A recent magazine article (late 2005) has disclosed details of a highly secret mission to the Antarctic by British Forces just after the end of the WWII. In 1938 Nazi Germany had sent a force to Antarctica to make claims and if possible to find a site to establish a presence there. They returned in 1939 to Queen Maud Land, which they had renamed Neuschwabenland, when they were suspected of constructing some kind of operation.
The British mission was in late 1945, followed by an American Task Force a year later, commanded by Admiral Byrd. The US mission was code-named Highjump, which Byrd described as “primarily of a military nature”. Byrd made sure that his mission received all the publicity such that the British effort was largely forgotten.
On the 1st February 1946 a set of eight postage stamps were issued to reinforce Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands. The values were ½d,1d,2d,3d,4d,6d,9d,1s. described in the catalogue as ‘Map thick and coarse’ wmk multi-script CA sideways. Printed by De La Rue. This caused an International outcry due to the claims the map is supposed to have made regarding territory. However the set was re-issued on the 16th of Feb 1946 with the map re-drawn and a 2½d value was added on 6th of March 1949. This set is shown below described as ’Map thin and clear’.
It has been claimed that the British interest in the Antarctic was for mineral exploration and that the stamp issues were establishing the rights to land. But, why were British personnel maintaining a presence during the war as part of Operation Taberlan?
Britain was operating at a few places but a new site was set up reported to be at Maudheim in Queen Maud Land. This has never been acknowledged and is unlikely to be as there is no clue on authorised maps. It is a possibility that the stamps were issued to celebrate a successful outcome of subvert activities.
James Robert the author of an article on the British operations in Antarctica interviewed the last survivor of a special mission, an SAS officer.
His story was that he was sent to Palestine after VE Day. In October 1945 he was assigned to a secret mission and sent to Gibraltar and then on to the Falklands with others. There they were trained for cold-weather warfare. They were told that a large number of German U-boats were unaccounted for and that Britain had some highly secret information from Hess and others. A secret tunnel had been found which had been investigated and only two of the force had returned to their base at Maudheim and during the winter contact had been lost. Their mission was to investigate the survivors’ reports of Polar Men and Nazis in the area of the Mühlig-Hoffman Mountains.
The story was that Britain wished to destroy any Nazi base, in case there was any technology helpful to the USA or USSR who might discover the base.
They were parachuted in 20 miles from the Maudheim and were immediately on a war footing. On their arrival at Maudheim they found a survivor who said that the other man was in another bunker with one of the Polar Men. Someone was chosen to enter the other bunker and this was greeted by two shots and a Polar Man dashed out and disappeared. Two bodies were found, one the investigator and the other the second survivor from the earlier expedition.
The one survivor from the earlier operation was questioned. They had easily found the tunnel to the German operations because it was adjacent to a rare dry valley. The 30 men at Maudheim were assigned to the investigation. They followed the tunnel and came to an underground cavern which was warm and well lit. They were in a massive underground construction and even a dock for U-boats was reported, together with large hangars. The Nazis were thought to be getting energy from volcanic activity.
All of the party except two were captured and they saw some of their fellows executed before escaping back to Maudheim. They split up into different bunkers, to convince the Polar Men that only one was left, and one was found by a Polar Man. The one remaining radio was lost. The scientist with the SAS dismissed the survivor’s story, saying that he was insane, but the leader, a Major, was not so sure.
Next day they were to check out the story of the tunnel. They were amazed to find a dry valley and made a camp nearby. The Polar Man returned and was killed and found to be human with more than normal hair. A party of nine entered the tunnel with ammunition and explosives to destroy the base. After five hours they reached the cavern where men were busy on various building works. After two days of observation, targets were decided and mines laid, and a hostage taken together with photos of the undertaking, as proof. Suddenly they were detected and pursued by the Polar Men and Nazis and a fight ensued.
Only three remained to set off the mines and seal off the tunnel, leaving no evidence of its former existence. Most of the evidence gathered had been lost one way or another. The temporary camp was dismantled and they went back to Maudheim from where they taken to the Falkland Islands Dependencies. They were de-briefed at South Georgia and sworn to secrecy.
The tunnel they had investigated was dismissed as simply ‘glacial erosion’ and the Polar Men were thought to be insane, scruffy Germans. The whole affair was never to be published although some information was given to the Americans and Russians.
There is very little to substantiate this story. The one survivor of the 1945 mission told his story twice, the second time being 10 years later and it was reported to be exactly the same. Two possible verifications have been found which involved the questioning of two U-boat commanders.
U-530 commanded by Captain Wilhelm Bernhard said that his vessel, as part of Operation Valkyrie-2, was deployed to the Antarctic on 13th April 1945. They deposited boxes of papers and items, supposedly from the Third Reich, on an Antarctic shore.
U-977 commanded by Heinz Scheffer said that his boat had delivered items to the South Pole from the Reich.
Well, friends, all of this may be an interesting story, but whether is entirely or partially true is something to ponder over.