Super Weapons

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Story 1:

Evil Under the Ice

In the aftermath of World War II, the victorious Allied nations dispatched numerous military expeditions to the Antarctic region.

Did these battleships weigh anchor in the name of science and exploration, or did they set sail in search of something far more sinister?

An evil that dwelt under the ice?

No matter how many times Captain Helke and his crew spent the festive season scouring the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula, perpetual daytime was something that they never really managed to adapt to.

The unending periods of daylight made it considerably easier to detect the invaluable whale pods which they were desperately hunting, but it also reduced the ship's crew to little more than shambling, sleep-deprived zombies.

This might have explained why the Juliana's lookout that morning had been so slow to react to the vessel that was now floating just a short distance off their starboard beam.

Helke had been down in his cabin, staring dejectedly at his charts, in the hope it might somehow inspire him to reverse the fortunes of what had so far been a wasted journey, all the way from their native Iceland.

Then he'd heard the shouting coming from up above.

The whaler's captain stood on deck alongside the rest of his crew, staring helplessly across the water at the deck gun that was now trained on his ship.

Even without her infamous red and black naval ensign on display, there was no mistaking the sleek lines of the Kriegsmarine U-boat.

There had been stories of German submarines which had either failed to hear or obey the final orders to surrender.

But the war had been ended for over two years now.

Just what had they stumbled across?

Figures in grey-green overalls were now hurrying across the deck of the submarine, and a short time later, two inflatables made their way towards the Juliana.

With no weapons on board to defend themselves, and no other ships in the vicinity to hear their transmissions, Halker ordered his men to line up and to offer no resistance to their captors.

As the Germans were hauling themselves up over the railings, a figure broke away from their number and strolled enthusiastically over to where Halker was standing.

The U-boat captain cheerfully apologised for the disruption, asking if it would be possible for him and his crew to purchase half of the remaining supplies aboard the whaling ship.

Despite his affable and polite nature, there was a tone to the submariner's request which led Halker to believe that refusal on his part would be unwise.

He noted uneasily that each of the German sailors were armed with either a pistol or a carbine, and so reluctantly agreed to the proposal.

He was immediately handed a thick roll of US dollars and was advised that there should be enough left over over for each of his crew to receive a small bonus for their troubles.

As the submarine commander had later turned to leave, he had paused and asked Helke to bring one of his charts up from his cabin.

He had then marked down a location not too far away, advising that there was a large school of humpback whales to be found there before saluting and disappearing back over the side of the ship.

The Icelandic crew watched in bewilderment as the submarine turned away and then slowly made its way off into the the distance, never to be seen again.

On the 2nd of December 1946, a flotilla of US ships set off from the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia.

The expedition had been designated Operation High Jump and consisted of 13 vessels, including the aircraft carrier USS Philippine C, as well as the destroyers USS Henderson and USS Brownson.

They had been ordered to make their way deep into the desolation of the Antarctic Circle in order to conduct a combination of military drills and scientific experiments.

In charge of the operation was Rear Admiral Richard E.

Byrd Jr., a seasoned polar explorer who had carried out a large number of previous civilian and military expeditions into the Antarctic.

When the task force eventually arrived at its destination, It immediately began to conduct extensive photo reconnaissance operations of the area, but would subsequently be recalled only a few weeks later due to reports of dangerous weather conditions.

Soon after the ships which had taken part in the operation returned to their respective home ports, rumours and stories about what had really happened began to circulate.

Newspaper articles in the Chilean media claimed that the US fleet had been attacked by unidentified flying craft that had inflicted heavy casualties, forcing the Americans to withdraw.

Speculation was only fueled even further when during a television interview about the mission, Admiral Byrd made a number of significant comments in relation to America having to prepare herself for future attacks that might emanate from Antarctica.

He specifically referred to the risk of aircraft attacking the United States having come from the South Pole, and that he and his countrymen could no longer rely on their distance from other hostile nations as an effective means of defending themselves.

Almost immediately, a follow-up mission to the remote region was authorized, codenamed Operation Windmill, which was concluded in April of 1948.

After this, American interest in the region seemed to wane, up until the decision, over a decade later, to detonate three nuclear devices there.

The rationale for this action was to test the effects of high-altitude nuclear explosions in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

It is possible that America's brief fascination with the southern polar region might ultimately have been forgotten had it not been for the publication in 1991 of a Soviet-era intelligence report which offered a very different reason for the untimely conclusion of Operation High Jump.

Allegedly compiled from transcripts of interviews between KGB agents and a handful of US sailors who were involved in the expedition, the leaked dossier suggested that the American fleet had been attacked and driven away from Antarctica by an unknown hostile power.

The report details that by mid-February of 1947, the American ships were making their way through the Weddell Sea when the USS Brownson became aware of unknown aircraft shadowing her movements.

Initially, these were described as fast-moving lights off in the far distance, but as they gradually started to venture closer and closer, contacts also began to register on the Brownson's radar screens.

As the US ships had closed up together, Five of the craft had started to overfly the fleet at low altitude, dodging and weaving in and out of the tightly packed American vessels at breakneck speeds.

Deeming their actions hostile, Captain Gimber ordered the Brownson's gunners to target the attackers, the destroyer immediately opening fire using her 40mm anti-aircraft cannons.

The witnesses described the five unidentified aircraft as saucer-shaped and testified that as soon as the Brownson opened fire, the mysterious craft retaliated with incredible beams of light and heat.

As fighter aircraft had been scrambling to launch from the deck of the USS Casablanca, they had been burned out of the sky, their airframes and crews reduced to little more than ash by the advanced enemy weaponry.

Return fire from the Americans proved relatively ineffective, due to the superior speed and maneuverability of the attackers, but whilst the battle had progressed, there was some success.

As one of the mysterious craft had passed over the USS Senet, A lucky shot from the submarine's deck gun caught it, the 5-inch shell sending the flying machine spinning wildly off to one side.

The downed aircraft had detonated violently as it impacted the water's surface, but then there was another greater explosion.

The USS Maddox, a destroyer attached to the task force, had sustained serious damage as a result of the relentless attack, including a fire that had fatally spread to her magazines.

The resultant explosion killed all those aboard and sent the stricken vessel to the sea floor.

Realizing they were outmatched, the Americans would spend the next few days retreating out of the area, continually harassed by the unknown attackers.

The writer of the report ended by speculating that the subsequent US mission to the region had also failed to defeat the forces that had been ranged against them, and that the Americans had eventually resorted to nuclear weapons in a final bid to defeat their mysterious opponent.

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The Soviet document was seized upon by commentators and conspiracy theorists the world over as proof that there was something sinister lurking within the safety of the South Pole.

For some, it was the definitive proof that aliens lived and walked amongst us.

To others, this was the last bastion of Nazi resistance to have survived the Second World War.

And then there were those who theorized that the answer lay in combining these two theories, as Hitler's fugitive forces utilized alien technology they had uncovered to build a glorious Fourth Reich underneath the ice caps.

Even from just a cursory inspection, it is evident that there are glaring errors contained within the Soviet report that act to undermine its credibility.

But then this is perhaps unsurprising.

Material produced by Russian intelligence staff during the communist era is largely typified by the need to create what the author's masters wanted to to hear, rather than a more truthful representation of the actual events.

For example, repeated references are made to the USS Casablanca, an aircraft carrier which did not sail with the high jump flotilla and was instead laid up in Norfolk awaiting her decommission during the expedition.

It is possible that over time, the witnesses have confused the Casablanca with the USS Curituk, but then there is also the issue of the alleged sinking of the USS Maddox.

Again, the Maddox did not play any part in the Antarctic mission.

Two destroyers of that name were constructed by the US Navy during the Second World War.

The first was sunk by German dive bombers during the invasion of Italy in 1944.

Her namesake also saw active service during the conflict and also went on to participate in the Vietnam War, where she was involved in the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident, but neither would have been in the Antarctic during the winter of 1947.

Finally, the references to American fighter aircraft being destroyed and mass casualties having been inflicted by the attackers is strongly contradicted by the official high jump diaries.

In total, the expedition is reported to have sustained four fatalities during its time in the Antarctic.

Three men perished when their PBM Mariner crashed in poor weather conditions.

A further sailor was crushed during an accident whilst unloading scientific equipment onto the ice.

If we are at all to buy into the Soviet narrative, then there are two possible explanations for these inaccuracies.

The first is that the report was an exercise in disinformation, designed by the United States to draw out traitors in their ranks, and to deliberately confuse their opponent.

The second is that the incident was indeed genuine.

and that the American government used fear and paranoia of the Cold War to suppress and hide all trace of it, with national security acting as justification.

So, is it simple enough to write off the Russian account as a work of mere fiction?

Perhaps, but it is apparent that something unexpected did occur, which forced the high jump expedition to conclude unexpectedly ahead of schedule.

Also worth considering are the cryptic comments made by Rear Admiral Byrd, about America suddenly having much more to fear from possible attackers emanating from that region.

It is of course easy to dismiss the fantastic conspiracy theories of a sprawling Nazi stronghold, hidden inside gigantic geothermal vents that were discovered underneath the ice.

But the fact remains that one of Hitler's many aims was the establishment of a presence for the Third Reich in all of the world's far-flung regions, a goal in which he would invest significant time and effort.

In 1938, a German freighter named the MS Schwabenland set sail from its homeport of Hamburg and made its way down through the South Atlantic towards the South Pole.

The ship was carrying two Dornier seaplanes that had been fitted out with skis, which would allow the crew to land on the ice.

The mission was commanded by a famed German explorer named Alfred Ritcher.

The German expedition eventually made landfall in an area known as the Princess Martha Coast, which had previously been claimed by the Norwegian government.

They immediately renamed it Neuschwabenland, establishing a permanent research station for their scientists to work from, and carrying out numerous aerial reconnaissance missions of the area surrounding their encampment.

Richer and his crew would return to Hamburg six months later, and would immediately begin plans for another trip back to the area.

However, official records indicate that this second expedition never took place, as the outbreak of World War II prevented them from being able to pull together the manpower and resources they would have needed.

It is clear though, that the German government did succeed in conducting further undocumented forays into the polar regions.

As recently as 2014, the remains of an abandoned naval outpost, previously unknown, were discovered on the island of Alexandraland, near to the North Pole.

Its rusting bunkers and Nazi flags provided damning evidence that there is much we still do not know about Adolf Hitler.

and his secretive ambitions.

Captain Helke's alleged encounter with a mysterious German submarine in early 1947 has largely been dismissed as a fantasy, and yet it remains far from an impossibility.

Of the 150 or so large vessels that have historically vanished without trace from the world's oceans and which remain missing to this day, a significant number are German U-boats.

A thousand of these submarines were put to sea during the Second World War.

with over 20 still unaccounted for, their fates and final resting places a complete mystery.

It is also well documented that Luftwaffe engineers did indeed successfully create aircraft using technology considered revolutionary for their time, and that some of these prototypes did resemble what has come to be accepted as the classic outline of a flying saucer.

The most well-known of these was the Hornaboo, which supposedly only managed a number of test flights before the bases it was operating from were overrun by occupying forces in the dying days of the war.

There is little doubt that given time, the Germans might have been able to turn the tide of battle, and that they did not require extraterrestrial technology in order to do so.

After all, German science, technology and engineering were instrumental in breaking the sound barrier, producing the first working long-range ballistic missiles, and the earliest example of a stealth aircraft.

The Hornaboo was not powered by Martian technology, but was allegedly one huge turbine engine, housed within a circular airframe.

It was said to be capable of a speed and manoeuvrability unrivalled for its era, and it is terrifying to think of the losses it might have inflicted on the Allied powers, given even just a few further months of experimentation.

Once the more fantastic and outlandish elements of the Operation High Jump saga are stripped away, what should easily be dismissed as a creative piece of science fiction does seem to retain a concerning amount of substance.

It is uncomfortably apparent apparent that the military might of the United States did encounter something unexpected during their post-war expedition to the South Pole.

Something that they felt the need to repeatedly confront, and potentially even resort to nuclear warfare in order to vanquish it.

Whether this mysterious force was extraterrestrial in nature or was instead born out of the darkest crimes in human history may never officially be known.

We shall have to wait and see what other evidence waits to be uncovered as human exploration of the Antarctic region continues.

Who knows what abandoned settlements and sunken vessels lie waiting to be discovered, perfectly preserved, beneath the polar ice.

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Story 2.

The New York Nuke

From solar cannons to time-traveling armies, there are few areas of science fiction which were not inspired in some way by Hitler's Wonder Weapons program.

In the majority of cases, these outlandish proposals rarely made it off the drawing board, but there is concerning evidence that the Third Reich may have come uncomfortably close to deploying nuclear weapons on American soil.

As the sun started to sink below the horizon, the solitary solitary twin-engine bomber made steady progress along the Baltic coast.

Its pilot, Hans Zinse, was well aware that twilight was the only safe window of flight for the Luftwaffe.

Too late for the enemy's daytime patrols, and too early for their night fighter equivalents.

The Heinkel 111 he piloted was rapidly becoming something of a rarity.

This model had been one of the most abundant bombers at the outset of the war, but High Command's desire to channel their available resources into the development of new and untested aircraft designs meant that the heavy losses their existing bomber fleet had suffered were not being addressed.

Zinser had managed to avoid active service, instead operating as a test pilot.

The bomber he was now transporting from one side of Germany to the other was destined for modification.

in order to drastically expand its operational range.

This was an unfortunate necessity, as the airfields which had originally been taken by the Wehrmacht as it had surged across Europe during the opening months of the war had slowly fallen back into enemy hands.

He flew on, the light outside the cockpit gradually fading, nurturing a growing sense of unease.

Zinser allowed himself one last look around, scanning for enemy fighters and searching for visual landmarks to take a bearing from.

He then glanced down to consult the map that rested upon his right leg.

By By the dim overhead lighting, he reckoned that he was now passing somewhere to the southwest of Lubeck, continuing into the province of Mecklenburg.

He was still peering down at the map when the whole cabin was suddenly saturated by blinding white light.

After the light had faded, he was shocked to see a gigantic cloud rising into the air off to starboard.

He watched for about a minute, hypnotized as it swelled into a huge mushroom shape, when all of a sudden

he was hit by a huge shockwave.

The control column was violently yanked out of his grasp, and the plane veered off to one side as if it had been swatted by a gigantic open palm.

It was on the verge of descending into an unrecoverable dive.

but Zinsa was somehow able to regain control.

This was not the first time he had found himself fighting to keep a plane in the air, but as he finally managed to level the Heinkel out, he was stunned by what he could now see out of the cockpit windows.

Approximately 10 miles away from his position, the huge mushroom-shaped cloud now filled the sky.

Zinser assumed it was the pressure wave emitted from this enormous blast that had impacted against the bomber.

He banked his aircraft towards the billowing cloud to see if he could determine what had caused such a massive explosion.

As he flew closer, the bomber's electrical system started to malfunction, with his radio apparently failing altogether.

Frowning, Zinser turned away, noting how the cloud had an almost violet blue hue to it and appeared to be illuminated from the inside by occasional smaller explosions.

He wrote down that the cloud was approximately one kilometer wide and that the edges were starting to dissipate after about half a minute before continuing on his way.

Upon landing, Zinser's papers were seized, and he was curtly ordered not to speak of the matter to anybody else.

The next time he would see his logbook would be weeks after the war ended, laid out on an interrogation room table in front of him by American intelligence officials.

The document would later be transported to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, where it was subsequently discovered by researchers in 1973.

The coastal township of Owl's Head is located roughly five miles from the city of Rockland in Maine, taking its name from the peninsula where it is situated.

It is a popular holidaying destination and is perhaps best known for the imposing 19th century granite lighthouse which looms above the town's coastline.

But in the autumn of 1944, This picturesque resort was the setting for a mysterious and deeply troubling incident.

At around midday on Monday the 18th of September, an elderly couple out walking along the nearby coastal trail caught sight of a lone aeroplane, approaching the town from the direction of Vinylhaven Island.

This in itself was not unusual, with PBM mariners conducting regular patrols off the main coastline in search of German U-boat activity, but subsequent events would make it clear that this aircraft did not belong to the United States Navy.

Both witnesses described the plane as having six engines, rather than the two found on the Mariner, with a much thinner and longer fuselage.

It was also coloured in a dark camouflage paint scheme, in stark contrast to the bright livery of the US Naval Patrol craft.

As they watched on, they realized that the mysterious aeroplane was steadily losing altitude as it came in from across the ocean, drawing ever closer to the glassy waters below.

The aircraft continued its slow and torturous descent for several more minutes, until the inevitable outcome.

A blade from one of the propellers clipped the water's surface, instantly sending the plane cartwheeling into oblivion.

In moments it was all over, with nothing but churning waters and smoke rising from the point where the doomed aircraft had entered the bay.

After waiting for a short time to see if anybody had managed to survive the crash, the couple hurried back into town and reported the incident to the Knox County Sheriff's Department.

Inquiries were then made to the military, who confirmed that they were not aware of any planned activity in the area and that all their aircraft were accounted for.

A search conducted using one of the local fishermen's boats yielded nothing for the deputies sent out to investigate the report, other than a small oil slick, and so no further investigation took place.

However, 10 days later on the morning of the 28th of September, the remains of three dead men were found washed up in Penobscot Bay, just to the north of the town.

As the resident who had located the bodies stood waiting for the police, he noted that they were dressed in greyish-blue overalls, equipped with various items which suggested they were aviators.

One of the men appeared to have some sort of rank displayed on his collar with yellow and brown tabs.

Whilst the resident did not recognize this insignia, the cross-shaped black medal located on the left breast pocket was chillingly familiar to him.

Realising that whatever they were looking at was beyond their remit, the attending deputies immediately referred the matter to the military.

They remained at the scene and assisted in keeping back the growing crowd of onlookers, whilst soldiers recovered the bodies of the three pilots and transported them to the nearby Ash Point Naval Air Station.

This was not, however, the last that the locals would hear of the matter.

For For the next few days, a steady stream of military and government officials visited the town.

Some of these claimed to be army intelligence officers, whilst others introduced themselves as FBI agents, asking if any other residents had seen what had transpired.

Regardless of the subsequent reply, they all went to great pains to emphasise that the bodies had come from a submarine, which had sunk further out in the bay, and that no plane crash had occurred.

After the the war, the story of the three dead German airmen remained firmly embedded in the local consciousness, and many years later, a local diver named Reuben Whitmore decided to investigate the matter further.

For several months, he dived in and around the area, searching for evidence of the crash.

The alleged wreck was not there, but he did manage to recover several small pieces of metallic debris.

exactly at the spot where the plane apparently came down.

One of these metal pieces was subsequently identified by experts as a manufacturer's plate.

Despite being rusted and degraded during its time under the water, raised lettering was still clearly visible.

This consisted of a serial number and the word Fliegero Burstkommando, a German military designation which loosely translates as a pilot holding the rank of colonel.

The fact that the wreck of the downed aircraft appears to have been covertly recovered and the insistence by the United States military that it never even existed raises troubling questions.

The American military did not attempt to deny or conceal similar attacks by submarine-launched Japanese aircraft during the Second World War, so what exactly was it that compelled them to cover up this particular enemy incursion?

The exact purpose of this lone German bomber is unknown.

Such an aircraft, equipped with conventional weaponry, would have had little chance of inflicting significant damage to any target in the American mainland.

Given the dangers of the extreme range it would need to operate at, coupled with the significant defenses of the United States Air Force, such an endeavor would be tantamount to a suicide mission.

So just why did these young German airmen end up dying so far from their homeland?

The answer lies in a covert German military project that predated the outbreak of World War II, codenamed America Bomber.

In 1938, Adolf Hitler Hitler was well aware that his future plans for European domination ran the risk of bringing the Third Reich into direct conflict with the United States.

He ordered that the Luftwaffe commence research into a bomber capable of delivering its payload to New York City and still having enough fuel to return home.

At the time of this request, There was no aircraft on Earth capable of completing the 7,200-mile round trip, let alone one heavily laden with explosive munitions.

As with many of Hitler's edicts, the project was paid the necessary lip service and then quietly filed away, but this would immediately change when America entered the war in December of 1941.

Suddenly, the Luftwaffe had a new top priority.

Many different designs were considered, from aircraft equipped with jet engines, to modified rocket technology.

But the truth was that the Germans had neither the resources nor the expertise to pursue such an undertaking.

Instead, extensive work was carried out in the creation of a specially adapted conventional bomber capable of the task, the JU-390.

As with many German military projects, the completed aircraft arrived far too late in the conflict to be able to turn the tide of the war, and a lack of basic resources meant that few were ever constructed.

In the dying days of World War II, the Allies believed that only one functioning prototype of the aircraft ever existed, which was found dismantled when the American Army had captured Dassault in November of 1944.

But that thinking changed during the post-war interrogation of a Luftwaffe airman named Unterofficer Wolf Baumgart.

A photographic reconnaissance expert, Baumgart claimed that in fact seven working JU-390s had been constructed in total.

completing flights as far afield as Cape Town and Tokyo.

But it was Baumgart's assertion that one of these aircraft had successfully reached New York that most troubled his captors.

The Luftwaffe officer claimed that in January of 1944, a JU-390 had set off from the airfield at Mont de Masson, not far from Bordeaux.

Over the next 32 hours, it had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and managed to penetrate American airspace to within 12 miles of New York City, taking several photographs of its iconic skyline.

In 2007, a supporting story appeared online which claimed that in early 1944, another JU-390 had managed to reach Ohio, having set off from an airfield in Norway.

Allegedly, this plane was able to take pictures of the coastline off Long Island during its return journey.

These accounts, coupled with the fact that the JU-390 was indeed equipped with six engines, do seem to add significant credence to the possibility that one may indeed have crash-landed in Maine in September of 1944.

America's entry into the war had caused Hitler to become obsessed with being able to score some form of symbolic victory against his new enemy.

He raged at the countless German citizens killed during the incessant Allied bombing campaign and vowed to find a way to repay these actions in kind.

There was only one way to achieve this aim.

to drop a nuclear weapon on a major American city.

History tells us that despite their best efforts, Germany was unable to create a viable nuclear weapon during the course of the war.

However, this narrative is directly challenged by the alleged nuclear explosion witnessed by Hans Zinse during his flight near the Ludwistlust testing grounds.

Naturally, his account would be easy enough to dismiss, were it not for the existence of a corroborating witness.

Writing after hostilities had ceased, an Italian war correspondent named Luigi Ramire claimed that in October of 1944, the same month of Zinza's report, he had been dispatched to Germany at the request of Benito Mussolini.

Whilst there, he was taken to a remote island in the Baltic Sea, not far off the coast, where he witnessed a gigantic and blinding explosion.

When he asked what had caused the blast, He was told by his military escorts that it was a fission weapon.

The entire purpose of the America Bomber project hinged on the delivery of a superweapon directly into the heart of enemy territory.

A weapon designed to cause the largest possible loss of life and to gift the Nazi leadership with a propaganda victory the likes of which the world had never witnessed.

The successful delivery of such a device could have granted Hitler an untold degree of bargaining power.

and potentially even changed the entire outcome of the war.

Might his enemies have paused their offensives under the the threat of further detonations, or would such an act merely have pushed them to respond in kind, dropping atomic weapons on Germany rather than Japan?

The window of opportunity for such a raid on the American mainland would have been closing rapidly in the aftermath of the successful Normandy landings.

And with little in the way of resources to call upon, if the Germans were able to create a viable fission weapon, it is unlikely they would have been able to create more than one such device.

What was it that caused the US military to deny the existence of the downed German aircraft off the coast of Maine, and then to covertly recover its remains?

What awaited the naval divers who first ventured onto the wreckage?

An odd-looking solitary weapon?

Rather than the bombay full of munitions that they were expecting to find?

The reality is that barring any future admission by the American government, we will never know the truth behind the owl's head crash.

Potentially, this this may have been a further test flight or reconnaissance mission for the developers of the JU-390,

or perhaps even a last desperate attempt at a good news story or propaganda coup for the German people, the conventional bombing raid on an American city providing a symbolic response to airborne destruction of Germany's infrastructure.

But the possibility remains that this may have been something far more sinister.

Something so awful and horrifying to the minds of American leaders that it needed to be concealed from the American people.

And if this was indeed the case, we must remain thankful that it never came to pass.

Bed times for us.