– nearly four months after they had put out from Kiel harbour.
This rather fantastic story was recounted by Captain Schaeffer to the Argentine authorities when they interrogated him on three specific issues: (1) Where had U-977 been when the Brazilian steamer Babia was sunk? (2) Why had U-977 arrived in Argentina so long after the war ended? And (3) Had U-977 carried anyone ‘of political importance’ during its voyage to the Argentine? Schaeffer denied that he had been anywhere in the area of the Babia when it was sunk, explained his late arrival in Argentina with the fantastic story I have just recounted, and stated that no one ‘of political importance’ had ever been aboard U-977.
What is particularly intriguing about all this is that a few weeks later an Anglo-American committee, composed of high-ranking officers especially flown to the Argentine to investigate ‘the mysterious case’ of U-977, spent a great deal of time interrogating Schaeffer regarding the possibility that he might have taken Hitler and Martin Bormann aboard his U-boat, first to Patagonia and then to a secret Nazi base in the Antarctic. Indeed, they were so insistent on this that they subsequently flew Schaeffer and his crew – and Otto Wehrmut, commander of U-530
– back to a prisoner of war camp near Washington, DC, where for months they continued their interrogations. While I could find no record of the fate of Commander Wehrmut, what I did authenticate is that Schaeffer repeatedly denied having shipped anyone where… Nevertheless, he was then handed over to the British in Antwerp and again interrogated for many months.
Assuming that Schaeffer was telling the truth and that the Allies found nothing unusual in Schaeffer’s U-boat, it seems rather strange that the Americans would later send the submarine back to the United States where, under direct orders from the U.S. War Department, it was blown to pieces with torpedoes. As for Schaeffer, he was eventually returned to Germany, did not feel comfortable as one of the conquered, and then went back to join some fellow Germans in Argentina.
The possibility remains that Schaeffer might have been lying. For a start, it is decidedly odd that two insignificant German U-boats should have stirred such monumental interest amongst the Allies. It is also worth considering why the Allies would even have imagined that Hitler and Martin Bormann – or anyone else, for that matter – would have fled to such an unlikely place as the Antarctic. Finally, it is worth noting that Schaeffer had spent much of his career protecting the research centers at Regen and Peenemünde, that he was highly experienced at patrolling the South Atlantic and polar regions, and that he was one of a select group of Naval officers who were sent to the Harz Mountains to study the new, reportedly highly advanced, XX1 electric submarines. Schaeffer was, in other words, a man familiar with the ‘secret’ projects of the Harz Mountains – and a man ideally suited to make the long voyage to the Antarctic.
Now let us review the situation. It is not confirmed, but is very possible, that the German Feuerball existed, that it accounted for the first modern UFO sightings during the Second World War, and that an extraordinary supersonic flying machine, the Kugelblitz, was successfully test-flown in Germany a few weeks before the war ended. The Feuerball, therefore, could have been the forerunner of the small, seemingly remote-controlled UFOs (the Foo Fighters), while the Kugelblitz could indeed have been the first of the larger, piloted flying saucers.
The unsigned flying saucer designs reproduced in Brisant, and in many more orthodox journals, mentioned materials not in existence, as far as we know, during the war years. This suggests that they could have been reproductions of the original designs that Flugkapitän Rudolph Schriever updated just before his death in the late 1950s. Assuming, then, that Schriever’s ‘mislaid’ or ‘stolen’ notes and designs were actually in the hands of the SS, it is possible that they were secretly developed in one of the many underground complexes in the area of the aborted last redoubt – either the Nordhausen complex in the Harz Mountains or at Kahla in nearby Thuringia; that the completed saucer was test-flown in the early months of 1945; and that it was then destroyed as the Allies advanced into Germany.
We know from reproductions of the work of Schriever, Bulluzzo and Miethe that a flying saucer project, no matter how primitive at the time, was definitely on the list of German military priorities. Regarding the fact that the only evidence for such machines is the evidence presented above, it should be borne in mind that the most fanatical of Himmler’s SS were controlling the research centers in the areas mentioned, that as they retreated they attempted to destroy as much as possible of their most important scientific papers and inventions, and that thousands of slave workers and their SS overlords – who could have revealed a great deal more – disappeared in the chaos of the liberation and were not seen again.
Could some of them have gone to the Antarctic?
Contrary to the accepted view, it is actually quite possible that the Nazis continually shipped and flew vital men, material and documents to the Antarctic throughout the war years.
Regarding the possibility of the submarines of that time being able to complete such a lengthy voyage, it is to be noted that the normal Uboat could cover 7,000 miles on each operational cruise, that the Germans had submarine tankers spread across the South Atlantic Ocean at least as far as south of South Africa, and that any one of those tankers, which had a displacement of 2,000 tons, could have supplied ten U-boats with fuel and stores, thus trebling the time that those Uboats could stay at sea.
Regarding the possibility of the Germans building self-sufficient underground research factories in the Antarctic, it has only to be pointed out that the underground research centers of Nazi Germany were gigantic feats of construction, containing wind-tunnels, machineshops, assembly plants, launching pads, supply dumps and accommodations for all who worked there, including adjoining camps for the slave workers – and yet very few people knew that they existed.
Given all this, it is in my estimation quite possible that men and materials were shipped to the Antarctic throughout the war, that throughout those same years the Germans were engaged in the construction of enormous underground complexes in Neuschwabenland similar to those scattered around the last redoubt, and that the American, Russian and British ‘cover-up’ regarding UFO sightings could be due to the reasons suggested in this novel.
Sceptics would argue that the major histories of the Third Reich either ignore or pass off as ridiculous any stories about Nazi Germany’s ‘secret’ weapons, but such an argument can be countered by reminding the reader that most of the secret weapon projects were well hidden by the SS and that much of what the Allies discovered remains classified to this day.
While Albert Speer, the Third Reich’s Minister of Armaments and War Production, was sceptical about the ‘secret weapons’ in his eloquent book Inside the Third Reich (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1970), he did admit that there was increasing speculation about such weapons during the closing months of the war; and that while he himself stated at the time that there were not enough basic materials for the production of such, he had, in his own words, ‘underestimated… the large stocks of material that had been accumulated in the factories’. Speer was also sceptical when Robert Ley, the Minister for Labor, excitedly told him, in April, 1945, that his German scientists had invented a ‘death ray’ (possibly a laser weapon); this is interesting when one considers the fact that Captain Heinz Schaeffer, captain of the submarine U-977, stated in his book, U-Boat 977 (William Kimber, London, 1952) that in April 1945 an SS associate had offered him a demonstration of a so-called ‘death ray’. It is unfortunate that Schaeffer, in a hurry to return to Kiel for his famous last voyage, had no time to remain in Berlin and check out the validity of his friend’s claim.
For the purposes of fiction I have utilized the real-life personages, SS Generals Hans Kammler and Artur Nebe. Readers might therefore be interested in knowing that while Nebe was placed on a Nazi ‘death list’ after the attempted assassination of Hitler, his death was never actually confirmed and many felt that he had sim
ply fled for his life. As for General Hans Kammler, his history with the SS and the V-1 and V-2 rockets is well documented, but what became of him after he disappeared from Germany in April 1945 remains a mystery to this day.
Regarding the members of the German flying saucer team, Schriever and Belluzzo are now dead, Habermohl was reported to have been captured by the Russians (thus the American military’s fear of Russian saucers shortly after the war), and – perhaps most interesting – Miethe, who stated to the press that he had worked on Projekt Saucer, went to work for the Americans and Canadians.
Finally, for the record, the prototype for the AVRO flying saucer, which was handed over to the U.S. and loudly proclaimed to have been a failure, is now (at the time of writing) on show in the U.S. Air Force Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia.
Thus, while
Genesis is a work of fiction, it is based on some intriguing facts… and those facts could do with further investigation.
A list of sources is given overleaf.
Sources
The earliest article about the German 'foo fighter' was published in the South Wales Argus of December 13, 1944. An Associated Press release by Marshall Yarrow (Reuters special correspondent at Supreme Headquarters, Paris, France) was published in the New York Herald Tribune of January 2, 1945. Another article was published in the London Daily Telegraph, also on January 2, 1945.
Information about Flugkapitän Rudolph Schriever and his fellow officers on Nazi Germany's Projekt Saucer came mainly from the following magazine articles: 'Untertassen – Flieger Kombination', Der Spiegel, March 30, 1950. 'Fliegende Untertasse in Deutschland erfunden', Sonderbericht der Deutschen Illustrierte, S.1350, 1951. 'Fliegende Untertassen – eine Deutsche Erfindung', Die sieben Tage, No. 26, June 27, 1952. 'Die Deutsche Fliegende Untertasse', Das Ufer
– die Farb-Illustrierte, No. 18, September 1, 1952. 'Erste Flugscheibe flog 1945 in Prag', Welt am Sonntag, April 25, 1953. 'Wunderwaffen 45', Bild am Sonntag, February 17, 1957. 'Die UFOs – eine Deutsche Erfindung', Das neue Zeitalter, October 5, 1957. 'Flugkreisel, irdisch', Heim und Welt, No. 14, April 2, 1959. 'Deutsche UFOs schon 1947/48 einwandfrei beobachtet', Das neue Zeitalter, February 6, 1965. 'Deutsche Flugkreisel', Luftfahrt International, No. 9, May-June, 1975. 'Mit UFOs zu neuer Gravitationstheorie', Kurier, November 20, 1976. 'Fliegende Teller statt Hubschrauber', Hobby, December 14, 1977. 'Fliegende Scheiben und Viktor Schauberger', Kosmische Evolution, No. 4, 1979. 'Prototypen der Kreisflügler AS 6 V 1', Luftfahrt International, No. 4/ 1979.
Books on rocket and aircraft development include: Soviet Rocketry (David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1971) by Michael Stoiko. The Papers of Robert H. Goddard (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1970), edited by E.C. Goddard. The Birth of the Missile: The Secrets of Peenemünde (Harrap, London, 1965) by E. Klee and O. Merk. German Guided Missiles (Ian Allan, London, 1966) by R. F. Pocock. V2 (Hurst and Blackett, London, 1954) by Walter Dornberger. Hitler's Last Weapons: The Underground War Against the V1 and V2 (Julian Friedmann, London, 1978) by Jozef Garlinksi. Raketon-Flugtechnik (Edwards Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1945; reprint of 1933 edition, published by Oldenbourg of München) by E. Sanger. Alsos (Schuman, New York, 1947) by Samuel A. Goudsmit.
The indispensable book on the development of disk-shaped aircraft is Intercettateli Senza Sparare (E. Mursia & Co., Milan, Italy, 1968) by Renato Vesco. This was later published in an English translation by Grove Press, New York (1971) under the title Intercept - But Don't Shoot, then reissued in 1974 by Zebra Publications, New York, as Intercept UFO. Unfortunately it has been out of print for years. A short but decent article on Projekt Saucer and related projects is to be found in German Secret Weapons of World War II (Neville Spearman, London, 1959; the Philosophical Library, New York, 1959) by Major Rudolph Lusar. Most of Lusar's article is reproduced with other German flying-saucer material and considerable wishful thinking in UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapons? (Samisdat, Toronto, Canada, undated) by Mattern Friedrich, aka Ernst Zundl.
The most comprehensive studies of the UFO phenomenon as a whole are The UFO Controversy in America (Signet, New American Library, New York 1975) by David Michael Jacobs; and UFO Exist! (Ballantine, New York, 1976) by Paris Flammonde. Both of these books include detailed accounts of the Great Airship Scare of 1896-97. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Doubleday, New York, 1956) by former Project Blue Book head, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, is the classic book of its period; and its natural companion is Project Blue Book (Ballantine, New York, 1976), edited by Brad Steiger. For purely scientific, or pragmatic, examinations of the phenomenon, one can do no better than Dr J. Allen Hynek's authoritative works, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1972; Corgi, London, 1974) and The Hynek UFO Report (Dell, New York, 1977; Sphere, London, 1978).
Other UFO books relevant to this subject are: UFOs: A Scientific Debate (Norton Library, New York, 1974), edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page. The Crack in the Universe (Neville Spearman, Jersey, 1975) by Jean-Claude Bourret. UFOs From Behind the Iron Curtain (Souvenir Press, London, 1974) by Ion Hobana and Julien Weverbergh. The Interrupted Journey (Berkley Medallion, New York, 1974) by John G. Fuller. Beyond Earth: Man's Contact with UFOs (Corgi, London, 1974) by Ralph Blum with Judy Blum. The Humanoids (Neville Spearman, London, 1969; Futura, London, 1974/77), which is a compilation of articles from Flying Saucer Review, edited by Charles Bowen. Celestial Passengers: UFOs & Space Travel (Penguin, London, 1977) by Margaret Sachs and Ernest Jahn. Socorro Saucer (Fontana, London, 1976) by Ray Stanford.
The famous monthly magazine Flying Saucer Review is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the subject, but should be perused with a highly selective eye.
I am indebted to NASA’s Exploring Space With a Camera and to their reproductions and analysis of the much abused ESSA 7 satellite photographs. I am also heavily indebted to Eliot Porter’s Antarctica (Hutchinson, London, 1979) in which both text and photographs are magnificent.
The indispensable book on UFO technology is UFOlogy (Celestial Arts, California, 1976) by physicist James M. McCampbell. Articles on the subject, and related articles, are to be found in the excellent Worlds Beyond (An/Or Press, the New Dimensions Foundation, Berkeley, California, 1978), edited by Larry Geis and Fabrice Florin, with Peter Beren and Aidan Kelly. Information on CAMS, cyborgs, other man-machine interactions, and general bioengineering and various nightmarish experiments was found in: As Man Becomes Machine (Abacus, London, by David Rorvik. Man Modified (Paladin, London, 1969) by David Fishlock. The People Shapers (Futura, London, 1978) by Vance Packard. Manipulation (Fontana, London, 1975) by Erwin Lausch. The Immortalist (Panther, London, 1973) by Alan Harrington. PSI: Physic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (Abacus, 1977) by Sheila Ostrander & Lynn Schroeder. Future Science (Anchor Books, Doubleday, New York, 1977), edited by John White and Stanley Krippner. Robots: Fact, Fiction and Prediction (Thames and Hudson, London, 1978) by Jasia Reichardt.
U-Boat 977 (William Kimber, London, 1952) by Heinz Schaeffer includes that submarine commander's personal account of his final voyage to Argentina. The Hollow Earth (Citadel Press, New Jersey, 1969), by Dr Raymond Bernard is the standard, but hardly credible, book on this bizarre theory. Another book, This Hollow Earth (Sphere, London, 1972) by Warren Smith, is even less credible. Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions (Samisdat, Toronto, undated) by Christof Friedrich, alias Ernst Zundl, is a neo-Nazi view of this subject which, combined with the aforementioned UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapons, by the same author writing under a different pseudonym, is almost certainly responsible for the articles published in the neo-Nazi magazine,
Brisant , in May 1978.
My thanks to the following libraries and universities for their kind assistance in gathering further research material: Cornell University, New York; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts; the University of London; the British Museum Library, London; the Imperial War Museum, London; the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Freiburg im Breisgau; and the Staats-und Universitätsbibl
iothek, Hamburg.
Personal thanks to Stephanie Trudeau in New York; Willi Mayer, Reinhold Stoll, and Ruediger and Hannelore Vogt of West Germany; Mark Williams of Lookout magazine, Spain; Martin Atcherley for his kind assistance regarding Paraguay and Argentina; James Webb for his authoritative response to my enquiries about the SS and the Occult; Richard and Iris Gollner, my agents and incidental researchers; Nick Austin for his generosity with certain books; and Alan Earney, for so enthusiastically backing this whole project.
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