This was transwikied from- http://implausablealternatehistory.wikia.com/wiki/The_O.T.L._Operation_High_Jump_conspiracy_theory.
The O.T.L. Operation High Jump conspiracy theory[]
- The whole Operation High Jump "conspiracy" theory appears to have started because:
- In the final stages of the war a sighting was reported by members of the nearby British Antarctic base of what appeared to be NAZIs in a nearby ice cave, (apparently a glacial cave) [1][2]
- This was reported back to military intelligence who following up on other sightings of U-boats and Nazis near Argentina (and a quote from Hitler himself) and suspected the Nazis had an organized facility in the area. (Although chances are it was just some officers from a scuttled U-boat and nothing else.)[3] [4] [5]
- When this is also considered along side the fact that several German U-boats[6], a large amount of building supplies and German scientists[7][8] identified by Operation Paperclip were still unaccounted for, theoretically added the then credibility of a possible remote Nazi base in the region [9] which the Americans wanted to check out
- Subsequently both the British and US mounted some missions to check out the area and tossed in a bit of research and exploration as a bonus.
- On December 30, 1946, aviation radio-men Wendell K. Hendersin, Fredrick W. Williams, and Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez were killed when their PBM Mariner George 1 crashed during a blizzard on Mission High Jump.
- The mission ended a bit early and many of it's crew were heavy injured, not just frost bitten and/or snow blinded.
- Some aspects of what they found still remains classified to this day; which isn't helping matters; while others (such as the military promo video) are on the public record.[10]
- Several popular sifi books are written about such a base.
- So many people began to believe the urban myth about "real motivation" for the subsequent operation, not the facts.