Operation Highjump Was Real. The Nazi UFO Battle Was Added Later.

Operation Highjump sounds like a conspiracy before anyone adds anything.

A large U.S. Navy force heads to Antarctica shortly after World War II.

Rear Admiral Richard Byrd is involved.

Aircraft fly over the ice.

Thousands of personnel operate in a place ordinary people cannot casually visit.

Then the expedition ends.

If a conspiracy theorist could design a historical event from scratch, it would look suspiciously similar.

Operation Highjump was real.

The U.S. Navy Antarctic Developments Program began in 1946 and established the Little America IV research base. Its official purposes included training personnel, testing equipment under polar conditions and studying the practical problems of operating Antarctic bases.

Navy records also document Byrd's participation and flights conducted from the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea.

What those records do not contain is a war against surviving Nazis operating flying saucers from a subterranean Antarctic fortress.

That story grew later from a fertile mixture of postwar Nazi escape mythology, UFO culture, Hollow Earth stories and Byrd's already legendary reputation.

The result is fascinating because Highjump provides the conspiracy with something most legends desperately lack.

A real operation.

Real ships.

Real aircraft.

Real military personnel.

Real secrecy associated with military logistics.

Once those pieces exist, attaching a hidden civilization requires surprisingly little glue.

History supplied the hardware.

The internet supplied the aliens.