Nazis in the Arctic. Why did Germany need the Far North?
Secret Weather Station on Alexandra Land
Alexandra Land - an island of the archipelago Franz Josef Land. Now administratively, this island is part of the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region of Russia. Now on the island of Alexandra Land there are two important Russian objects. The first is the Arctic Trefoil military air defense base, the construction of which was started already today, in the 2007 year. The second - “Nagurskaya” is the northernmost outpost in Russia. And during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis built several of their objects on Alexandra Land.
In September, a meteorological station was deployed by the Nazis on Cape Nimrod. It did not last long and was curtailed in July 1943, when the German leadership was not at all up to large-scale research in the Arctic. What the representatives of the Third Reich on Alexandra Land were going to study is not fully known until now. But, judging by the traces of short-term stay, the Nazis were going to settle on the island for a long time.
In September, Soviet polar explorers, who landed on Cape Nimrod from the Semyon Dezhnev icebreaker, saw remnants of the base - holes dug in the correct order and resembling trenches, four pillars left over from a dugout, or perhaps even a bunker. Polar recalled that here the radio mast, radio station, meteorological station, residential and auxiliary buildings still remained intact. Managed to find even weapon and canned food. Five kilometers from the weather station, the Germans deployed another object - the secret base number 24, which was subordinate to the command of the "Kriegsmarine" - the Navy of the Third Reich.
Russian historian Andrei Fursov stresses that the Hitlerite command deployed a whole network of similar stations in the Soviet Arctic. There were thirteen of them - on numerous islands in the Arctic Ocean. Also, the Nazis were deployed radio stations in Greenland, on the island of Svalbard and in Northern Canada.
Why did the nazis need the Arctic?
Of course, Hitler’s interest in the Arctic began to manifest itself long before 1943, when a secret meteorological station was deployed on Alexandra Land. First of all, the leadership of the Third Reich was interested in the strategic opportunities that Germany could have control over the Northern Sea Route.
Ten years before the beginning of World War II, in 1931, the German explorer and aeronaut Hugo Eckener, together with a group of comrades in arms, took part in an international expedition to the Arctic. On the airship "Graf Zeppelin" researchers headed from Leningrad through the Barents Sea to Franz Josef Land and then to Severnaya Zemlya. Then the airship flew over Taimyr, Novaya Zemlya and returned to Germany.
How did the Soviet leadership then give permission for the flight and participation of German researchers in it? First, the relations between the USSR and Germany in the early thirties were not bad, the countries worked very well in various areas. Secondly, the Arctic was not yet perceived as inhabited territory, it was just empty space, almost like Antarctica, and the Soviet leadership didn’t really think that Germany located so far from the Arctic could have any interests of its own.
But at the end of the thirties, when Adolf Hitler was already in power in Germany and the country was preparing for a war for world domination, the commander of the German Navy, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, drew attention to the Northern Sea Route. He requested research materials from Eckener’s Arctic expedition, which were used to draw up detailed plans for possible German military operations. fleet in the arctic.
Arctic Plans of Admiral Doenitz
To operate in the northern latitudes, the naval command of the Reich was going to use submarines. However, this task required the creation of an appropriate support infrastructure. However, its decision was facilitated by the fact that although the Arctic was formally considered the territory of the Soviet Union, at that time Moscow practically did not control the endless Arctic spaces. Therefore, the Germans could operate in some areas of the Arctic almost freely, without encountering any obstacles in their path.
Even before the start of the war, the command of the German Navy asked about the organization of monitoring the eastern part of the Barents Sea, which was then equipped with a radio direction finding station in Kirkenes. Then a sub-base was equipped for submarines on Alexandra Land and an airfield near the Polar Pilots Peninsula, which is also on Alexandra Land.
The submarine base "Kriegsmarine" was equipped with barracks, food warehouses, weapons storage and even a repair shop. On the surface were built two cottages - in the immediate vicinity of the berths of submarines. At the end of the 1950s, when the construction of the Soviet airfield began on the Peninsula of Polar pilots, a ventilation shaft and an entrance to the grotto were discovered. So the public became aware that during the war years the Germans used a base on Alexandra Land for their submarines.
According to unofficial information, in September, the commander of the Soviet minesweeper T-1944, Lieutenant Commander V. A. Babanov, was inside the underground grotto in September 116. How and why did he get there, story It is silent, just as it is impossible to verify the accuracy of this information. But Babanov told about the stone stairs he discovered, two piers with equipment, electric cables. But there is no official report or certificate confirming the words of captain-lieutenant Babanov that is why it remains only to guess whether the cave was actually described by a Soviet naval officer or not.
In search of "the way to the underworld"
Many leaders of the Third Reich, as you know, were big fans of all sorts of mystical theories, with the help of which they were going to comprehend the secrets of the universe and the origin of the Aryans. So, among them the point of view was widespread that there is a hollow space under the earth and it is possible to get into it through certain ice caves. This issue is very concerned representatives of the senior leadership of the SS and the Nazi Party.
After the German leadership learned that the caves are located on Novaya Zemlya, on Franz Josef Land, they no longer have doubts about the need for expeditions to the Arctic. Thus, in addition to practical interest in using the possibilities of the Northern Sea Route on the part of Karl Dönitz and representatives of the German Navy headquarters, there was also a purely ideological interest, fueled by the leadership of the SS, led by Heinrich Himmler.
Adolf Hitler, being a man inclined to mysticism, could give the nod to the Arctic studies not so much from practical as many ideological considerations. It is not by chance that the meteorological station on Alexandra Land was named “Treasure Hunter”. And it is possible that not observing the weather was the main reason for the deployment of the weather station. Of course, it was called upon to play an important role in ensuring the passage of German submarines, but it also had to solve the task of searching for ice caves — the fictional entrances to the underworld.
Bear poisoned
Pyotr Viktorovich Boyarsky, the head of the Marine Arctic Integrated Expedition (MAKE), later told the press that it was an ordinary event that forced the Nazis to leave the base on Alexandra Earth. Having decided to eat fresh meat of a polar bear, the Germans from the garrison began to cook it, but did not take into account that the meat needs very long processing. As a result, almost all the inhabitants of the station became ill, and they were forced to call the plane for evacuation from Alexandra Land.
There was a question about replacing the old garrison with new specialists, but in the difficult situation of 1944, it was never resolved. The war was nearing its end, and the leadership of the Third Reich was not in touch with the weather station in the Arctic. The interest in the “underground world” was also forgotten. Much more important at that moment for the Nazis was to defend their positions at the front, which were inexorably moving further and further west.
The last frontier of the Third Reich
Meanwhile, ironically, the last line of defense of the Third Reich was in the Arctic. Back in September, the German command, as a result of Operation Warhorse, carried out a landing of a group of 1944 researchers and military personnel on Spitsbergen Island. They deployed on the island weather station Haudegen - "Old Warrior". The main task of the station was the encoding and transmission of meteorological data to the port of Tromso in Norway, thanks to which Germany had advantages in the movement of troops and cargo.
The personnel of the group that arrived in Svalbard underwent special training in the Alpine mountains. The commander of the weather station was appointed SS zonderführer Wilhelm Dege - a German geographer and geologist, a member of the Arctic expeditions. Note that the title of zonderführer in the SS was assigned to those leaders who did not have military experience, but by virtue of their professional knowledge performed the duties of officers.
In the spring of 1945, the station on Svalbard was simply forgotten. Her garrison continued to send meteorological messages, and survived after the cessation of food supplies through hunting and fishing. In the end, the British command intercepted meteorological messages and learned about the presence of German soldiers on Spitsbergen. But they didn’t hurry to send a group there to save them, as they feared that the Germans could offer serious resistance.
3 September 1945, a Norwegian traveler Ludwig Alberta, on a Blaazel fishing launch with a team from 8, arrived at Svalbard and headed for the base. What was the surprise of the Norwegian scientist when he met on the shore of Wilhelm Dege, his German counterpart, with whom he had participated in northern expeditions before the war. The scientists recognized each other, after which the rescuers and the saved noted the meeting.
The next day, September 4, 1945, Ludwig Alberta nevertheless accepted the surrender of the garrison of the German meteorological station, which was signed from the German side by sounderführer Wilhelm Dege. After signing the act, the Germans surrendered their 8 rifles, a pistol and a machine gun. Thus, the garrison of the meteorological station in Svalbard became the last German military unit to lay down arms. And for this very reason, 4 of September 1945 can be considered as the date of the end of the war in Europe.
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