Nazi Moonbase Read online

  In January 1948, Operation Windmill discovered the remains of the abandoned Neuschwaben landbase in Antarctica. Among the remains of the base the expedition’s scientists discovered clear evidence of hydroponic cultivation of wheat, rye, and several vegetables, which would have been as vital in Antarctica as it is on the Moon. Geological surveys and lander missions from the 1960s on have confirmed that the lunar surface provides all the minerals necessary to mix a “Hoagland solution” soil substitute.

  In addition, biologists attached to Operation Windmill recovered bones and droppings that indicated the presence of sheep, pigs, and cattle at the Neuschwaben landbase, as well as laboratory equipment consistent with artificial insemination and genetic research. A classified report in the files of the US Air Force concludes that the fleeing Nazis took any remaining livestock with them.

  Waste Processing

  In designing the Walhalla base, Kammler took every precaution to avoid wasting resources that could not be as readily replenished on the Moon as they could on Earth. Waste processing begins with water extraction and purification to replenish the base’s modest water supply.

  Next, the dried waste passes through a number of fermentations which yield methane and other hydrocarbons. These were especially important during the base’s early years when certain operations were still fueled by combustion engines, but since the mid-1960s the zero-point energy from the Glocke has replaced the need for hydrocarbon fuels. Now, they are used mainly to supplement the soil substitute used in the base’s hydroponic labs.

  In the final stage, the remaining waste is processed chemically to extract trace amounts of various metals and minerals. Based on US experiments over the last decade, it is estimated that less than 0.18 ounces of non-recoverable waste is produced per person, per day.

  THE GLOCKE

  Also known as the Yaktavian Bell, the Glocke power source developed out of Thule Society research, which indicated that placing mercury under magnetic stress could alter its fundamental nature and release a virtually unlimited supply of energy.

  Under the name Lanternenträger (Lantern-Bearer), a project was begun in fall 1943 to construct a Glocke in Silesia’s Wenceslas Mine. Using a radioactive mercury isotope called Xerum 525, the Glocke was large enough to power the entire Third Reich, in theory at least.

  Russian and Polish forces overran Silesia in 1945. During the early years of the Cold War, it was feared that the Soviet Union had captured the Glocke and would turn its power against the United States and its allies. These fears were not allayed until 1968, when Apollo 8 photographed it in the Aristarchus crater. How it was smuggled out of Germany remains a mystery.

  Power

  After the primary structures of the base were in position, the power plants of the Haunebu craft were coupled together to create a working power grid. While this was sufficient for day-to-day operation, Kammler had calculated that a much larger power source would be required in order to meet the needs of the various special projects relocated to the Moon.

  As an interim measure while the Glocke zero-point energy source was being set up, the saucers’ power plants were supplemented by a steam-turbine system improvised from stripped U-boat parts. An array of water-filled pipes took advantage of the Moon’s daytime surface temperatures of around 240 degrees Fahrenheit to generate electricity. Never intended to last, this makeshift system failed after a few months under the extreme stress of lunar temperature variation: without the moderating effects of an atmosphere, day and night temperatures can vary by as much as 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

  Once the Glocke was online, the steam turbine system was largely cannibalized for parts and raw materials. However, as late as 1958 an early Soviet Luna mission photographed what seemed to be a scrap yard containing lengths of pipe and partial turbine blades.

  Die Glocke (“the Bell”) was moved from Silesia ahead of the Allied advance. Using a radioactive mercury fuel, it remains the main power source for the base. (Murriemir)

  Communications

  As part of the Bifrost Protocol, the Haunebu IV was fitted with a Würzburg-Riese Gigant radar system with a range of over 60 miles. The system has been continually upgraded over the years, and according to classified US Air Force documents the base was able to detect an attacking MQ-37 drone from a range of 200 miles during a 2015 mission. The Würzburg array is supplemented by various radio and television antennae which allow the base to monitor transmissions from Earth.

  Outgoing radio traffic from the Walhalla base was first detected by Britain’s Jodrell Bank Observatory in early 1949. The first radio intercepts were handed off to the Government Code and Cipher School at RAF Eastcote in west London, which found that they were internal base communications and not, as was first suspected, messages to surviving Nazis on Earth. The watching brief passed to a joint project run by GCHQ from its Cheltenham headquarters with assistance from MI5 and the Ministry of Defence. By 1951 both the CIA and KGB had become aware of the lunar transmissions and set up their own monitoring programs; these led directly to the US and Soviet space programs, which are discussed in a later chapter.

  A Würzburg-Reise radar dish. Normally ground-based, a unit was fitted to the Haunebu IV craft. (MoRsE)

  Resource Extraction

  Under the Bifrost Protocol, Kammler planned to take enough resources to the Moon to sustain the Walhalla base for the first three months of its life. During that period, all personnel not directly involved in base construction were assigned to lunar exploration and prospecting. These early missions showed that iron, oxygen, and silicon were comparatively abundant on the lunar surface, along with magnesium, aluminum, manganese, and titanium. As expected, carbon and nitrogen were extremely scarce, and a stringent waste recycling program was set up to preserve what had been brought from Earth.

  Metal extraction and refining became one of the most important day-today operations as soon as the Glocke power source was working. A number of linear and squared-off features have been photographed on the Moon, contrasting markedly with the craters surrounding them. Some have been claimed as proof of alien activity on the Moon, but while NASA and other government agencies have declined to comment beyond condemning the photos as fakes, a few writers have noted that these images are similar to aerial photographs of open-cast mines and their supporting road networks.

  Moonbase Projects

  When Kammler devised the Bifrost Protocol, he had more in mind than simply the survival of Nazi ideology and advanced technology. He knew that removing vital projects and personnel to the Moon would buy a window of time in which the Walhalla base would be undetected, and a longer window within which the Allies would be unable to reach it – and he intended to make full use of that time.

  Kammler applied stringent criteria in selecting the projects that would be taken to Walhalla. Some were necessary for the survival and development of the base itself. Others had to offer a way to strike back during the base’s period of impunity, or a means of returning to Earth in force when the time was right. All had to be feasible in the harsh and airless lunar environment.

  The operations of the Walhalla base were organized into four divisions, or Abteilungen, covering life population, weapons, space flight, and support. Every project was assigned to the appropriate division.

  The Divisions

  Life Support Systems, including construction and maintenance (Abteilung für Lebenserhaltungssysteme): The most important of the divisions when Walhalla was founded, this division has settled into a maintenance role.

  Weaponry (Abteilung für Geschütze): This division oversees all long-range weaponry, and is in charge of Projekt Mjölnir.

  Spaceship Development, Production, and Operation (Abteilung für Weltraumfahrzeuge): This division is in charge of Walhalla’s saucer fleet, and plays a major role in long-range defense missions to Earth, and the preparations for Projekt Gungnir.

  Population and Personnel (Abteilung für Bevölkerungswesen): In addition to running the base’s Lebensborn progra
m, this division oversees technical and troop training as well as the development of metahuman personnel and, a little strangely, the android program, Projekt Eisenmann.

  Lebensborn

  The Division for Population and Personnel was tasked with ensuring that the base’s population could sustain itself over as many generations as necessary until the Bifrost Protocol was completed. As well as maintaining a sufficient population to provide for the base’s personnel needs, this division took charge of political indoctrination, education, and training.

  The Lebensborn program was begun by the SS in 1935 with the goal of finding children who possessed the physical characteristics of the Aryan ideal to increase the breeding stock of the Aryan race. Initially the project focused on SS members and their families, but as the war progressed it became common to seize children from occupied countries and bring them to Germany for “re-education.”

  Although the Lebensborn program did not come directly under Kammler’s command, by 1945 his prestige within the SS enabled him to requisition more than 200 Lebensborn aged 13–18 for “technical apprenticeships.” Apprentices were selected for their devotion to Nazi ideals as well as for technical aptitude. This younger population was the seed of a self-sustaining community that would keep the base staffed over a period of generations, as plans and preparations were made for a return to Earth and the creation of a new Nazi Reich.

  Lebensborn Mutants

  The small gene pool within the Walhalla base significantly increased the odds of mutations arising within the Lebensborn population. A few very heavily-built figures have been seen on surveillance images of the base, and after-action reports from the 1972 American assault mentioned a few so-called “Trolls,” of massive build but lower than average intelligence, formed into four-man Sturmtruppe sections and used as an expendable, berserker-style shock force for base defense.

  The Myth of Hitler’s Brain

  There have been persistent rumors that Hitler’s brain was smuggled out of Germany before the surrender, and that it may exist somewhere in a cloned body or even an armored robot. The Walhalla base is one possibility, but most intelligence analysts and experienced Nazi-hunters consider it a remote one.

  There are two main theories regarding the whereabouts of Hitler’s brain. At least some of his body was smuggled to Brazil where Josef Mengele planned to create cloned copies of the Führer. This plan was Mengele’s own, and was thwarted in 1978 by a Viennese Nazi-hunter. Rumors that Hitler’s brain was taken to a separate location in South America have never been proven.

  The second theory arose after an American secret agent reported encountering a power-armored Hitler in a remote German castle where various other experiments were taking place. The report was initially dismissed because Hitler was known to be in Berlin at the time, but a similar encounter was reported in Romania in 1952. Some writers now believe that a clone of Hitler – or of his head – was encased in a robotic body and removed either to the Moon or to the center of the Earth.

  At the time of writing the truth of the matter is unclear, although it cannot be denied that a resurrected Hitler would have a powerful symbolic value for a planned Nazi return to Earth.

  The limited gene pool at the base led to a higher than normal incidence of mutation, including individuals with great strength but limited intelligence. (Artwork Hauke Kock)

  Eisenmänner

  Especially during its initial construction, the Walhalla base had a great need for workers able to operate in the airless lunar environment. Space suits were available for a few key workers, but much of the heavy work was relegated to heavy androids known as Eisenmänner (Iron Men). Over time, the Eisenmänner were developed into two separate classes, one for heavy construction tasks and another for battle.

  The battle robots mount two 20mm KSK weapons in place of arms and are reported to be capable of moving at 50mph in a series of kangaroo-like hops. In 1972, more US casualties were attributed to these robots than to enemy ground troops or fixed defensive weaponry. Recent surveillance images have shown similar figures estimated to be 12–15 feet in height, although it is not certain whether these are a new, larger generation of robots or manned, powered battlesuits developed from the same basic design.

  Mensch-Maschinen

  Between the death of Stalin in 1953 and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, rising tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union led to a real possibility of nuclear war. It has long been rumored that, in addition to the functionally-designed Eisenmänner, German scientists were working on a class of Mensch-Maschinen (Man- or Human Machines): perfect androids that could pass for normal humans – and even for specific individuals.

  There are some who believe that Mensch-Maschinen were actually deployed on Earth during this period. The CIA and the KGB both investigated claims that certain prominent individuals – among them US Senator Joseph McCarthy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – were diverted from important meetings and replaced by Mensch-Maschinen whose mission was to raise Cold War tensions to the point where the two superpowers wiped each other out. If this could be accomplished, it is argued, the final phase of the Bifrost Protocol could be put into effect. The Black Sun fleet could return to Earth and found its Fourth Reich on the ruins of Europe and North America.

  Although its proponents point out various incidents during this period when prominent leaders on either side seemed bent on provoking a nuclear exchange, this theory remains controversial. Both governments continue to deny that their leaders were anything other than themselves at this time, while a rival theory proposes that their instability was caused by Nazi agents using some kind of mind-control weapon.

  Base Defenses

  Although Walhalla was untouchable when it was first founded, the Order of the Black Sun knew that this could not last. Therefore, a high priority was given to base defenses. Initially, the KSK weapons from the Haunebu saucers were moved from the crafts’ undersides to improvised top mounts, but further development has taken place ever since.

  Energy-Beam Weapons

  In addition to the saucers’ KSK armament, Kammler brought a number of other weapon projects to the Moon, with the intention of developing them in parallel until a clear front-runner emerged.

  The Feuerball electrostatic weapon was the first to be dropped: it was soon discovered that outside the protection of the Earth’s magnetosphere, the Solar Wind and other sources of radiation interfered catastrophically with its guidance systems, and its electrostatic output was too small to have any effect on a craft that was hardened against the levels of radiation that are common on the Moon.

  The Kugelblitz fell by the wayside almost as quickly, and for the same reasons. Research focused on the three energy-beam weapon projects: Rheotron, Röntgenkanone, and the combat-tested KSK. Over time, the Rheotron and Röntgenkanone projects merged to produce a viable long-range weapon: continually developed and upgraded, the KSK has remained Walhalla’s main defensive armament.

  Reconnaissance before the US attack in 1972 found that large KSK weapons – ranging from 20–80mm – had been mounted to give clear fields of fire upon every part of the base’s surroundings, with outposts on the rim of the Aristarchus crater. These emplacements remain today – doubtless with upgraded weaponry – and so far they have been the main targets of recent American MQ-14 drone strikes.

  Another area of development has been in the field of laser weapons. The Eisenmänner battle robots are armed with powerful lasers, and in 1972 US troops also encountered Nazi troopers armed with rifle-sized versions.

  A captured Kraftstrahlkanone turret displayed in a Russian museum. The KSK was the most successful of several energy-beam weapon projects. (Artwork Hauke Kock)

  Missiles

  By 1944, Germany was developing a number of guided and unguided missiles. In addition to strategic bombardment weapons like the V-1 and V-2, a number of promising surface-to-air missiles (SAM) and air-to-air weapons were being designed to help break up American bomber boxe
s, and so were radio-controlled antishipping missiles.

  By February 6, 1945, Kammler had canceled all SAM projects, intending to divert personnel and resources to Haunebu and KSK development. However, he did take a number of Hs 117 Schmetterling and Reinmetall-Borsig Reintochter missiles to Antarctica as defenses for the stopgap Neuschwaben landbase. American aircraft did not come within range of these weapons during Operation High Jump, and they were never used. American forces who explored the base during Operation Windmill found them abandoned, apparently because their control surfaces, designed for use in Earth’s atmosphere, made them useless on the Moon.

  However, Kammler did take a number of unguided rockets with him to bolster Walhalla’s defenses. The Werfer-Granate 21 was unpopular with the Luftwaffe because of the drag caused by its wide launch tube, and Kammler had little difficulty acquiring a stock of these weapons, which he mounted in modified Nebelwerfer multiple launchers. An upgraded version of the same system was encountered by US forces in 1972. The rockets created dense clouds of flak that were capable of shredding an unarmored space suit, with catastrophic consequences for the wearer.

  Recent US drone missions have not encountered any flak defenses. Military analysts believe that all the base’s rockets were expended in 1972 and never replaced, either because the ingredients for their fuel and warheads are hard to find on the Moon, or because of the base’s increased reliance on KSKs and other energy-beam weapons.

  A Werfer-Granate 21 rocket being loaded onto a Focke-Wulf Fw 194 fighter. Luftwaffe pilots disliked the drag caused by the launch tubes, but this weapon proved very effective during Operation Lyre. (Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-674-7772-13A)

  Long-Range Weapons

  To carry out the second phase of the Bifrost Protocol, Kammler needed long-range heavy weapons capable of bombarding Earth from outside its atmosphere. Von Braun had made sure that Germany’s rocket research was out of his grasp, but he had access to several other weapons, both existing and in development.