Secret Journey to Planet Serpo Read Online Free PDF Page B

Belgians, and the Norwegians. From 1839 to 1843, daring British naval officer James Clark Ross charted much of the coastline and discovered and named the Ross Sea, Victoria Land, and the volcanoes Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror, both named after expedition vessels. Ross was knighted upon his return to England, and also received the French Legion d’Honneur.
    THE NAZI BASE
    With the advent of aviation, reaching the South Pole by air became a real possibility, and it was accomplished by seasoned aviator Richard Evelyn Byrd on November 28, 1929, earning him the gold medal of the American Geographical Society. Byrd’s expedition established a base camp on the Ross Ice Shelf, called “Little America,” and commenced exploration of the continent by snowshoe, snowmobile, dogsled, and airplane. Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition in 1934 nearly ended in tragedy. He spent five winter months all by himself in a small meteorological advance station where he was overcome by carbon monoxide from a small heater, but he was rescued in time by team members from the base camp. This harrowing adventure was described in his book,
Alone,
first published in 1938.

    Admiral Richard E. Byrd
    Given this sparse international history of the rough-hewn exploration of the continent, it was surprising, even astonishing, that the Germans would seek to establish a colony in Antarctica in 1938. There had been two previous German expeditions, in 1901 and 1911, each lasting two years, but those pre-Nazi journeys offered no hint that the Germans actually wanted to live there. But the Nazis were very serious about this project. The preparations for the German Antarctic expedition of 1938 were massive and comprehensive. The Nazis even brought Richard Byrd, the preeminent world authority on Antarctica, to Hamburg prior to the mission departure to advise the members of the team. They also asked him to accompany the expedition, an invitation he declined. Byrd was a civilian at the time, and his agreement to counsel the team members did not, in any way, constitute sympathy with the Nazi regime. Byrd, of course, had to be aware of the German expansionist intentions, since Hitler had already taken over Austria. But after the Munich Agreement in September 1938, the world lapsed into the delusion that Hitler had no further territorial ambitions. Then there was the distinct possibility that Byrd went there on a U.S. government mission to covertly obtain information about Germany’s plans for Antarctica.

    Germany’s 1938 Antarctic Mission Emblem
    The Germans utilized the seaplane carrier
Schwabenland
for the 1938 journey. According to Russian ufologist Konstantin Ivanenko:
    The
Schwabenland
sailed to Antarctica, commanded by Albert Richter [Ritscher], a veteran of cold-weather operations. The Richter [Ritscher] expedition’s scientists used their large Dornier seaplanes to explore the polar wastes, emulating Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s efforts a decade earlier. The German scientists discovered ice-free lakes (heated by underground volcanic features) and were able to land on them. *6 It is widely believed that the Schwabenland’s expedition was aimed at scouting out a secret base of operations.
    The seaplanes dropped swastika flag pennons all over the Queen Maud Land area, staking out a widespread German territory amounting to 600,000 square kilometers (about 360,000 square miles). They then established a base in the Muhlig-Hofmann Mountains, very close to the Princess Astrid coast, which they referred to as Neuschwabenland, named after the duchy of Swabia, part of the original German kingdom.
    NEUSCHWABENLAND
    The legend and lore surrounding the Nazi Antarctic base is voluminous, bordering on overwhelming. Various writers say that German convoys started bringing in equipment to develop this base beginning in 1938. According to the Omega File:
    Beginning in 1938 . . . the Nazi’s [sic] commenced to send out numerous exploratory