AHC: Real Nazi base in Antarctica

[Athelstane]

This has to become a movie one day! Thank you! ☺

Or maybe a streaming mini-series...

Think of what the morale, the psychology, of men basically trapped in an Antarctic wasteland for six years would develop into, with only furtive annual visits by u-boat to deliver minimal supplies and perhaps some heavily censored family letters. Many of them would be a bit mad by the end. And there would be illness and deaths, too, and that will have a psychological toll, too. Maybe the radios break down, and then they lose even sporadic intercepts of BBC broadcasts out of Cape Town until the next year's u-boat shows up with spare parts. A good screenwriter could do a lot with that.

I was even toying with the idea of making it a Nazi counterpart to the Franklin Expedition, having the entire expedition frozen in by pack ice, its orders for radio silence making its exact location unknown even to the German high command, and the few men in Berlin who know of the mission assuming it was lost with all hands...and an American or British Antarctic expedition ten years later finally coming upon the remains of the Neuschwabenland men and their artifacts, strung out along the coast of Queen Maud Land, with many showing signs of cannibalism...

This, too, is not an implausible story.

In the 2010's, the sordid tale becomes the basis for a Zombie Nazi horror movie...

 

[Athelstane]

Thinking more about this...

I think my little mini alt-history tale reaches the upper limits of what is plausible whilst still reasonably being able to take advantage of the key requirement to make a Nazi Antarctic base actually endure for a while: secrecy.

It's not that it's *impossible* for the Germans to decide on something more ambitious, and possibly even execute it on some level. But it would require more resources, more personnel, more ships, more supply runs...it would become much harder to keep a secret from the Allies.

So setting aside Vril Discs and alien artifacts, what's the most likely possibility? Peeps here have alluded to it: a full-on, secret u-boat base. Granted, it's a freaking poor use of resources, but again, the Germans did sillier things. So what would that look like?

The obvious models here would be German u-boat bases in Norway. The KM actually established u-boat bases of various kinds at Narvik, Bergen, Tromso, Trondheim, Horten, Hammerfest, Kirkenes, and Kristiansand - I hadn't realized just how many they set up there. Some of these were impressive, too, almost on scale with St Nazaire or Lorient - look at the scale of the Dora bunker at Trondheim:

Building all that in an advanced industrialized country a short distance from Germany is no mean feat. But can you imagine trying to build that in an empty icy wasteland on the other side of the world? All that poured concrete? Not even the big U.S. base at McMurdo has anything *quite* on that scale, and it took it many years and a lot of bucks to build even that.

So arguably the better model may be the smaller u-boat outposts at Hammerfest and Kirkenes, which has some limited comparability because both were north of the Arctic Circle, supporting a small number of subs used for Arctic patrols. These were largely centered around depot ships with limited shore infrastructure. They could refuel and reupply u-boats, and so some basic repair work - they managed to allow u-boats to do trim tests and dives in Bokfjord, for example - but really major repairs required a trip to big base like the Dora pens at Trondheim (See photos above). Kirkenes started out supporting two u-boats; the number fluctuated from there, but was never much more.

(For a short treatment of why even most of the u-boat operations in the Norwegian Arctic turned out to be a horribly wasteful operation, see here.)

A Kirkenes style base could be done with a resource commitment not hugely bigger than my scenario, but it will be more. Kirkenes after all was a town over 3,000 population, with an airfield big enough to support a Luftwaffe jagdgeschwader. There were enough local resources to feed the base staff to a large degree and provide some other basic necessities; it was air accessible for at least some replacement of personnel and parts. But whatever you build in Queen Maud Land, you have to bring everything with you, and bring it by sea on a long-ass trip. You can't count on frequent resupply. And polar conditions were *brutal* on machinery, breaking and wearing out all sorts of things with high frequency, so you're going to need to bring a lot more spares than a depot ship operating in a temperate or even tropical clime will require. And likewise, you now have to feed all those men, too - there aren't any local farmers, and you can't count on being close to a penguin breeding ground. So, lots and lots of food. And you better have a plan for scurvy.

So it's going to require something like a small flotilla just to start with, and that means it's going to have to be initiated before the war breaks out. But even so, something on that scale is going to be . . . hard to hide. But even if it escapes initial detection, if you're basing at least a few subs out of it, then it's going to become obvious before long to the Allies that the Germans must have some kind of basing infrastructure in the area (even if it's just a depot ship) and they're going to go looking for it.

And then there's another difficulty:

That's typical peak pack ice extent in the Antarctic sea in a mid-20th century Antarctic winter. Queen Maud Land is at the topmost edge of the continent. Any u-boat trying to reach our notional Neuschwabenland depot base is going to have dive under four to five hundred miles of pack ice, and then, somehow, surface.

Now, u-boats actually had a significant record of operating in ice conditions, but it also wasn't anything remotely like what USS Nautilus achieved in the late 1950s. For example, the Type VIIC u-boat U-262 managed the impressive feat of operating under ice for over 16 hours straight witout surfacing. Obviously, 16 hours is not going to be sufficient to travel under 4-500 miles of pack ice, at least, not for a boat like *that*. And when U-262 *did surface, it wasn't into solid pack ice. Consider some log entries of what it experienced, even so:

27 April/ 10.12 – Have dived in a hole of open ice-free water with engines at stop.​

28 April/ 02.15 – Surfaced. Attempt to surface. The hatch in the conning tower cannot be opened due to an ice -floe laying on top​

28 April/ 02.20 – Surfaced. Second attempt. The hatch in the conning tower can be opened with great difficulty, the railing at the aft conning tower as well as the port net cutter ripped off, gun and MG C 30 damaged, outside doors of torpedo tubes No. I, III, and IV cannot be opened, anything bend by ice. 300 meters ahead I have ice free water.​

That third surface attempt basically mission killed his submarine. Ouch.

Now, Type XXI boats like the one I put Himmler on might have had greater success given that they could travel up to 340 miles submerged, but there were very few of those, and only late in the war. But the point is, your u-boat base is basically going to be inaccessible to KM u-boats for a large part of the year, full stop. It is possible the Germans might try to send one of the depot ships up to, say, the Kerguelen Islands, the McDonalds, or the Crozets for an ice-free option for their boats during the winter months, but then, as noted in my previous post, the risks of detection would be much higher: in OTL, the RN was on to the Kerguelen trick by 1941.

Short conclusion: a depot ship based u-boat base like this will either be abandoned as infeasible or detected by the Allies long before the war is over.

 

[Talwar]

Is there value to Germany in having a meteorological station in the region? I'm thinking not, but they did have raiders in the South Atlantic from time to time.

 

[Athelstane]

Is there value to Germany in having a meteorological station in the region? I'm thinking not, but they did have raiders in the South Atlantic from time to time.

Well, I mean, the value wouldn't be "zero," but it wouldn't be much more than that. The Germans had no more than a half dozen raiders in the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean, and not many more subs...

Also, if you're broadcasting meteorological reports, you increase greatly the risk of detection.

The value of secret German meteorological stations in Svalbard and Greenland in the war, by contrast, could benefit virtually all military ops in the ETO - the benefits outweighed the cost and risk of doing it.

It is interesting to note in this regard that there WAS, in fact, a secret British operation during the war to establish Antarctic bases - Operation TABARIN. But meteorology doesn't seem to have been a priority for it; nor indeed, any military operations as such, either, Mostly, it was about establishing territorial claims, mainly in the Palmer Peninsula and surrounding islands against Argentine encroachment.

 

[Athelstane]

One other interesting note in regard to the 1938-39 Neuschwabenland expedition: It turns out that there *were* concrete German plans for follow-up expeditions, albeit not with any expressed intent to establish a permanent presence yet. These were to be seasonal expeditions, too, involving many of the same personnel: one for the Antarctic summer of 1939-40, and then another for 1940-41. The outbreak of war delayed and then cancelled these plans, of course. There's an interesting German scholarly article that mentions this (see pages 86-90) if your German is up to snuff.

The planned expeditions seem, however, to have been mostly aimed at scientific research and propaganda value, in sofar as they might be able to establish territorial claims. Apparently the 1939-40 expedition would have gone west, around Cape Horn, and initially off to Peter I Island - the thinking was that, unlike Queen Maud Land, this was an area with little in the way of existing terriorial claims.

 

[Christopher Marcus]

Some terrific posts, so far. And thanks esp. to @Athelstane for ideas and reflections on how to pull this off for our intrepid Antarctic Nazis.

I've been thinking a bit about the 'Argentinian angle' (cf. the Deception Island raid by the British). What if the Germans actually had some more or less formalized (but secret) cooperation with the Argentines? The Germans could get fuel and supplies from Argentina, then - and the Argentinians could get ... hmm ... what? Some vague promise of help retaking the Malvinas once, you know, Hitler has won everything and the kitchen sink? Would the Argentines even risk this? Just a stray thought ... Otherwise, I have difficulty seeing any more realistic options for this one, but it's been a fun run so far.

 

[Catsmate]

It's okay if it's a small operation, mostly there for ... Reasons. And, you know, not a battalion of SS snowtroopers and such.

BTW: Did the Allies/neutrals even have permanent bases on Antarctica in 1945?

Other than Orcadas the first bases on mainland Antarctica were constructed in 1944 by Britain as part of Operation Tabarin, nominally to prevent German raiders and U-boats operating from the continent by actually to strengthen Britain's territorial claims. This provoked the post-war explosion in Antarctic exploration and claims.
There were other Antarctic missions during WW2, though few of them; Byrd's 1940-41 establishment of East Base for example.

 

[Catsmate]

Hmmmm...and that would explain the real reason behind Operation Highjump!

Operation Highjump - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bah, that was just cover for the real operation... But we're heading ASBwards.

 

[Puzzle]

If we want the Nazis down in the Antarctic to last any length of time they'll need to be fanatics which we can handwave, and resources which we can't. Geothermal power gets you electricity with minimal work and no need for really advanced science. It's hard to eat electricity, and fishing will only sustain them for so long, not to mention that it increases risks. They'd need to somehow interact with the outside world, and they'd need to trade something in order to get goods and valuables back. The obvious answer is drugs.

When they were sent down there they got crates and crates of whatever advanced amphetamines a weird nation state could put out, along with the formulas. With nothing better to do for three years and pills running low some of the more academically inclined fanatic addicts manage to synthesize more.

When the war is over they're drugged out of their minds and are feeling megalomaniacal. They kill the first few fishing boats they find, but eventually they decide to bribe some Argentinian fishermen with meth. They establish a healthy income stream, enough to keep them in meth and food, but eventually rumors of Nazi drug dealers reach some of the escaped higher level Nazis.

They're disgusted by what they find, but the drug money is the first real chance they have to get back anything. Naturally it makes more sense to establish the labs in more convenient locations, but a secret base is a good spot to lay low. Drug dealers with German accents begin to spread across the world, and their drugs have incredible quality. Seeking to profit from the association one failed chemistry teacher in Albuquerque names himself Heisenburg.

 

[the Imperium of Canada]

If we want the Nazis down in the Antarctic to last any length of time they'll need to be fanatics which we can handwave, and resources which we can't. Geothermal power gets you electricity with minimal work and no need for really advanced science. It's hard to eat electricity, and fishing will only sustain them for so long, not to mention that it increases risks. They'd need to somehow interact with the outside world, and they'd need to trade something in order to get goods and valuables back. The obvious answer is drugs.

When they were sent down there they got crates and crates of whatever advanced amphetamines a weird nation state could put out, along with the formulas. With nothing better to do for three years and pills running low some of the more academically inclined fanatic addicts manage to synthesize more.

When the war is over they're drugged out of their minds and are feeling megalomaniacal. They kill the first few fishing boats they find, but eventually they decide to bribe some Argentinian fishermen with meth. They establish a healthy income stream, enough to keep them in meth and food, but eventually rumors of Nazi drug dealers reach some of the escaped higher level Nazis.

They're disgusted by what they find, but the drug money is the first real chance they have to get back anything. Naturally it makes more sense to establish the labs in more convenient locations, but a secret base is a good spot to lay low. Drug dealers with German accents begin to spread across the world, and their drugs have incredible quality. Seeking to profit from the association one failed chemistry teacher in Albuquerque names himself Heisenburg.

Breaking Bad starring Antarctic Nazis?

 

[Dilvish]

If we want the Nazis down in the Antarctic to last any length of time they'll need to be fanatics which we can handwave, and resources which we can't. Geothermal power gets you electricity with minimal work and no need for really advanced science. It's hard to eat electricity, and fishing will only sustain them for so long, not to mention that it increases risks. They'd need to somehow interact with the outside world, and they'd need to trade something in order to get goods and valuables back. The obvious answer is drugs.

When they were sent down there they got crates and crates of whatever advanced amphetamines a weird nation state could put out, along with the formulas. With nothing better to do for three years and pills running low some of the more academically inclined fanatic addicts manage to synthesize more.

When the war is over they're drugged out of their minds and are feeling megalomaniacal. They kill the first few fishing boats they find, but eventually they decide to bribe some Argentinian fishermen with meth. They establish a healthy income stream, enough to keep them in meth and food, but eventually rumors of Nazi drug dealers reach some of the escaped higher level Nazis.

They're disgusted by what they find, but the drug money is the first real chance they have to get back anything. Naturally it makes more sense to establish the labs in more convenient locations, but a secret base is a good spot to lay low. Drug dealers with German accents begin to spread across the world, and their drugs have incredible quality. Seeking to profit from the association one failed chemistry teacher in Albuquerque names himself Heisenburg.

Naturally the authorities would be uncertain of the drugs' origins.

 

[Athelstane]

Some terrific posts, so far. And thanks esp. to @Athelstane for ideas and reflections on how to pull this off for our intrepid Antarctic Nazis.

De nada.

I will say that, having spent far too much time on this topic already, it has become obvious to me that any further development is clearly going to require a lot more research to flesh out as a realistic timeline. Specifically, the whole escape of Himmler (or, pick your favorite senior Nazi) to Antarctica in 1945 is going to be more difficult than I had supposed...

I've run across a 2007 article in the Polar Record by Cambridge scholar C. P. Summerhayes dissecting claims of Nazi bases in Antrarctica. Those claims and Summerhayes' debunking need not detain us here. But there's a valuable discussion of the difficulties of submarine travel in the Antarctic which is very relevant, because it helps clarify just how difficult it would have been, whatever timeline any of us decides to develop. Specifically:

All previous considerations have omitted to note thatJune, July and August are mid-winter months in thesouthern hemisphere. Could a submarine reach the coast of Dronning Maud Land, surface, and unload onto the ice shelf in mid-winter? The first obstacle would be the notorious Southern Ocean itself. The second obstacle would be the pack ice 1–2 m thick that surrounds Antarctica during the winter. Satellite data collected by NASA (Gloersen and others 1992), and by India (Vyasand others 2004) show that off Dronning Maud Land the pack ice extends around 500 km out from the coast in late May and June, and 1665 km [Yeah, you read that right] from the coast in July, August and September. To reach the coast and to return en route to Argentina, U-530 would have had to travel about 1000 km under ice, and U-977 would have had to travel about 3300 km under ice.​

​

Is that feasible? U-boats did hide under sea ice to escape detection after attacking ships on the Russian coast during World War II. They also attacked ships from under the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Leary1999). However, they did not go far under the ice. Under ice the main problem for U-977 or U-530 would havebeen access to fresh air, as was the case for Captain Nemo’s Nautilus caught beneath the Antarctic ice in Jules Verne’s Twenty thousand leagues under the sea. Without an independent air-producing capacity, dieselsubmarines are inappropriate for under-ice operations (Gimblett 2004). The snorkel of U-997 would have been useless under ice. To secure fresh air, the boat would have had to force its way up through the ice to the surface at least every 2 days, because these boats lacked CO2 scrubbers to clean their air. Once it had enough air it might theoretically have been able to submerge and continue its journey. Taking air stops into consideration, its average speed could not have been more than about 3–5 knotsunder the ice (J. Mason, personal communication, March2006).​

​

Could U-boats surface through 1–2 m of pack ice? Because of their low freeboard, World War II submarines could easily be damaged by pack ice. [See my post above about U-262] In the southern summer of 1947–1948, during Operation Highjump, the low-decked submarine USS Sennet was damaged by the movement of the summer pack ice (Fig. 8), and had to be helped to open water by the ice-breaker Northwind (Byrd1947: 458; US Navy 1947; Sullivan 1957; Rose 1980). That was in a southern summer. Conditions would be far worse in an Antarctic winter, when fierce winds cause sea-ice floes to collide forming huge pressure ridges. Pressurebetween winter ice floes was the cause of the sinking of Shackleton’s ship Endurance in the Weddell Sea in1915 (Shackleton 1919). Furthermore, it would have been difficult for any U-boat to punch up through ice, because such boats were typically not ice-strengthened (J. Mason, personal communication, 2006).​

​

Navigation would also have been practically impossible. Even if U-530 or U-977 had surfaced through theice, obtaining sun or star sights would have been difficultbecause of cloud. In winter at the NBSA Expedition’s Maudheim base on the Dronning Maud Land coast the sun just rose to the horizon at around noon in May, and did not rise above the horizon throughout June and July(Hisdal 1960; Ohta 1999). The 24-hour darkness and the cloud cover would vastly increase the danger in navigating in ice close to a poorly mapped coast. Even seeing the coast’ would have been difficult, because it comprises the 10–30 m high ice cliff at the edge of the ice shelf, which would be more or less invisible in the dark fromthe low deck of a submarine, not forgetting that the icy seas would be strewn with icebergs.​

​

Supposing that U-977 had reached the coast, what circumstances would have met the crew? The average winter temperature at the NBSA Expedition’s Maudheimbase was around −26◦C (Hisdal 1960). The average windspeed was 15 knots (Hisdal 1956) or about 28 km/hour. The wind chill induced by that wind speed combined withan average temperature of −26◦C, would have lowered the effective temperatures to −40◦C, not forgetting that there might be blizzards. Under these cold, dark conditions, the men at Maudheim in the southern winters of 1950 and 1951 sensibly stayed indoors for the whole of June, July, August and most of September (Giaever 1954). Anyone landing from a submarine would have faced the most extraordinary difficulties in trekking 250 km across icepenetrated by hidden crevasses, in the dark and without navigational aids to a lair in the mountains where the temperatures would have been lower, down to −50◦C (Ohta 1999) and the weather worse.​

​

The authors suggest that the 24 hour darkness, combined with the wide and dangerous belt of winter sea-ice, means that it would have been physically impossible for U-530 or U-977 to have gone anywhere near the coast of Antarctica in June, July or August 1945.​

​

These same conditions, extensive sea-ice, permanent darkness, extensive cloud cover, and extreme cold would also have militated against Bernhart being able to retrieve Hitler’s ashes from an ice cave in the M¨uhlig-Hofmann Mountains by air, in June 1979, as claimed by Buechner and Bernhart (1989: 233). Maps based on NASA satellitedata clearly show that in June 1979 sea ice extended solidly from the Dronning Maud Land coast north to 60◦S, and west right across the Weddell Sea (Gloersen and others 1992). That means that Bernhart’s supposed sea-plane would not have been able to land in the Weddell Sea to re-fuel, or to land beside a supposed Dutch fishing boat off the Dronning Maud Land coast. Their tale is pure invention.​

So for my Himmler timeline, the first problem you can see is that his timing is really awful - his u-boat is going to arrive in the Antarctic by early June, at which point he's got at least 500km of pack ice between him and his secret base. He really should have arranged for Germany to be defeated at a different time of year. Seriously, Heinrich, what were you thinking?

I see three main options, and neither of them are pleasant or low risk.

1. He could arrange for the Neuschwabenland garrison to send out a depot ship to some place like the Kerguelens or Crozets [Oh, what joy!] to wait for him, and then hang out there for six or seven months until the pack ice clears in the Antarctic summer, then go to the base, all the while risking discovery by passing Allied ships or patrols.
2. He could gamble on travelling under the pack, using U-3008's enhanced submersible capability, surfacing a couple times through the ice to get a bearing on the base transmission, and hope to Odin they don't cripple the ship in the process; the base garrison could perhaps keep a hole open in the ice big enough for the U-3009 to surface through, a job that's harder than it sounds. I have no idea how a Type XXI boat could fare doing that, because no Type XXI boat ever tried it. Maybe Himmler could arrange for the sail to be reinforced for it. I'm not conversant enough with the engineering details of Type XXI's to say.
3. Have the base send one of its Blohm & Voss BV 138 float planes (range 1,220 km ), if it has any still working, to come retrieve Himmler from the edge of the pack ice. One trip might just be able to get Himmler and his whole party, though perhaps not whatever gold or valuables he took with him. This last option might be the least awful, but even this would hardly be risk free (to put it mildly), given weather conditions in June.

But whatever the case, these are difficulties that any realistic timeline involving a secret German Antarctic base - whatever its size, nature, or objectives - would have to deal with. The Antarctic winter is going to make the base pretty damned close to useless for any sea travel to or from it, and nearly any other outoor activity, too, for that matter, for over half the year. You don't go outside in the Antarctic winter if you can help it. You stay inside watching reruns of The Thing, synthesizing meth, or just going slowly mad.

Something to think about.

I've been thinking a bit about the 'Argentinian angle' (cf. the Deception Island raid by the British). What if the Germans actually had some more or less formalized (but secret) cooperation with the Argentines? The Germans could get fuel and supplies from Argentina, then - and the Argentinians could get ... hmm ... what? Some vague promise of help retaking the Malvinas once, you know, Hitler has won everything and the kitchen sink? Would the Argentines even risk this? Just a stray thought ... Otherwise, I have difficulty seeing any more realistic options for this one, but it's been a fun run so far.

The Argies are in a tough spot, because the Americans and the Brits - and, uh, the Brazilians, too - have the ability reach out and touch them if they need to, whereas the Reich is pretty close to powerless to help or defend them. I think the Argentine governments during the war edged as far in Germany's direction as they dared.

"Governments." This also raises the problem that Argentina changed governments like underwear during the war. This makes for shaky government, and difficulty in adopting any risky course of action. You may need to work in some stable dictatorship into your point of departure.

 

[Athelstane]

Other than Orcadas the first bases on mainland Antarctica were constructed in 1944 by Britain as part of Operation Tabarin, nominally to prevent German raiders and U-boats operating from the continent by actually to strengthen Britain's territorial claims. This provoked the post-war explosion in Antarctic exploration and claims.

Right. And the TABARIN bases were all quite small, too - handfuls of men manning them.

 

[Athelstane]

If we want the Nazis down in the Antarctic to last any length of time they'll need to be fanatics which we can handwave, and resources which we can't. Geothermal power gets you electricity with minimal work and no need for really advanced science. It's hard to eat electricity, and fishing will only sustain them for so long, not to mention that it increases risks. They'd need to somehow interact with the outside world, and they'd need to trade something in order to get goods and valuables back. The obvious answer is drugs.

When they were sent down there they got crates and crates of whatever advanced amphetamines a weird nation state could put out, along with the formulas. With nothing better to do for three years and pills running low some of the more academically inclined fanatic addicts manage to synthesize more.

When the war is over they're drugged out of their minds and are feeling megalomaniacal. They kill the first few fishing boats they find, but eventually they decide to bribe some Argentinian fishermen with meth. They establish a healthy income stream, enough to keep them in meth and food, but eventually rumors of Nazi drug dealers reach some of the escaped higher level Nazis.

They're disgusted by what they find, but the drug money is the first real chance they have to get back anything. Naturally it makes more sense to establish the labs in more convenient locations, but a secret base is a good spot to lay low. Drug dealers with German accents begin to spread across the world, and their drugs have incredible quality. Seeking to profit from the association one failed chemistry teacher in Albuquerque names himself Heisenburg.

OK. I laughed out loud.

 

[Catsmate]

Right. And the TABARIN bases were all quite small, too - handfuls of men manning them.

That what THEY want you to think....

 

[Athelstane]

That what THEY want you to think....

I'm not at liberty to speak about that.

 

[Athelstane]

P.S. If anyone is wondering about the Nazis using icebreakers, don't bother: Germany didn't have any worth talking about in 1939.

 

[New Cleo Genesis]

[Nazis making meth]

That's actually brilliant, especially if the aim is to get non-whites/-Aryans addicted. Also, the main villain plot of Live and Let Die, anyone...?

The Argies are in a tough spot, because the Americans and the Brits - and, uh, the Brazilians, too - have the ability reach and touch them if they need to, whereas the Reich is pretty close to powerless to help or defend them. I think the Argentine governments during the war edged as far in Germany's direction as they dared.

"Governments." This also raises the problem that Argentina changed governments like underwear during the war. This makes for shaky government, and difficulty in adopting any risky course of action. You may need to work in some stable dictatorship into your point of departure.

Why rely on the Argentinians at all when there are the Portuguese? Admittedly, Lourenço Marques is further away from Antarctica than Buenos Aires or Bahía Blanca.

 

[Mosshadow]

Regarding a reason for making a secret base, is it possible to discover a source of oil in either the Arctic or Antarctica? That would be a good reason to build a base and it would be self-sufficient in fuel for power generation. Then you could have somesort of scheme to send the oil back to Germany via submarine.

I'm not sure how much equipment would be necessary to set up extraction though and how secret it would be.

 

[Athelstane]

Regarding a reason for making a secret base, is it possible to discover a source of oil in either the Arctic or Antarctica? That would be a good reason to build a base and it would be self-sufficient in fuel for power generation. Then you could have somesort of scheme to send the oil back to Germany via submarine.

I'm not sure how much equipment would be necessary to set up extraction though and how secret it would be.

Even today, we don't know much about what petroleum reserves there might be there, since prospecting for them is barred by the Antarctic Treaty.

But it is hard to see how this would be a realistic prospect for Germany even if the will had been there. Its lack of prospecting equipment, the limitations of the technology of the day, and the brutal conditions in which it would have to be undertaken, all work against it being a real possibility for the Reich at that time. If it's an ocean field, you have to work through pack ice and horrible weather to look for it, even in much of summer; if it's on land, you might have as much as kilometers of ice to bore through to look for it, let alone drill it.