It is increasingly difficult to find unexplored places on our planet, but if you think about it, there is still a lot to discover. We still know more about the Moon than we do about the depths of our oceans. The popularization of tourism, the Internet and the possibility of moving more and more people to the most remote regions of the world means that there are fewer and fewer places that no one has visited yet. Almost everything has been visited, measured, photographed. Where not many people have yet arrived, there are still surprising things to discover. And sometimes it turns out that some scientific theories that were taken as final suddenly change under the influence of discoveries. This is what happens in physics, archaeology, biology and many other fields…
Sometimes, even for a moment of relaxation or even an indulgent smile on your face, you can delve into these not yet fully explored areas. One such still mysterious area on Earth is Antarctica. A huge cold and inaccessible continent. Harsh, unliveable, definitely unsuitable for most people, inhabited by only a few dozen daredevils and enthusiasts.
I managed to visit Antarctica, although of course I dare not say that I got to know this continent. I barely licked its edges. But there is something captivating about it – an eerie silence, as if no sound had been there for centuries, silent and raw black and dark sharp rocks covered with thick layers of snow. Silence and mystery. I think that many times Antarctica will surprise us, although it will certainly be reluctant to give us its secrets.
As it usually happens, when we do not know something to the end, we do not understand, something arouses our anxiety and causes fear, amazing stories, conspiracy theories, stories of strange content appear…
Get acquainted with one of them – the secret of Admiral Richard Byrd
Richard Byrd was one of the daredevils who pushed the world forward in the first decades of the twentieth century. Curiosity, courage and passion pushed him to explore the undiscovered and set goals that no one had ever achieved before him. Byrd’s first feat that gave him worldwide fame was crossing the Atlantic in 1927. A Fokker C-2 aircraft called America covered the route from the United States to France in 46 hours flying over the North Sea. The miscreants do not consider Byrd’s feat complete because he did not land but only off the coast of France. Objectively, however, it was definitely a feat and a success, although the palm belongs to Charles Lindbergh, who flew from the States to Paris before Byrd.
And even earlier, in May 1926, Byrd and his crew in a Fokker took off from Spitsbergen and flew over the North Pole. Experts question the fact of flying over the pole, but certainly the flyby took place at least in its vicinity.
Therefore, he decided on an equally amazing feat – a flight over the South Pole. In November 1929, along with three other daredevils – co-pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinley, Byrd flew over the South Pole. The crew, aboard the Ford Trimor “Floyd Bennet” aircraft, reached the South Pole and returned to the base on the Ross Glacier. The flight lasted 18 hours and 41 minutes.
Byrd’s flight was a sensation, but even more sensational was Byrd’s account of what he had seen during the flyby. It was the first time Byrd mentioned that in the middle of Antarctica they saw mammoth-like animals, lush vegetation, people, hot springs. According to this radio report, inside the inhospitable land, frozen and whipped by the cruel wind, there is a vibrant oasis with a warm and hospitable climate. Byrd’s revelations were considered the result of enormous stress, overloading, and the hardships of travel.
The next scene took place on December 12, 1946. On that day, a research expedition of the American armed forces began, in which Richard Byrd also took part. The expedition was described by Byrd himself not as a research expedition but as a war one. The expedition consisted oftwo destroyers, 2 transports, 2 tankers, 2 icebreakers, 3 auxiliary vessels and the submarine USS Sennet. Among the air support were C-47 Dakota aircraft equipped with cameras, cameras and magnometers used to study magnetic anomalies under the surface of water and earth. The operation was supported by the strength of more than four thousand people, mainly officers, sailors, naval soldiers, three hundred civilian and scientific employees. The operation was given the code name “High Jump”. The commander of the operation was Richard Byrd, then with the rank of admiral.
Preparations for the operation lasted almost a year. Officially, the task set for the admiral and his team was to check military equipment in polar conditions. The expedition reached Antarctica in January 1947. The first to start was air reconnaissance and the collection of rich aviation documentation.
Planned for 8 months, the expedition was interrupted after a month. The expedition returned in a deplorable condition, a destroyer, a dozen planes and dozens of sailors and soldiers were lost. The course of the operation and the causes of the losses were covered by military secrecy, the case was investigated by a special investigative committee appointed by the United States Senate. The committee of course interrogated Admiral Byrd and other members of the operation command, and military intelligence was also involved in verifying the findings and reports of the operation command.
Despite many attempts to maintain strict secrecy, the admiral’s comments were leaked to the press, in which he repeated what he had already said during the flight over the South Pole – in Antarctica there are areas covered with lush vegetation, green and warmed by warm springs flowing from the interior of the Earth.
The American authorities announced that the Admiral’s mental state left much to be desired and placed Byrd under compulsory psychiatric treatment. Again, the Admiral’s revelations were considered the result of extreme conditions and the overloads associated with them. Officially, the expedition was considered a success (the effect of the expedition was 1,390 thousand km of Antarctic coast covered with aerial photos), and as for the losses, only one of the participants was officially considered a fact. The cause was a plane crash. The expedition members were bound to secrecy, and the Admiral was ordered to remain silent about everything he saw and learned on behalf of humanity. In 1947, the Admiral gave an interview to Chile’s EL Mercurio, in which he also expressed his concern about the need to defend the United States against the attack of unknown forces based in the Arctic.
1947 was not the last year in which Admiral Byrd set foot in Antarctica. Officially recognized by President Eisenhower as sane, in 1954 he took part in an expedition organized by a committee of joint staffs …….. codenamed “Deep Freeze”. This time, the Americans who joined the expedition did not hide the fact that it was a military expedition. Apparently, the use of nuclear weapons was not ruled out. The operation ended in 1957. Shortly after its completion, Admiral Byrd died.
It is not very clear exactly when the alleged diary of the Admiral was presented to the public. Sensationally, the statements contained in it strengthened rumors and reports about the inhabitation of Antarctica by an unknown race of highly technically advanced people. The diary was to describe the extraordinary events that Admiral Byrd was to participate in during the expedition in 1947. According to the report, the February 19 flight departed at 6:10 local time was normal and undisturbed. Suddenly, however, the deck equipment stopped working, and the Admiral saw a valley overgrown with trees. You couldn’t see the sun, but it was bright. In the valley, in the meadow, animals resembling mammoths grazed, in the bottom appeared what looked like a city. Next to the Admiral’s plane, strange vehicles appeared that took over the control of the Admiral’s plane. The Admiral himself could not influence the flight of the plane, the rudders and control instruments and the radio stopped working. He couldn’t broadcast a message about what he was seeing. Disc-shaped vehicles accompanied the Admiral’s plane, and Byrd heard a calm voice on the radio speaking English with a slight German accent: “Welcome to our kingdom, Mr. Admiral . . . Please relax, you are in good hands.”
The Admiral’s plane was brought down to earth and landed slightly. Several tall men with blond hair came out to greet them, and one of them said, “Do not be afraid, Admiral, you will have an audience with the Master…” Byrd met an older man with delicate features. The Master said, “Admiral, we have allowed you to fly in because you are of noble character and well known in the Surface World. You are in the domain of the Arians, in the Inner World.”
The conversation proceeded in a friendly atmosphere, the Master touched upon many questions of importance to human civilization. He asked Byrd to come back and publicize the Master’s message given to him. In proving the Master, he said: “We leave you here, Admiral; your apparatus is already working. Auf Wiedersehen!” . The admiral was on the plane again and flew over the icy desert.
Admiral Byrd’s diary has been lost, and no copy has ever been made. A relative who publicly claimed to be in possession of the diary has never been recognized by the Admiral’s family, nor have they confirmed the existence of the diary.
This story supports another conspiracy theory about a German colony founded by fleeing high-ranking officers of the Nazi regime. According to this theory, the colony was to be established in Queen Maud Land, which was claimed by Nazi Germany. During the Second World War, over Queen Maud Land, a flight of German units took place, which dropped flags with the symbols of the Third Reich on the ground, thus symbolically taking possession of this area of Antarctica. From then on, the area began to be called New Swabia. This theory is reinforced by reports from the interrogations of one of the U-boat commanders, who reportedly testified that Antarctica was colonized by selected Wehrmacht soldiers and abducted, specially selected young and beautiful Ukrainian women. Another building block to strengthen this theory is the fact that Byrd visited the Third Reich in 1938, where he was invited by Hitler as an expert on the polar regions. Also intertwined with this trend is the fact that operation High Jump explores mainly areas of Queen Maud’s Land.
I hope that I will see the verification of Admiral Byrd’s revelations. Any other way than by plane or by any other means reaching the South Pole will not be sufficient material to close the Admiral’s extraordinary reports. From my embarrassingly modest acquaintance with Antarctica, I am not surprised by the following:
– that the High Jump expedition was scheduled for January/February – this is the summer period in the southern hemisphere and the passage of Drake Passage gives the best chance of relatively good weather and no encounters with the Three Sisters or a phenomenal wave. I was lucky, Drake was calm but it was not without a solid rocking and taking funds for seasickness.
– that so many units and soldiers participated in the expedition – we landed only on the Arctic peninsula, but the conditions were extreme anyway – weather changing within a minute from the sun to snow, very strong wind, mountains and icebergs, calving glaciers. And in that overwhelming silence, if something happened… We would have to wait a few days for help. Our expedition consisted of 230 people and about 100 crew and lasted only a week in Antarctic waters
– that such military and research expeditions take place from time to time – the location of Antarctica is outstanding from the strategic point of view, from this land relatively close to South America, Africa and Australia. The third continent on our planet, rich in deposits of all kinds.
And although it’s nice to feel the thrill that somewhere there are unknown lands, alien civilizations and a lost world with secrets that will surprise us, I am a bit sorry that all the stories and conspiracy theories relating to Admiral Byrd’s expeditions take away some of the seriousness of his undeniable courage and inexhaustible curiosity to investigate the undiscovered.
