sation gradually died down. He walked over

to the board with the launch schedule for

each patrol and hung a roll of paper with the

layouts on top. It had wooden strips at the top

and bottom, and so it unfolded easily on its

own. The room hummed in surprise.

„Gentlemen, we have approached the coast

of New Swabia. Our ship is part of the Royal

Navy fleet that has joined the international

forces in the secret allied operation Ice Age.“

I‘ll make it short and clear: There are Nazis in

Antarctica. We don‘t know how long they‘ve

been there. But we know they‘re up to something dangerous, and we have to stop them.

Allied aircraft carriers and their escorts are

cruising the entire Antarctic coastline looking

for them. Unfortunately, we don‘t get much

from American high-altitude aerial reconnaissance. The enemy has anti-aircraft missiles,

effective even at high altitudes, and this has

gotten our American colleagues into trouble.

That‘s why it‘s your turn. We think the Nazis

don‘t have enough conventional anti-aircraft

weapons, so you have more chances to gather intel and get back.

You must examine every inch of our sector.

Colleagues from units in Canada, Alaska, Norway, Finland and others who have experience

in Arctic conditions are important. That‘s why

we‘ve assigned them to individual squadrons.

Keep your eyes peeled! Report the slightest

anomaly. As you can see, the enemy has air

assets you don‘t know yet. I‘ll get to that in

a minute.

Here is a Messerschmitt P.1101 jet, this is a

Focke-Wulf Ta 183 and this is what a Heinkel

P.1079 night fighter and a Gotha P.60 bomber

look like. Unfortunately, we haven‘t yet found

the airfields from which they operated. So we

can‘t rule out such vertical take-off machines

with rotating gondolas with jet propulsion.

But you can also see other types.

What we are sure of, however, are the flying

discs that have so intrigued you. They are

called Hauneburg-Geräte, or Haunebu for

short. We have pictures of them in our area.

Here, take them, let them circulate.

The larger ones have a wingspan of several

tens of metres, we don‘t know where they

take off from and we don‘t know their speed,

climb rate or armament. So you‘ll be flying

patrols armed with rockets. We don‘t know

how armoured the Haunebu are, so don‘t hesitate to use rockets. You have standard survival gear for polar conditions. Our submarines

and other vessels are cruising the area. Commandos have already landed on the coast. If

you‘re shot down, we‘ll do everything we can

Ice being cut for research on scale model of HMS Habbakuk. The construction was

performed at Patricia and Jasper Lakes in Alberta, Canada.

Photo: Library and Archives Canada

to get you to safety. Our task force is on a southwest course to get closer to this mountain

range. That‘s where the enemy is said to be

most active. The daytime temperature off the

coast is about minus ten degrees Celsius. This

time of year is summer here. The sun rises

before 4:00 a.m., sets before 9:00 p.m. There‘s

a 24-hour patrol schedule. Any questions? No

questions? All right. Good luck, gentlemen!“

The pilots began to rise from their chairs and

the room filled again with the noise of conversation. The intelligence officer turned to

one of the groups.

„Gentlemen of the 486th Squadron, ‚Bunny‘

Kleinkönnig and ‚Eikka‘ Luukkanen, please

come here. We have some questions for you.

We‘ve picked up enemy radio traffic. Come

and see if you recognize the call codes of any

of your former Luftwaffe colleagues, so we

know who we‘re dealing with. One of their

commanders is on the radio as Eismeer 1.“

Kleinkönnig and Luukanen looked at each

other without a word.

„Perkele...“

Mountain base Cäsar III,

mountains in New Swabia,

October 1946

The completed 1/50th scale model of HMS Habbakuk was

disguised as a house on a lake. The pykrete was so temperature resistant that the ship lasted three summers before it

melted. Pykrete is still used today for the surfaces of Canadian

airfield runways located above the Arctic Circle.

Photo: Library and Archives Canada

56

eduard

In the vast concrete hall, red lights

flashed on the floor

along

the

walls.

Some of the mechanics were running to

their shelters behind

the armor plates.

The heavy concrete

door, as wide as the

entire hall, began

to lift with a creak,

letting in cold air

from the Antarctic

valley. Finally, with a

groan, it stopped at

the ceiling. Outside,

the floor of the hall

became a platform

several dozen meters

long.

The

pilot‘s

voice

came from the wall-

-mounted speakers, transmitted from a fighter flying nearby.

„This is Späte, approaching from the South

Pole direction, on the opposite side of the valley, speed two hundred, height six hundred,

descending slightly. Make ready the arresting

device.“

The mechanics set in motion two hydraulic

jacks and erected a huge structure in the

centre of the hall across its entire width, it looked like a gate with a large number of vertical strips of flexible fabric.

„I‘m dropping to five hundred, landing gear

extended, speed one hundred and fifty,

deploying flaps. Visual contact with the hangar. Is the Landungssignaloffizier in position?

I don‘t see him.“

The LSO had just run to a station that was located outside at the edge of the platform.

„Major, the LSO is in position, wind speed two

metres per second, blowing southeast.“

„I‘m making visual contact, turning left towards the runway, slowing down to one hundred and thirty.“

High above the wide valley, the slender fighter seemed to be driving on an invisible

bridge towards the rock.

The LSO was giving flags instructions for landing maneuver corrections. The Horten jet

powered flying wing landed smoothly on the

platform and passed into the bowels of the

hangar through the opening under the huge

doors. It began to close immediately afterwards.

Inside, the Horten stopped with a distinct

yo-yo effect against the restraint strips, and

then the elastic bands pushed it back a little.

The mechanics shouted with undisguised

joy, „Goal!“

Major Späte lifted the cockpit canopy and

the ground crew provided him with a ladder.

But Späte stood up in the cockpit and shouted loudly: „I‘ve got my first kill!“

Another wave of cheers and an avalanche of

questions about where and how it happened.

„It was a classic, I saw two Meteors, they weren‘t flying very high, they looked like they were

on a reconnaissance. I guess they were tired,

or a little dazzled from the white all around

here. I attacked his wingman from an elevation change, he took a close range hit from

me on his left engine, immediately caught

fire, rolled over to the left and Tommy jumped

out. The other one got away in a dive. They‘re good at this, I already had plenty of speed

INFO Eduard - January 2022