores of Antarctica. This is real escape. The destroyer Merdek, almost half of the carrier-based aircraft, 68 sailors and officers were lost.
Upon his return, Admiral Byrd appears before members of the Extraordinary Investigative Committee of the US Congress. Fragments of his report were leaked to the press. The United States needs to take protective measures against enemy fighters flying from the polar regions. In the event of a new war, America could be attacked by an enemy with the ability to fly from one pole to another at incredible speed. Who put the American squadron to flight? A year and a half before Admiral Byrd’s expedition, in the summer of 1945, two German submarines entered the Argentine port of Mardel Plata and surrendered to the authorities.
Not ordinary boats, but boats from the so-called Fuhrer convoy. This top-secret connection performed tasks, the details of which still remain secret.
The submarine crews gave evidence reluctantly. And yet the Americans managed to find out something. Thus, the commander of the U-530 spoke about his participation in the operation code-named Valkyrie-2. Three weeks before the end of the war, his submarine delivered to Antarctica relics of the Third Reich, Hitler's personal belongings, as well as passengers whose faces were hidden by bandages.

Admiral Byrd's Expedition

Conflicting data about the secret 911 base in the ice of Antarctica prompted the American command to take decisive action. After all, if the base of the Third Reich really existed, then this circumstance could not but worry the United States. In this regard, in 1946, a squadron was sent to the shores of Antarctica under the command of Admiral Richard Byrd, as the most experienced polar explorer at that time. The composition of the squadron was very impressive: an aircraft carrier, more than a dozen cruisers and destroyers, a submarine, an icebreaker and 20 aircraft. The personnel numbered about 5,000 people. Admiral Byrd's Expedition should have put an end to this story

Upon arrival in Antarctica, the expedition members began active research: about 50,000 photographs were taken, a polar station was founded, and previously unknown mountain plateaus were even discovered.

However, at a certain stage of the study, the squadron encountered a completely unexpected enemy. One of the destroyers fired a training torpedo salvo at the ice hummocks, after which disc-shaped aircraft soared into the sky from under the water.

Antigravity: The Mystery of the Flying Discs

At that time, they did not yet know such a thing as a flying saucer, and therefore they could not come up with something like this. According to expedition member John Syerson, the devices flew directly between the masts at such a speed that the resulting air vortices tore apart the antennas. Interestingly, the flying disks moved silently: from a modern point of view, antigravity could be the basis of their movement. The squadron, despite its good firepower for those times, could do practically nothing against the mysterious enemy. Enemy vehicles fired deadly fire. The attack stopped as suddenly as it began. The attackers disappeared under water, and the military remained to count the losses suffered during the 20 minutes of battle, which turned out to be enormous.

400 people were killed, almost all aircraft were destroyed, a ship was lost, and two more were seriously damaged. Admiral Byrd's expedition encountered an enemy that was impossible to resist.

According to fragmentary information, the plane the admiral was on was forcibly landed in a certain area where he had a meeting with mysterious strangers. Outwardly, they looked like tall people with blue eyes and blond hair. Admiral Byrd was asked to immediately leave the mainland to avoid the complete destruction of the command. Bird had no choice but to obey. After the inglorious return of the squadron, the command ordered an investigation into this issue. They expressed distrust of the admiral, he was isolated and kept under house arrest almost all his life. The fate of the team is unknown, but according to available data, they also tried to isolate the personnel.

A year after the failed expedition of Admiral Byrd, an expedition was again sent to the shores of Antarctica, which included ships with the latest equipment and weapons. The new squadron included special forces, and it was clear that the military took Bird’s report seriously. However, the mysterious aliens were never discovered in Antarctica.

The defeat of the American squadron in Antarctica

Hello my dear friends and non-friends.
I continue to be interested in the topic of the mysteries of Antarctica and I am sharing this with you.

In 1946-47, the United States sent to Antarctica. supposedly a scientific expedition. Why, allegedly, because Admiral Richard Byrd himself. the head of it said that it was of a military nature, and because out of five thousand members, only twenty-five people were scientists. In addition, it included the aircraft carrier Casablanca with 25 aircraft and 7 helicopters, 12 ships, a submarine and an icebreaker. The operation was called “High Jump”. Most likely, the expedition was looking for New Swabia and base 211. They needed to destroy them. The American squadron arrived in the area of Queen Maud Land, and everything seemed to be going well. Thousands of photographs were taken. Suddenly it was March 3, 1947. For unknown reasons, Byrd loses half of the squadron. There is a version that they were attacked and defeated by diskettes rising from the water. What actually happened is kept secret by the US Navy.

The expedition is urgently winding down. The Americans are leaving home in just two months, instead of staying there for six months as planned. In Washington, Byrd said in his report that after half the squadron was defeated, three men in fur jackets approached him and popularly explained what would happen if the Americans came there again. After this, the United States did not send anyone to Antarctica for many years.

In Antarctica there are graves of Soviet pilots dating back to 1946. Where did they come from? Maybe they were attacked by those who defeated the American squadron? Probably Soviet specials. services were also interested in the area of Queen Maud Land. Is this a coincidence? What was base 211 needed for, for a shelter or for creating a top-secret weapon - flying discs similar to UFOs?

Guys! read the topic to the end:

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Who attacked the American Antarctic expedition in March 1947?

So. You won't believe it, but it is believed that Admiral Byrd's squadron was attacked by a UFO. And not just any UFO, but real flying saucers!

This story dates back to 1945, when the captains of two Nazi submarines interned in Argentinean ports told the American intelligence services that “received” them that at the end of the war they allegedly carried out some special flights to supply a certain mysterious Nazi base in Antarctica.

The duration of the military operation of Byrd's squadron was planned by Washington within 6-8 months, but unexpectedly it all ended much earlier. Three weeks later, the squadron, pretty battered in a single battle, left the shores of Antarctica.

For more than a year, no one had absolutely any idea about the true reasons for Richard Byrd’s hasty “escape” 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 area of her research she allegedly did not expect. From the moment of its return to the USA, the expedition was surrounded by such a dense veil of secrecy that no other scientific expedition of this kind was surrounded, but some of the more nosy newspapermen still managed to find out that Byrd's squadron, as I already said, returned far from being in full force - Off the coast of Antarctica, she allegedly lost at least one ship, 13 aircraft and about forty personnel.

The admiral himself had to give lengthy explanations at a secret meeting of the presidential special commission in Washington, and its summary was as follows: the ships and planes of the Fourth Antarctic Expedition were attacked. strange flying saucers that... emerged from under the water, and moving at great speed, caused significant damage to the expedition.

According to Admiral Byrd himself, these amazing aircraft were probably produced at Nazi aircraft factories hidden in the thickness of the Antarctic ice, whose designers mastered some unknown energy used in the engines of these devices.

Here's the story. Believe it or not.

Who defeated Admiral Byrd's expedition?

In January 1947, a research expedition set off for the shores of Antarctica. A very impressive squadron, which even included an aircraft carrier and submarines, was led by Admiral Richard Byrd. True, evil tongues claim that the only purpose of this scientific expedition was cover for the US Navy's Operation High Jump.

Designed for six months, the expedition returned ingloriously after two months with heavy losses.
The reason for such an unexpected outcome was shocking - Bird's squadron was attacked and defeated. flying discs.

ANTARCTICA AND THE THIRD REICH. UFO

Enjoy watching! Sorry for the rather low quality of the image - I couldn't find a better one.

Conflicting data about the secret 911 base in the ice of Antarctica prompted the American command to take decisive action. After all, if the base of the Third Reich really existed, then this circumstance could not but worry the United States. In this regard, in 1946, a squadron was sent to the shores of Antarctica under the command of Admiral Richard Byrd, as the most experienced polar explorer at that time. The composition of the squadron was very impressive: an aircraft carrier, more than a dozen cruisers and destroyers, a submarine, an icebreaker and 20 aircraft. The personnel numbered about 5,000 people. Admiral Byrd's expedition was supposed to put an end to this story...

However, at a certain stage of the research, the squadron encountered a completely unexpected enemy. One of the destroyers fired a training torpedo salvo at the ice hummocks, after which disc-shaped aircraft soared into the sky from under the water.

Antigravity: The Mystery of the Flying Discs

At that time, they did not yet know such a thing as a “flying saucer”, and therefore they could not come up with something like this. According to expedition member John Syerson, the devices flew directly between the masts at such a speed that the resulting air vortices tore apart the antennas. Interestingly, the flying disks moved silently: from a modern point of view, their movement could be based on antigravity. The squadron, despite its good firepower for those times, could do practically nothing against the mysterious enemy. Enemy vehicles fired deadly fire. The attack stopped as suddenly as it began. The attackers disappeared under water, and the military remained to count the losses suffered during the 20 minutes of battle, which turned out to be enormous.

400 people were killed, almost all aircraft were destroyed, a ship was lost, and two more were seriously damaged. Admiral Byrd's expedition encountered an enemy that was impossible to resist.

According to fragmentary information, the plane the admiral was on was forcibly landed in a certain zone (control of the plane was intercepted by disc-shaped flying vehicles), where he had a meeting with mysterious strangers. Outwardly, they looked like tall people with blue eyes and blond hair. Admiral Byrd was asked to immediately leave the mainland to avoid the complete destruction of the command. Bird had no choice but to obey. After the inglorious return of the squadron, the command ordered an investigation into this issue. They expressed distrust of the admiral, he was isolated and kept under house arrest almost all his life. The fate of the team is unknown, but according to available data, they also tried to isolate the personnel.

A year after the failed expedition of Admiral Byrd, an expedition was again sent to the shores of Antarctica, which included ships with the latest equipment and weapons. The new squadron included special forces - it was clear from everything that the military took Bird’s report seriously. However, the mysterious aliens were never discovered in Antarctica.

Stalin's campaign in Antarctica in 1946-1947

Truman's Secretary of State James Byrnes:
“The damned Russians turned out to be impossible to scare. They won on this issue (referring to Antarctica).”

In popular literature and on the Internet there is an abundance of materials about the “strange” military campaign of the American Rear Admiral Richard Byrd - the national hero of America - to Antarctica in January 1947. This campaign ended in complete disgrace for the United States and to this day the American intelligence services have tried their best and are trying hide this topic.

There are many rumors, legends, myths and outright deception associated with Baird's name. Therefore, I give a brief biography of him from reference books.

Richard Evelyn Byrd (also written Bird) was born in 1888 in Winchester (Virginia) into an aristocratic family. He began his military career in an elite unit of the US Navy. But in 1912, after graduating from the US Naval Academy, having received a serious leg injury, he was forced to leave naval service. During the First World War, after learning to pilot, Richard Byrd began flying a seaplane.

On May 6, 1926, Richard Byrd, together with Floyd Bennett, on a three-engine plane, taking off from Spitsbergen, flew first in history over the North Pole, ahead of their “competitors” - the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, who, together with the American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth and the Italian scientist Umberto Nobile, The airship "Norway" in May of the same year made a flight along the route "Svalbard - North Pole - Alaska".

After this flight over the North Pole, Byrd and Bennett became US national heroes and were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. US President Calvin Coolidge sent Byrd a congratulatory telegram, in which he expressed his special presidential satisfaction that this “record has been set by an American.” Amudsen believed that Baird was a deceiver, but the Americans accused the Norwegian Amudsen of envy.

On November 29, 1929, Byrd (as a navigator) in a three-engine Ford plane with three Americans flew over the South Pole and dropped the American flag there. America is delighted again. Baird led four major Antarctic expeditions (1928–30, 1933–35, 1939–41 and 1946–47). Baird explored vast areas of Antarctica, discovered a mountain range and previously unknown territory, which he named Mary Baird Land after his wife. Baird's pilots compiled a complete map of almost all of West Antarctica. On the Ross Ice Shelf in 1929, Baird founded the first long-term US station, Little America.

In 1930, the American Congress awarded Richard Byrd the rank of rear admiral in the US Navy. An American Antarctic research station and the American National Polar Research Center were named after Byrd.

In December 1946, the US government sent an expedition to Antarctica, which was and has always been called everywhere and always called the “Baird Expedition”. For the American public, for the governments and peoples of the globe, it was announced that this was a purely scientific expedition. But in America there is still a little freedom of speech and press. A little more than in Germany under Hitler, in the USSR under Stalin. And something unpleasant for Truman and the US War Department soon found its way into newspapers and magazines. Information was obtained and published that this expedition was financed and controlled by the US military department. It was revealed that the military and intelligence services are making great efforts to ensure that less everyone knows about this expedition. They tried to hide the composition of this “scientific” expedition. The truth could not be hidden.

Byrd's expedition included a special squadron of 14 American warships and auxiliary vessels. Among them was an aircraft carrier carrying helicopters and airplanes. According to the recollections of pilot Sayerson, the air group of the aircraft carrier Casablanca consisted of six (according to other sources, seven) S-46 helicopters, 25 aircraft: five carrier-based fighters F-4U Corsair, five jet attack aircraft A-21 Vampire ", nine Helldiver bombers, a commander's F7F Tigercat and five XF-5U Skimmers (pancakes).

SCRUIT FOR ANTARCTICA

The version that the Nazis settled in New Swabia transferred some of their latest technology to the United States is not without plausibility

“The author of the note reported that the Russians attacked our peaceful polar expedition in Antarctica and defeated it. Admiral Byrd, who commanded this expedition, miraculously escaped. Allegedly, he was captured by the Russians and was subsequently exchanged for two Russian spies who stole the secret of our atomic bomb.”

The version that Richard Byrd’s expedition was attacked by Soviet aircraft is presented by the already mentioned Alexander Biryuk in his book “The Great Mystery of Ufology, or UFO - a Secret Strike.” Biryuk, which looks very funny, does not “bother” at all about the fact that in the same book he sets out directly opposite versions of the attack on Rear Admiral Byrd’s squadron, without even trying to compare and analyze how they relate to each other .

So, according to the “Soviet” version of this researcher, on February 27, 1947, the admiral’s Tigercat was attacked by Soviet P-63 fighters. However, first we will give the floor to Alexander Biryuk himself, and then we will analyze what he wrote.

FLYING OBJECTS OF THE USSR

Biryuk’s “Soviet” version is as follows: “On February 27, the plane on which Admiral Byrd was flying 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 the wings. Having shot through one engine of the admiral’s “Tigercat”, they forced him to land on an ice field, and the paratroopers who arrived in time on the transport “Li-2” in the most natural way took the famous admiral prisoner.

As Bird himself testifies in his recently “deciphered” diaries, the Russians treated him with all the complacency and kindness that they were capable of towards a worthy adversary (about Bird’s “deciphered” diary, which, apparently, was put into circulation around 1995, read separately in the fourth part of “The Scramble for Antarctica” - Consp.). Red and black caviar, Stolichnaya vodka, Stalin’s favorite first-class Herzegovina Flor cigarettes - all this was provided to the American in abundance, but he was also honestly warned that if President Truman did not agree to peace negotiations, then the admiral will have to be eliminated in the most natural way.

In his notes, the admiral also cites some of the names of his high-ranking Russian “friends”: such as Petrov, Ivanov, Sidorov, but it is clear which people he means. At least, the personalities of Rear Admiral Papanin and Generals Kamanin and Lyapidevsky are guessed so clearly that they do not need any additional decoding in any way.”

REFERENCE

PAPANIN IVAN DMITRIEVICH (1894-1986) - Soviet polar explorer, Doctor of Geographical Sciences (1938), rear admiral (1943), twice Hero of the Soviet Union, member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) since 1919, participant in the Civil War since 1917. He headed the first Soviet drifting station SP-1 (1937-1938). Head of the Main Northern Sea Route (1939-1946), during the Great Patriotic War - authorized representative of the State Defense Committee for transportation in the North. Responsible for the work of the ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. In 1948-1951 - Deputy Director of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences for expeditions, in 1952-1972 - Director of the Institute of Inland Water Biology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st and 2nd convocations.

In 1985, I. D. Papanin was one of the first to support the idea of the Arktika Expedition Center to make a ski crossing to the North Pole without air support, in autonomous mode, which was carried out in 1989.

KAMANIN NIKOLAY PETROVICH (1909-1982) - Soviet military leader, Colonel General of Aviation, in 1934 he participated in the rescue of the crew of the steamer Chelyuskin, for which in the same year he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War - commander of the 292nd assault aviation division (Kalinin Front), commander of the 8th mixed and 5th assault aviation corps (1st and 2nd Ukrainian Front). After the war he continued to command the corps. Since 1947 he worked in the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet, in 1951-1955 - Deputy Chairman of DOSAAF for Aviation. In 1956 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. In 1956-1958 - commander of the air army, since 1958 - deputy chief of the Air Force General Staff for combat training. Since 1960 he served as Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space. In 1966-1971 supervised the selection and training of Soviet cosmonauts. Retired since 1971.

LYAPIDEVSKY ANATOLY VASILIEVICH (1908-1983) - Soviet pilot, first Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of Aviation, member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - CPSU since 1934, in the same year he participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskin crew (made 29 search flights in a snowstorm, before on March 5, 1934, having discovered the Chelyuskin camp, he landed on an ice floe and took out 12 people - 10 women and 2 children). Since 1939 - Deputy Head of the Main Inspectorate of the NKAP, Director of Aviation Plant No. 156 (at the Central Airfield). Participant of the Great Patriotic War: from September 1942 to September 1943 - deputy commander of the 19th Army Air Force, head of field repairs of the 7th Air Army (Karelian Front). Since 1943 - again director of the aircraft plant. After the end of the war, he worked as chief controller of the State Control of the USSR, deputy minister of aviation industry, and director of an aircraft plant. Since 1961 - in reserve.

We will return to how likely the “Soviet” version of the attack on Richard Byrd’s squadron and the capture of the admiral’s Tigercat is. For now, let's consider another version. It, again, is presented by Alexander Biryuk, who is extremely popular on the Runet (judging by the number of quotes and links).

There is evidence that Richard Byrd's squadron was not attacked by Soviet aircraft. In this regard, the story of one publication in the American newspaper “Adventure” (Savannah, Georgia), which was published in April 1947, is very interesting.

SEIZED CIRCUTION OF THE SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER

In 1994, the Daily Frame newspaper (Savannah, Georgia, USA) published an interview with a certain Oliver Robertson, a lighthouse keeper on nearby Ossabaw Island. In April 1947, when Oliver was only 6 years old, he accidentally witnessed government agents seizing a copy of the Savannah newspaper Adventure from a kiosk near the house where he lived with his parents. When questioned by passers-by, agents stated that the newspaper had received false information on foreign policy topics, and the government was concerned that it would confuse readers.

When Oliver came home, he found out that his father had managed to buy this newspaper. But it turned out that other government agents (most likely from the FBI) were conducting door-to-door inspections of all nearby buildings in order to confiscate all copies purchased by the public.

My father hid this newspaper under the linoleum in the kitchen, Robertson recalled, and when the agents arrived, he told them that he had not yet bought the newspaper and had not even heard about its contents. In order not to arouse suspicion with too direct an answer, he inquired about the reason for such confiscation, and in response he heard the same thing that I heard near the kiosk. My father continued to keep this newspaper under the linoleum until the early 1960s, and when I grew up, he showed it to me, already yellowed with age. There was an article in this newspaper under the heading “War with the Russians,” or something like that, I don’t remember.

The author of the note, referring to some central news agency, reported that the Russians attacked our peaceful polar expedition in Antarctica and defeated it. Our admiral, who commanded this expedition, miraculously escaped. Allegedly, he was captured by the Russians and was later exchanged for two Russian spies who stole the secret of our atomic bomb. As you understand, our country was not going through the best of times back then. From abroad there were increasingly reports that the Chinese, to whom we had given so many weapons, equipment and other riches during the war, had betrayed us and entered into a conspiracy with Stalin; that the Russians are already making their atomic bombs in large quantities and will soon enter the war against the United States, etc. And then there is this message about the conflict at the South Pole!

We all did not believe our government then, which claimed that we had absolutely nothing to fear, because the Russians did not yet have atomic weapons - everyone knew perfectly well that Stalin was cunning and insidious, and could attack suddenly. So why shouldn't it start with Antarctica?

Alexander Biryuk tells another interesting story that happened to ufologist from Florida Gordon Rike. The ufologist, after listening carefully to Robertson, tried to find the editorial office of the newspaper Adventure, but during the search he found out that it had not existed since 1950. In all the libraries that Riquet visited, only corrected copies of the required issue were preserved, that is, with a different article instead of the one that interested him. Oliver Robertson could not say anything definite about the fate of his copy, which was kept by his father (if this copy, of course, even existed).

However, the story did not end there. The mystery became one of the issues of the popular Chicago magazine “Forward” in 1947, where an exclusive article was published about the disaster of Admiral Byrd’s expedition, based on the story of one of the sailors; Several photographs were also attached to it. What happened to the circulation of this issue after that is not known: all copies disappeared. More precisely, almost everything, with the exception of a few that “slipped” through the hands of some specialists with whom Gordon Rike met and recorded their memories.

Some claimed that they had seen the ill-fated article in the weekly Bramo, but no one could provide a copy to confirm their words. Others believed that the sensational article was published not in Bramo or Forward, but in Big Politics. Riquet, describing his misadventures, says that he found both “Brammo” and “Big Politics” in libraries, but these numbers were also corrected. If, of course, before the correction, something about Byrd’s expedition was published in them. In the end, Gordon Ricke found what he was looking for in the magazine "Kreis" (Columbus): in September 1987, this magazine published an article "UFOs in Antarctica." There are many links to this publication on the RuNet.

“FLYING SAUCERS” JUMPED OUT FROM UNDER THE WATER

Author of the article, famous American ufologist Leonard Stringfield (LeonardStringfield), interviewed one of the pilots who participated in the expedition of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd in 1947. According to John Sayerson (that was the pilot's name), during World War II he served in polar aviation, and then in a squadron of attack aircraft, which was based in the Aleutians and carried out raids on Japanese targets in the Kuril Islands. Thus, Syerson had experience in flying and successfully performing combat missions in difficult polar weather conditions, which allowed the rear admiral to involve him in carrying out a difficult mission in Antarctica along with other veterans of polar aviation.

According to Syerson’s recollections, the air group of the aircraft carrier “Casablanca”, on which he ended up, consisted of six (according to other sources, seven) S-46 helicopters, 25 aircraft: five carrier-based fighters “F-4UCorsair”, five jet attack aircraft “ A-21 Vampire", nine Helldiver bombers, a command F7FTigercat and five XF-5U Skimmers. Let us add on our own that some modern foreign researchers believe that, in fact, Rear Admiral Richard Byrd’s expedition had much more equipment - both ships and aircraft.

The last five aircraft were aircraft of a new type (their tests were first carried out in Connecticut in 1945, according to other sources - at the Murok Dry Lake training ground in California). “They were so funny on the deck of the aircraft carrier, - Syerson recalled, - that it was hard to believe that they would be able not only to complete a combat mission, but even to fly at all. But as soon as the training flights began, the “pancakes” showed what they were capable of in experienced hands. The famous “Corsairs” seemed like sitting ducks in comparison.”

The experienced pilot quite concisely, but very succinctly described the first month of the Casablanca aircraft carrier’s stay in Antarctic waters. But, starting on February 26, when he mentioned the sinking of the destroyer Murdoch, obvious glitches began to appear in his version, which even the all-knowing Stringfield was unable to explain.

“They jumped out from under the water like crazy“,” says the former pilot, describing the “flying saucers” that opposed the Americans, “they literally slipped between the masts of ships with such speed that the radio antennas were torn by the streams of disturbed air. Several Corsairs managed to take off from Casablanca, but compared to these strange aircraft they looked like they were hobbled. I didn’t even have time to blink an eye when two “Corsairs”, struck by some unknown rays splashing from the bows of these “flying saucers”, buried themselves in the water near the ships. At that time I was on the deck of the Casablanca and saw it the way you see me now.

I didn't understand anything. 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 murderous fire. Suddenly “Murdoch”, located ten cable cables away from us (almost 1,900 meters - Consp.), burst into flames and began to sink. From other ships, despite the danger, lifeboats and boats were immediately sent to the scene of the disaster. When our “pancakes” arrived in the battle area, having recently been relocated to a coastal airfield, they could not do anything. The whole nightmare lasted about twenty minutes. When the “flying saucers” dived under the water again, we began to count our losses. They were terrifying!” .

In this short-lived battle, the US Navy lost one ship, thirteen aircraft (4 shot down, nine disabled, including three Skimmers) and more than forty people (according to other sources, up to 68 people were killed) personnel . Basically, these were sailors from the sunken destroyer. The remaining ships were not subjected to fire from flying saucers, much to the surprise of the sailors.

The next day, as Sayerson continued, Richard Bird went on reconnaissance in a twin-engine Tigercat fighter and disappeared along with his pilot and navigator. When news of this reached Washington, Admiral Stark, Byrd's deputy, was ordered to immediately wind down the expedition and, maintaining complete radio silence, head back to the States without making any visits to intermediate naval bases.

The results of the expedition were immediately classified, and all its participants were forced to sign a bunch of various documents on the non-disclosure of all sorts of secrets. And, nevertheless, something leaked into the press even then, which can be judged at least from articles in the Savannah newspaper “Adventure” or Chicago publications.

DID THE NAZIS TRANSFER PART OF THEIR TECHNOLOGY TO THE USA?

Studying numerous materials dedicated to Richard Byrd’s expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s, I constantly came across the most contradictory versions. This type of information includes, for example, links to the above-mentioned publications of 1947-1948 in the magazines “Frey”, “Dimestish” and “Brisant”. According to these publications, it turned out that even then officers and sailors participating in the Antarctic expedition of 1946-1947 talked about how the destroyer Murdoch was attacked by mysterious aircraft that jumped out from under the water.

Already in the 2000s, print and online publications (see, for example, the article by Alexander Volodev in the magazine “UFO”, No. 4 for 2005) contained references to certain declassified transcripts of Richard Byrd’s report to the presidential special commission in March (according to according to other sources, in April) 1947. Bird is credited with the following words: “We need protection from the high-speed and highly maneuverable German fighters actively operating in the polar latitudes. Such aircraft do not require multiple refueling to hit targets anywhere on the planet. These machines, which caused damage to our expedition, are completely manufactured under the ice, in factory buildings located in cavities of natural origin, from metal smelting to the last screw.

Anticipating reasonable questions about energy sources, I will say that there is a nuclear power plant there. The Germans carried out the transfer of specialists, food, and everything necessary to establish production and everyday life from 1935 to 1945. They didn't let us in."

Moreover, Richard Bird allegedly showed the members of the commission a mocking leaflet - one of those that fell on the heads of Americans at the end of February 1947 from the slow-moving Junkers. On yellow paper, over a red-tinted swastika, was printed in Gothic font: “Dear guests, are you tired of your hosts?”

And then... And then mourning was declared in America. "The media reported, writes the author of the UFO magazine, that the great polar explorer Richard Byrd died of a massive heart attack, which was preceded by mental illness. The burial in Arlington Cemetery was modest for a natural reason: after all, Bird was not only alive and full of optimism, but was preparing a second expedition to Queen Maud Land! .

As in many other similar cases, the authors of such publications prefer not to cite sources of information or clarify details. Alexander Volodev, apparently, is referring to the next US Antarctic expedition of 1947-1948, during which two icebreakers (Burton Island and Port Beaumont) headed to Antarctica to organize Antarctic stations and process on-site aerial photography materials from the previous expedition Bird in order to create accurate maps of the area.

Without considering it necessary to clarify the notorious “declassified” sources of information, researchers of the mysterious expedition of Richard Byrd, however, assure that in April (according to other sources, as early as March 10), 1947, he handed over to the US government a document addressed to President Harry Truman and the American Government . It was called “Intention for Cooperation” and was signed on the “Antarctic” side by Maximilian Hartmann, who was responsible in New Swabia, as can be understood from the publication mentioned above, for scientific developments and their practical implementation.

To demonstrate to the Americans the sincerity of his intentions, Hartmann guaranteed the transfer of technical documentation for the latest aircraft, which, when reaching certain speeds, becomes invisible to people and locators. The aircraft, however, had only one drawback: the fuel supply allowed it to stay in the air for only half an hour.

Bird delivered the miracle machine to America. Outwardly, she looked like a flattened flounder. In the first minutes of flight it gave off a dazzling light. Then she disappeared from sight and, becoming invulnerable, easily hit any target. The author of the UFO magazine is sure that it was aircraft of this type that the pilots who took off from the aircraft carrier in February 1947 encountered.

Moreover, Richard Bird, along with his closest devotees, allegedly went on board the German submarine that delivered the guests to headquarters. During the visit, it became clear what the inhabitants of New Swabia want: “We have no unity of power, no unity of the nation, no future, - Hartmann said to the rear admiral, - and in order not to degrade in isolation, we must, with your help, return to civilization. In the artificial world where we are, time has stopped, and this is torture. Here souls die in living bodies.”

Such evidence is difficult to believe. It is equally difficult to question them, because the authors of such publications do not provide any convincing evidence for what is described. Here, as they say, what you bought for is what you sold for.

We will move on. Having considered two versions of the origin of the forces that attacked the Antarctic expedition of Rear Admiral Byrd in February-March 1947, let’s move on to the latest version. But first, let's return to the question of whether the American squadron could have been attacked by Soviet aircraft.

SOVIET "KINGCOBRA" AMERICAN MADE

Some researchers believe that the P-63 Kingcobra fighters could have been the Soviet aerial “superweapon” of the 1940s. Indeed, in 1944-1945, under the lend-lease program, 2,400 P-63 Kingcobra fighters were delivered to the USSR from the USA. Most of the aircraft in this series were delivered to the USSR due to the fact that the aircraft of previous modifications fully satisfied the needs of the US Air Force for fighter aircraft.

The Americans themselves, not without reason, called the P-63 a “Russian aircraft” for the simple reason that practically the entire series was delivered to the USSR (in the USA, only a few dozen P-63s were used for training purposes, and about 300 aircraft were delivered to French military units in the Mediterranean).

It is noteworthy that the Kingcobra practically did not participate in the fighting of the Second World War on the side of the USSR: as such, there was no longer a need for this. This most modern fighter took a strong place in Soviet aviation after the war, becoming the most popular imported aircraft. Our pilots greatly respected the Kingcobras for their ease of operation, a spacious, comfortable heated cabin with excellent visibility, good instruments, a rifle sight and adaptability to work in the Far North.

The Kingcobras remained in service until Soviet-made jet fighters entered service: their replacement began in 1950. By the way, the P-63 played an important role in the massive retraining of Soviet pilots to fly new jet technology - the MiG-9 fighters, and then the MiG-15. The fact is that both of them had a chassis with a nose wheel (like the R-63), and all Soviet piston fighters had a chassis of the old design: with a tail support.

There is an opinion (expressed, in particular, by Alexander Biryuk) that “by 1947, all P-63 fighters that fell into the hands of Stalin were in full combat readiness and participated in all overt and covert operations of the Soviet Air Force carried out in that period. One of them was the first Soviet Antarctic expedition led by Admiral Papanin.”

This seems to be a completely possible version, but the fact is that the P-63 Kingcobra fighter, although it was an excellent aircraft for that time, was not a unique aircraft in its characteristics. Similar vehicles were in service with the US Air Force. It is unlikely that the American military could mistake the Kingcobras for fundamentally different aircraft.

By 1947, did the USSR have aircraft of a fundamentally new type - like those that were capable of moving both in the air and under water? It is difficult to answer this question unambiguously, but, most likely, the Soviet Union did not have such devices.

Now is the time to move on to the description of the next version, according to which the expedition of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd in February 1947 met with representatives of other civilizations. Moreover, judging by the publications, this meeting was the first, but not the only...

Material prepared by Igor OSOVIN

conspirology.org

Baird's expedition also included the submarine Sennet. The expedition included several thousand marine paratroopers. The total number of participants in the “scientific expedition” is 4-5 thousand people. Journalists found out that Rear Admiral Richard G. Krausen was appointed to command the ships of the squadron, and Rear Admiral Byrd was assigned the role of the expedition's chief consultant. In the holds of the ships there are food supplies for 8 months.

What a purely scientific expedition this is. This is a serious naval squadron.

And some foreign and Russian researchers argue that, in fact, the expedition of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd had much more equipment - both ships and aircraft.

The researchers also found out that the operation that this naval squadron was supposed to carry out in Antarctica was codenamed “High Jump”. Many journalists in the United States wrote that according to the admiral’s plan, “the name was supposed to symbolize the last, final blow to the unfinished Third Reich in the ice of Antarctica.” Yes, the military department and intelligence services by this time, after interrogating German submariners, had vague information that there was some kind of “German heritage” in Antarctica.

But finishing off the Germans, if they still exist in Antarctica, and seizing the “German inheritance” is not the main thing. The main task of the US predator, which became very strong during the war and claimed first place on the globe, is to lay its paw on the whole of Antarctica. This is complete US control over Antarctica. The main thing is not to let the Russians into Antarctica. And if they appear, drive them away.

Rear Admiral Byrd's expedition left the United States in December 1946. “Upon arrival in Antarctic waters, the squadron was divided into three operational groups. Already on December 30-31, the central group under the command of Byrd himself, accompanied by two icebreakers and a submarine, tried to break through to the Scott Island area. But the submarine (according to the official version) received damage to the hull, and it had to be urgently towed to the port of Wellington (New Zealand).

A new attempt to survey the coast of Antarctica was made only a month later, but already in the area of Dronning Maud Land. Here, aircraft from the aircraft carrier carried out more than 30 sorties in two weeks to carry out in-depth aerial photography of various areas of the continent. At the same time, the coastal party carried out a thorough survey of the coast.”

On February 1, 1947, Americans landed in Antarctica in the area of Queen Maud Land and began to study in detail the part of the territory adjacent to the ocean. “In a month, about 50 thousand photographs were taken, or rather 49,563 (data taken from the Brooker Cast geophysical yearbook, Chicago). Aerial photography covered 60% of the territory that interested Baird, the researchers discovered and mapped several previously unknown mountain plateaus and founded a polar station.”

Antarctica. 1947 The Great Mystery of Ufology

.... “Fighting” such a mass phenomenon as UFOs is simply pointless and even stupid - you can equally well shout at every corner that there is no God. However, more or less seriously studying the history itself UFOLOGY, you can easily stumble upon quite interesting things that, with some effort, can lead to the revelation of secrets of a slightly different order, but which have never been advertised in the world press.

After all ufology, unlike many other sciences and even most pseudosciences, does not have its own subject for study, strange as it may seem to say now, and in this it is similar to real myth-making itself. It would be simply unreasonable for a more or less serious researcher to consider some UFOs that are completely elusive even to the human imagination as an object for research. For the most part, it's about something completely different. In search of this OTHER, we should decide on a kind of historical experiment and observe where all this ufology can ultimately lead.

Any versions explaining the massive appearance of UFOs in America and precisely since 1947 remain only versions, not supported by any compelling reasons. Of course, you can take everyone’s favorite hypothesis seriously ufologists world, that the US military simply entered into a conspiracy with aliens in the hope of still extracting at least some technical information from these “misers” (aliens) to create a super-weapon against the Antichrist Bolsheviks... But then the same hypothesis will have to be applied and in relation to One Sixth of the Land, that is, the USSR, not to mention the rest of the countries of the world, and this in itself already predetermines the undoubted possibility of a total conspiracy of all the rulers of the world not so much against other countries as against their own peoples. " for the sake of peace in the whole world", that is, "... global tranquility of the world ruling elite, regardless of any ideological (as well as religious) disagreements, since any ideology (like religion) is, in the end, just a different way from others drink juices from the bulk of the world's population without experiencing any special material or moral inconvenience" (Soltz R. "History of Mythologies").

And here again questions arise, and again there are no intelligible answers to them, except for the screams ufologists-debunkers. Many ufologists probably know that “American hero” Kenneth Arnold is far from the first American to observe “flying saucers” in all their glory and action. In the early 60s, ufologists became aware of excerpts from the diary of the famous American polar explorer Richard Byrd, who at the very beginning of 1947 led a large expedition to the eastern shores of Antarctica. And so, knowledgeable people claim that in this very diary, only in a different, classified place to this day, Byrd 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 from the long list of “observations” some “misunderstanding” that happened on February 25, 1942 over Los Angeles (“Battle over Los Angeles”), then the chronology of “indisputable UFO sightings” is simple, like a damn egg - the first American to see the CLASSIC “flying saucer” was Admiral Richard Byrd, and it happened not over America, but over the Sixth Continent.

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

ADMIRAL BYRD'S EXPEDITION

The background to this story begins, so to speak, in “prehistoric” times. Many knowledgeable experts claim that certain “ancient high cults” are directly involved here - in a word, magic, occultism and other palmistry. More “down-to-earth” researchers begin counting from later dates, and specifically from the year 1945, when the captains of two Nazi submarines interned in Argentinean ports reported to the American intelligence services that “received” them that at the end of the war they allegedly carried out some special flights along supplying Hitler's Shangri-La - the mysterious Nazi base in Antarctica.

The American military leadership took this information so seriously that they decided to send an entire fleet led by their most competent polar explorer, Rear Admiral Richard Byrd, to search for this very base, which the Germans themselves called “New Swabia.” This was the fourth Antarctic expedition of the famous admiral, but unlike the first three, it was entirely financed by the US Navy, which predetermined the absolute secrecy of its goals and results. The expedition included the escort aircraft carrier Casablanca, converted from a high-speed transport, and on which 18 aircraft and 7 helicopters were based (it would be hard to call them helicopters - very imperfect aircraft with a limited range and extremely low survivability), as well as 12 ships, which accommodated more than 4 thousand people. The entire operation received the code name - “High Jump”, which, according to the admiral’s 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 Byrd, covered by a fleet so impressive 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 49,563 (data taken from the Brooker Cast geophysical yearbook, Chicago). Aerial photography covered 60% of the territory that interested Baird, the researchers discovered and mapped several previously unknown mountain plateaus and founded a polar station. But after some time, the work was suddenly stopped, and the expedition urgently returned to America.

For more than a year, no one had absolutely any idea about the true reasons for Richard Byrd’s hasty “escape” 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 area of her research she allegedly did not expect. From the moment of its return to the United States, the expedition was surrounded by such a dense veil of secrecy that no other scientific expedition of this kind was surrounded, however, some of the more nosy newspapermen still managed to find out that Byrd's squadron returned far from being in full force - it was allegedly 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 properly “formatted” and took its rightful place on the pages of the Belgian popular science magazine “Frey”, and then was reprinted by the West German “Damestish” and found a new breath in the West German “Brisant”. A certain Karel Lagerfeld informed the public that, having returned from Antarctica, Admiral Byrd gave lengthy explanations at a secret meeting of the presidential special commission in Washington, and its summary was as follows: the ships and planes 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."

According to Admiral Byrd himself, these amazing aircraft were probably produced at Nazi aircraft factories camouflaged in the Antarctic ice, whose designers had mastered some unknown energy used in the engines of these devices... Among other things, Byrd told high-ranking officials the following:

"The United States needs to take defensive action as quickly as possible against enemy fighters flying from the polar regions. In the event of a new war, America may be attacked by an enemy who has the ability to fly from one pole to another at incredible speed!"

So, we can clearly see that “flying saucers” appeared for the first time precisely in Antarctica, and here some documents, which are in no way related to UFO problems, most directly draw our attention to the fact that precisely at the very time when the admiral’s ships Baird dropped anchor in the Lazarev Sea off the coast of the icy Queen Maud Land, and there were already...Soviet warships there!

All domestic encyclopedias and reference books write that capitalist countries began dividing Antarctica among themselves long before the Second World War. How successful they were in this can be judged at least by the fact that the Soviet government, concerned about the agility of the British and Norwegians in the “study” of the southern circumpolar latitudes, in January 1939 declared an official protest to the governments of these countries due to the fact that their Antarctic expeditions "... were engaged in the unreasonable division into sectors of lands once discovered by Russian explorers and navigators ...". When the British and Norwegians, soon bogged down in the battles of the Second World War, had no time for Antarctica, similar notes were sent to the neutral for the time being, but no less aggressive, in his opinion, the United States and Japan.

A new turn in the destructive war, which soon engulfed half the world, temporarily stopped these disputes. But only for a while. A year and a half after the end of hostilities in the Pacific Ocean, the Soviet military found itself in the hands of the most detailed aerial photography data of the entire coast of Queen Maud Land, starting from Cape Tyuleny and ending with Lützow-Holm Bay - and this is no less than 3,500 kilometers in a straight line! Few knowledgeable people still claim that the Russians simply took this data after the war from the Germans, who, as is known, carried out two large-scale Antarctic expeditions a year before the Polish military campaign of 1939.

The Russians did not deny this, but they flatly refused to share their spoils with other interested parties, citing “national interests.” After the hasty “flight” of the Byrd expedition, designed for no less than an 8-month stay in the harsh conditions of low latitudes, and therefore equipped beyond measure, America urgently began informal negotiations with the governments of Argentina, Chile, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and France. In parallel with this, a cautious but persistent campaign in the press begins in the States itself. In one of the central American magazines, Foreign Affairs, former US Minister-Counselor to the USSR George Kennan, who had shortly before urgently left Moscow “for consultations with his government,” published an article in which he very unequivocally expressed his idea of “the need for an early organizing a rebuff to the enormously grown ambitions of the Soviets, who, after the successful end of the war with Germany and Japan, are in a hurry to take advantage of their military and political victories to plant the harmful ideas of communism not only in Eastern Europe and China, but also in... distant Antarctica!

In response to this statement, which seemed to have the character of the official policy of the White House, Stalin published his own memorandum on the political regime of Antarctica, where he spoke in a rather harsh form about the intentions of the US ruling elite "... to deprive the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of its legal right, founded on discoveries in this part of the world by Russian navigators made at the beginning of the 19th century...". At the same time, some other measures were taken to symbolize the protest against the American policy towards Antarctica that was disliked by Stalin. The nature and results of these measures can be judged at least by the fact that after some time Truman’s Secretary of State, James Byrnes, who, as is known, always advocated the most stringent sanctions against the USSR, unexpectedly for everyone, resigned early, obviously forced to do so Truman. Byrnes's last words in public office were:

“It turned out to be impossible to scare the damned Russians. In this matter (meaning Antarctica) they won."

The hype around the Sixth Continent quickly died down after Argentina and France supported the USSR. Truman, having reflected on the balance of power that had created in this region, reluctantly, but still agreed to the participation of Stalin’s representatives at the international conference on Antarctica, which was scheduled to be held in Washington, but emphasized that if an agreement on the equal presence of all interested countries was signed, then it must certainly include such an important point as the demilitarization of Antarctica and the prohibition on its territory of any military activity, including the storage of weapons, including nuclear weapons, at Antarctic bases, and the development of raw materials necessary for the creation of any weapons should be banned too...

However, all these preliminary agreements are the front side of the coin, its obverse, so to speak. Returning to the failed expedition of Admiral Byrd, it should be noted that back in January 1947, the waters of the Lazarev Sea were quite officially plowed by a Soviet research vessel, belonging, of course, to the Ministry of Defense, called “Slava”. However, some researchers have at their disposal documents that very eloquently indicate that in those harsh years for the fate of the whole world, not only “Glory” was hanging around the shores of Dronning Maud Land. Having studied the information received and combined it with data that appeared in the open press at different times in history, we can quite reasonably assume that the squadron of Admiral Richard Byrd was opposed by a well-equipped and led by competent polar admirals... The Antarctic Fleet of the USSR Navy!

"FLYING DUTCHEN" OF THE SOVIET NAVY

Strange as it may seem, until very recently, for some reason, few people paid attention to the fact that the Soviet press paid virtually no attention to the exploration of Antarctica by our compatriots in the 40s and early 50s. The quantity and quality of specific documents of that time, open to the outside public, is also not particularly diverse. All information on this matter was limited to some general phrases like: " Antarctica- the country of penguins and eternal ice, it certainly needs to be mastered and studied in order to understand many of the geophysical processes occurring in other parts of the globe,” more like slogans than messages. About the successes of foreign countries in studying this very “land of penguins” it was written as if these were at least enterprises of the CIA or the Pentagon; in any case, no interested independent expert-enthusiast not endowed with the highest confidence of the Soviet government was able to obtain comprehensive information from the open press.

However, in the archives of Western intelligence services, with whom many Soviet and Polish spies “worked” at one time, and who in our time wished to write their own memoirs, documents were found that shed light on some aspects of the first official (rather semi-official, disguised as the study of industrial situation in Antarctica) of the Soviet Antarctic expedition of 1946-47, which arrived on the shores of Dronning Maud Land on the diesel-electric ship "Slava". Such famous names suddenly came to light as Papanin, Krenkel, Fedorov, Vodopyanov, Mazuruk, Kamanin, Lyapidevsky, and the first of these seven is a rear admiral (almost a marshal!), and the last four are full generals, and not just generals what kind (“courtiers,” so to speak), but polar pilots who glorified themselves with specific deeds and were ardently loved by all the Soviet people.

Official historiography claims that the first Soviet Antarctic stations were founded only in the early 50s, but the CIA had completely different data, which for some reason has not been completely declassified to this day. And let ufologists all over the world unanimously repeat that Rear Admiral Richard Byrd suffered significant losses in 1947 from some mysterious “flying saucers” made by the Nazis using the technology of mythical aliens, but we now have every reason to believe that that American planes were rebuffed by exactly the same planes, manufactured using the same, precisely American technologies! But more on this a little later.

Studying some aspects of the history of the Russian Navy, at some stage you may come across quite interesting things concerning some ships of the Soviet Navy, in particular the Pacific Fleet, which, although they were part of this very fleet, however, starting from 1945, In the waters of the "metropolis" they appeared so rarely that a completely legitimate question arose about the places of their true base. For the first time this issue was raised “on the shield” in 1996 in the almanac “Shipbuilding in the USSR” by the famous marine painter from Sevastopol Arkady Zattets. We were talking about three destroyers of Project 45 - “Vysoky”, “Vazhny” and “Impressive”. The destroyers were built in 1945 using captured technology used by the Japanese when designing their Fubuki-class destroyers, intended for navigation in the harsh conditions of the northern and arctic seas.

“... Over many facts from the very short life of these ships,” writes Zattes, “for more than half a century there has been an impenetrable veil of silence. None of the experts in the history of the Russian fleet and none of the famous collectors of naval photography have any (!) photos or diagrams where these ships would be depicted in their equipped form. Moreover, in the Central State Archives of the Navy there are no documents (for example, an act of exclusion from the fleet) confirming the very fact of service. However, both domestic and foreign naval literature (both publicly available, that is, popular, and official) mentions the inclusion of these ships in the Pacific Fleet...

Project 45 destroyers, later named Vysoky, Vazhny and Impressive, were built in Komsomolsk-on-Amur at plant 199, completed and tested at plant 202 in Vladivostok. They joined the fleet in January-June 1945, but did not take any part in the hostilities against Japan (in August of the same year). In December 1945, all three ships made short visits to Qingdao and Chifoo (China)... And then continuous mysteries begin.

Based on fragmentary data (needing unconditional verification), we were able to find out the following. In February 1946, at Plant 202, work began on re-equipment of three new destroyers according to Project 45 bis - strengthening the hull and installing additional equipment for navigation in difficult conditions of high latitudes. On the destroyer "Vysoky", the keel structures were redesigned to ensure increased stability; on the "Vazhny", the bow towers were dismantled and a hangar for four seaplanes and a catapult were installed instead. There is a version (also in need of verification) that the destroyer "Impressive" during the testing of the captured German missile system KR-1 (ship missile) sank an experimental target ship - the former captured Japanese destroyer "Suzuki" of the "Fubuki" type. According to again unverified data, in June 1946, all three destroyers underwent minor repairs, but on the other side of the world - at the Argentine naval base of Rio Grande on Tierra del Fuego. Then one of the destroyers, accompanied by a submarine (many researchers believe that it was K-103 under the command of the famous “submarine ace of the Northern Fleet” A.G. Cherkasov) was allegedly seen off the coast of the French island of Kerguelen, located in the southern Indian Ocean. .

A wide variety of rumors have circulated and are still circulating around the activities of these three destroyers, however, these rumors have always remained just rumors. As can be seen, since mid-1945, everything connected with the history of this division of the “flying Dutchmen” of the Soviet Navy is inaccurate, vague, uncertain... There is not a single reliable image of any of these ships, although they were all based in Vladivostok, where at all times (even those!) there was no shortage of people who wanted to capture the ship on film, but nevertheless we do not have realistic images of “Tall”, “Important” and “Impressive”. In contrast to this fact, we can cite the example of the destroyers of Project 46-bis (a modernized version of Project 45) “Stoykiy” and “Smely”, which were under construction and were assigned to the Pacific Fleet almost simultaneously with the destroyers of Project 45-bis, and soon after that were photographed from different angles, and all the documentation on them was preserved... for the 45 bis project there was complete silence and uncertainty. It’s as if these ships had not existed since mid-1945. Only in the 5th magazine "History of the Navy" for 1993, in a rather good article by G. A. Barsov, dedicated to the post-war projects of domestic destroyers, three lines (again, vaguely) mention the mysterious trinity...

(To be continued)

“...It is very likely that in the depths of this continent there are hidden innumerable natural treasures, as well as traces of an ancient and powerful civilization. Therefore, a real “race for Antarctica” should soon unfold, in which it would be highly desirable for the United States to initially take first positions” (From R. Bird’s memo to the US leadership).

In the first half of the twentieth century. Antarctica continued to remain a huge blank spot - both literally and figuratively. It’s not that it wasn’t studied: expeditions to the ice continent were sent almost every year - Norwegian, French, German, Australian, and even Japanese, and the most active were the British. However, all these efforts brought only partial success, and the continent as a whole remained unknown. In the extremely harsh conditions of Antarctica, isolated handfuls of people, isolated from the outside world, could not have done more with the then level of technological development. And, we add, without proper support from their states.

In the 1930s Americans and Norwegians were frequent guests in Antarctica. The American expeditions were led by Richard Bird (1928-1930, 1933-1935 and 1939-1941) and Lincoln Ellsworth (four expeditions between 1933 and 1939), and the four Norwegian ones were led by Hjalmar Rieser-Larsen. The most notable feature of the Antarctic expeditions of this period was the use of aircraft. Bird's plane reached the South Pole in November 1929, and it was long believed that this explorer was the first to visit both poles. Only later would it become clear that Bird had falsified the results of his flight to the North Pole.

If in the 19th century no one laid claim to the ice continent and it remained common, i.e., no one’s, then in the twentieth century they tried to correct this “omission.” An example was set by the British, who in 1908 declared their property the sector of the Antarctic from the pole to 60° south. latitude, enclosed between 20° and 80° west. etc., are the lands around the Weddell Sea, including the entire Antarctic Peninsula. New Zealand in 1923 claimed rights to the sector between 150° W. long and 160° west (Ross Sea, Ross Ice Shelf and adjacent shores). Both the French and Norwegians hastened to put forward territorial claims, but they were surpassed by the Australians, who in 1933 called their lands from 160° east. to 44° 38’ E. etc., with the exception of the narrow French sector. And the German expedition, which visited Antarctica in 1938-1939, declared the territory previously declared Norwegian as the property of the Third Reich.

During World War II, Chile and Argentina tried to grab pieces of the Southern continent. By the way, they laid claim to territories that the British considered theirs. In general, after the end of the war, the situation around Antarctica became difficult, if not explosive.

When an American expedition set off for the shores of Antarctica in 1946, it caused great concern among the countries that divided its territory among themselves. The Americans, as well as the Russians, have not yet laid claim to the lands of the icy continent and, moreover, have repeatedly spoken out against its division and for the right of all countries to freely explore Antarctica. The famous polar explorer Ellsworth announced plans to organize a large-scale expedition in 1947 to explore the entire continent from the air. Another American, the famous pilot Eddie Rickenbacker, called on the government to begin mining in Antarctica, after melting the ice sheet with the help of atomic explosions: the United States already had nuclear weapons. Among the possible reasons for the Americans' interest in Antarctica, data leaked to the press about the discovery of rich uranium deposits there were also cited. The fears of Argentina, Chile, Great Britain and others were fully justified: a huge naval armada was heading towards Antarctica, including 13 ships, including two coast guard icebreakers, one aircraft carrier, two seaplane transports and a submarine, carrying 4,700 military personnel and 25 scientists . The Soviet leadership also expressed concern about this fact.

Why did warships go to the icy continent, and in such numbers? US Navy Chief of Operations Chester W. Nimitz gave the expedition the code name Operation Highjump. Its command was entrusted to Rear Admiral Richard Krusen, a participant in the Byrd expedition of 1939-1941. Bird himself, by the way, also went on this trip. According to the instructions, the connection had to solve several problems. Firstly, to test personnel and equipment in extreme weather conditions (after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union became the main enemy of the United States, and the most likely theater of a new war was the Arctic). Secondly, to establish American sovereignty over the largest possible territory (it turns out that the states that divided Antarctica were not in vain worried). Thirdly, to find out the possibility of organizing and maintaining Antarctic bases (it is unlikely that we were talking about scientific stations). And finally, conduct scientific research and collect materials - geographical, geological and meteorological. Not a word was said about the use of atomic bombs or the development of uranium deposits. And thanks for that.

At the very last moment, Bird was appointed commander of a military expedition, and Krusen led another, heading to Greenland in the summer (“Operation Nanook”). Perhaps it was then, for some reason - one can only guess about them - that the goals of the Antarctic expedition changed. Rear Admiral Byrd was a famous traveler, a friend of former President Roosevelt, and an enormous influence, but he never commanded a warship or participated in military action. In general, he was a non-military admiral. The leadership of the expedition came to the conclusion that its main goal should be aerial photography of the entire coastline of Antarctica, as well as the interior of the continent.

In the fall of 1946, preparatory work began, led by Bird and Krusen, who had returned from the Arctic. Fur jackets, thermal underwear, and warm shoes were sewn for all participants in the hike. Special tents were made, and the surface was prepared for the new runway at Little America Station, founded by Bird. Tracked tractors, forklifts, and other heavy equipment were sent by rail to piers in California and Virginia. The leadership of the expedition faced several serious problems. It remained unknown whether the warship's steel hull would withstand ice compression. If something happened to the icebreakers (the second one was still undergoing sea trials), all the other ships would become defenseless. Of the entire expedition, only 11 people had previously been to Antarctica. Only two pilots had experience in aerial photography, and only one had flown in polar skies, and that was in Alaska. The existing maps were almost useless for flights, since they were made in the Mercator projection, which distorts areas at high latitudes. There were no airfields, tested air routes, or weather stations in Antarctica. Only one month was allocated to prepare pilots for work in extreme conditions.

In December 1946, ships of the US Pacific and Atlantic fleets moved south. The expedition was divided into three groups: the central, heading to the Ross Ice Shelf, the western, heading to the Balleny Islands and further west around the continent to the Greenwich meridian, and the eastern, heading to Peter I Island and further east - towards the western group. The planes were supposed to make regular flights over the continent, photographing its surface. If the program were implemented, the entire coastline of Antarctica would be covered with aerial photography.

The central group approached Scott Island on December 30, after which the icebreaker guided the ships into Whale Bay. On January 15, 1947, equipment and materials were unloaded ashore. A site was chosen for the construction of the base and the construction of runways near the former Byrd station. The aircraft carrier Philippine Sea with six R4D transport aircraft on board reached Scott Island on January 25. A few days later, all the planes flew to the coastal base. The aircraft carrier's mission ended and he returned home. In February, flights began along the coastline and inland, during which aerial photography was carried out. Bird flew to the South Pole twice. By mid-February the weather had deteriorated, and after the 20th the flights had to be completely curtailed due to weather conditions. All members of the expedition were evacuated from the base on February 23.

The western group reached the edge of the ice northeast of the Balleny Islands on December 25th. Seaplane flights over Antarctica began on the same day. Over the entire period of work, it was possible to remove the coastal strip in the range from 165° to 65° east. etc., although not without gaps, as well as significant areas inland. The main problem for the western group was heavy fog. The eastern group had to operate in much more difficult weather conditions. Frequent storms and snowstorms made the work of pilots extremely dangerous. Nevertheless, they completed a survey of the coastal zone from 70° to 130° W. etc., thanks to which the maps of the coasts of two seas - Bellingshausen and Amundsen - were updated.

The main scientific achievement of the expedition was almost 70 thousand aerial photographs of the coast and interior of Antarctica. In total, almost 9 thousand km of coastline were filmed, i.e. half of its total length (17,968 km). But here’s the problem: many pictures turned out to be useless without reference to points with exact coordinates. The situation was corrected in 1948, when a much more modest expedition, codenamed Operation Windmill, established the necessary control points.

The peculiarities of Operation High Jump - its scale, secrecy and the abrupt curtailment of work in February 1947 - gave rise to a lot of rumors. It was suspected that the main goal of the operation was to eliminate Hitler’s secret base. Then they agreed that the Americans fought in Antarctica with flying saucers, and the aliens even kidnapped Admiral Byrd for a while. They were probably interested in the details of his flight to the North Pole.

FIGURES AND FACTS

Main character

Richard Byrd, US Navy Rear Admiral, Operation Commander

Other characters

Lincoln Ellsworth, polar explorer, pilot; Chester W. Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations; Richard Krusen, Rear Admiral

Time of action

Route

From USA to Antarctica

Goals

Aerial photography of the icy continent, organization of Antarctic bases, scientific research, show of force

Meaning

Filming almost half of the mainland's coastline; a warning to all countries seeking to divide Antarctica

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

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

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

In 1929, he and his partner made their 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, Graham 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 Byrd is back in Antarctica

At the end of 1946, the admiral was put in charge of a new military and scientific expedition to Antarctica. The American 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 a total of about five thousand personnel.

Over the course of a month, the expedition members managed to take about 50 thousand photographs, map several previously unknown mountain plateaus, and equip a new polar station. One of the destroyers conducted a training bombardment of a pile 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.

Bird allegedly reported on the radio that after a short battle, an unknown enemy expelled the envoys. These were two young men, tall, blond and blue-eyed, dressed in uniforms made of leather and fur. One of the envoys, in broken English, demanded that the Americans urgently, within a couple of hours, leave the area.

Tragic collision

Bird rejected these claims. Then the envoys retreated towards the snowy ridge and seemed to disappear into thin air. And an hour or two later, enemy artillery hit the cruisers and destroyers. 15 minutes later the air attack began. The speed of the enemy aircraft was so high that the Americans, who fired counter anti-aircraft fire, only managed to keep the enemy away from the targeted firing distance of the ships.

Expedition member John Syerson recalled many years later: “They jumped out of the water like mad and literally slipped between the masts of ships with such speed that the radio antennas were torn apart by the 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 when two “corsairs”, struck by some unknown rays splashing from the bows of these “flying saucers”, buried themselves in the water near the ships... These objects did not make a single sound, they silently rushed between ships, like some kind of satanic, blue-black swallows with blood-red beaks, and continuously spat murderous fire.

Suddenly, "Murdoch", which was ten cable cables away from us (about two kilometers - author's note), burst into flames and began to sink. From other ships, despite the danger, lifeboats and boats were immediately sent to the scene of the disaster. When our “pancakes” arrived in the battle area, having recently been relocated to a coastal airfield, they could not do anything. The whole nightmare lasted about twenty minutes. When the "flying saucers" dived under the water again, we began to count our 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. The losses would have been even greater, but night had fallen. Under those conditions, Admiral Byrd made the only correct decision: to wind down the operation and return home with the entire squadron.

Ufologists today are convinced that there were alien bases 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 devastating weapons at that time. And after the surrender of Germany in May 1945, there were no longer any German military personnel left in Antarctica. They scattered all over the world, most of them were in Argentina.

When the American squadron finally reached its shores and the command was informed about the fate of the expedition, all its participants - both officers and sailors - were isolated. Only Admiral Byrd remained free. He was, however, prohibited from meeting with journalists.

Then he began to write memoirs about this period of his life. It was not possible to publish the manuscript, but it ended up in the “high spheres.” Bird was dismissed and, moreover, declared insane. In recent years, the admiral lived practically under house arrest, did not communicate with anyone, and could not even see his former colleagues. He died in 1957. No one remembered the famous polar hero then.

New expedition

It must be assumed that in 1947, senior American leadership treated Admiral Byrd's report 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 by naval special forces. Undoubtedly, the Americans hoped to take revenge for the battle Bird lost. But there was no new meeting with mysterious strangers, although helicopters scrupulously examined the coast, and tracked transporters went deep into the continent.

The new expedition was able to explore only some of the ice caves on the shore. The results were modest. Construction and household waste, broken drilling rigs, some mining equipment, torn miner's overalls. I came across the “Made in Germany” stamp. Surprisingly, not a single spent cartridge case was found related to German weapons from the Second World War.

There was no doubt that the Germans spent more than one year here. But when did they disappear from the icy continent? Where are the mythical underground factories that produced these supposed superweapons? The Americans only came across dilapidated barracks. Admiral Gerald Ketcham, having not met anyone except penguins, ordered to sail home...

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

Vasily MITSUROV, Candidate of Historical Sciences