by Graeme Davis
Meanwhile, Russia’s planned Luna-Glob project aims to put more rovers on the Moon, perhaps for reconnaissance purposes. Although Yutu was disabled within a few days of landing, some schools of thought believe that a small, fast-moving rover, able to take advantage of ground cover, may be able to recover more information at closer range than an orbiter.
The MQ-14 Lunar Hawk drone developed from the X-37 unmanned spaceplane, and is the primary weapon of Operation Eclipse. Drone strikes against the moonbase commenced in May 2015 and are ongoing at the time of publication. All details of the operation remain classified, although a squad-carrying X-37 variant is said to be in development, perhaps for a mopup operation after the drone-strike program is completed.
Operation Eclipse
The X-37 unmanned space-plane flew its first test mission in April 2010. Almost immediately, the US Air Force ordered a modified version, known as the X-37B. In a classified program, this was developed into the MQ-14 Lunar Hawk, a drone attack vehicle.
Emboldened by the success of drone strikes as a strategy in the War on Terror, the US Air Force began developing a secret lunar drone strategy in 2008. The first attack on Walhalla took place at 4pm Eastern Standard Time (10pm Central European Time) on May 8, 2015: 70 years to the minute from the signing of Germany’s unconditional surrender in Berlin.
Like the military drones deployed in the Earth’s atmosphere, the MQ-14’s small size and agility make it harder to detect and target than an orbiting satellite or a manned spacecraft. The design incorporates many stealth features that help mask it from enemy radar, and its avionics suite includes an Automated Terrain Following (ATF) package allowing it to fly at extremely low altitudes, making the most of ground cover.
Despite official silence on the matter, rumors have leaked out about “Operation Eclipse,” a sustained drone bombardment of the Walhalla base. Meanwhile, Boeing has announced that the X-37C space-plane will feature a pressurized cargo bay large enough to accommodate six astronauts – the equivalent of an infantry squad and its equipment.
At the time of writing, details are hard to come by. Information is fragmentary and usually denied. However, it is possible that the Operation Eclipse drone strikes are intended to strip Walhalla of its defensive armament in preparation for an assault which will, at last, lay the ghost of 1972’s disastrous attack. It may not be too much longer before the secrets of Nazi superscience are in American hands: what America will do with them remains to be seen.
The X-37B unmanned space-plane being prepared for launch inside a faired nosecone. The MQ-14 Lunar Hawk attack drone is launched in an identical manner. (NASA)
Appendix: Timeline
1922
Summer: The vril Jenseitsflugmaschine is built, allegedly based on psychic transmissions from Aryans who had been living in the Aldebaran system since 1919.
1934
June: The Rundflugzeug (Disk Aircraft) RFZ1 crashes on a test flight at the Arado works in Brandenburg.
1939
Date unknown: First flight of the Haunebu I saucer.
1941
Date unknown: First flight of the Vril-1-Jäger, the first armed disk aircraft.
December 3: Sänger submits the design for his Silbervogel orbital bomber to the Reich Air Ministry.
1942
February 25: The Battle of Los Angeles: US forces fire more than 1,400 antiaircraft rounds at a large UFO without apparent effect. July 6: The Reich Armaments Ministry reverses its previous policy of dismissing nuclear physics as “Jewish science” and begins Germany’s atomic bomb program.
1943
August–September: Flight tests of the BMW Flügelrad begin at Prag-Kbley airfield in Czechoslovakia.
1944
Date unknown: Dornier wins the contract to manufacture Haunebu II saucers, but production is impeded by Allied bombing. Hans Kammler plans the Bifrost Protocol and arranges the construction of a base on the Moon.
September 8: The first V-2 rockets are fired at Paris and London. November–December: Feuerball electrostatic weapons are deployed against Allied bombers, giving rise to the first reports of “foo fighters.”
1945
March: Kammler is promoted to Obergruppenführer and placed in charge of all Wunderwaffen production.
April: American forces capture the experimental nuclear reactor at Haigerloch near the Black Forest.
April 14: The US Third Army captures the prototype Rheotron accelerator at Burggrub, Bavaria.
April 30: Hitler allegedly commits suicide in Berlin. Rumors of his survival immediately begin to circulate.
May 2: Wernher von Braun surrenders to American troops. His broken arm, sustained while escaping an assassination attempt orchestrated by Kammler, is explained as the result of a car crash.
May 8: VE Day is announced, formally ending the war against Nazi Germany.
Before May 11: The Haunebu IV saucer limps out of Prague ahead of the Soviet approach and moves to the Neuschwabenland base in Antarctica.
July 9 and 23: Time and Life magazines both carry reports on the Oberth “Sun Gun,” based on captured documents.
1946
December: Operation High Jump: The US task force converges on Antarctica.
1947
February 6: Operation High Jump: US forces are repulsed after an air battle with German saucer craft.
March–November: Operation Einherjar. The Antarctic base is evacuated and all personnel and other assets are relocated to the Moon. Initial construction of the Walhalla base takes place.
June 24: Pilot Kenneth Arnold encounters a crescent-shaped craft near Mount Rainier, Washington, whose movement he describes as “like a saucer if you skip it across water.” This is the start of the great UFO scare of the 1940s and 1950s.
July 8: An experimental saucer aircraft from Area 51 crashes on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico.
1948
January–February: Operation Windmill: US forces find the Antarctic base abandoned. The hunt for another Nazi refuge begins.
February 18: A large meteorite falls in Norton County, Kansas, on a similar latitude to New York.
March 25: An Area 51 saucer crashes near Aztec, New Mexico. Rhesus monkey test subjects on board are mistaken for diminutive aliens. December: Reports begin of UFOs apparently investigating American nuclear facilities and bases where nuclear weapons are stored. These may be Black Sun missions attempting to capture nuclear technology.
1949
Early, date classified: Signals from the Walhalla base are first intercepted by Britain’s Jodrell Bank radio-telescope observatory. September 21: A meteorite strikes Beddgelert, Wales, close to the latitude of Birmingham.
1950
September 20: A meteorite strikes Murray, Kentucky, on a latitude close to that of San Francisco.
December 10: A meteorite airburst over St Louis sparks a nuclear attack scare.
1951
October 17: A meteorite strikes near Elenovka, Ukraine, USSR.
1954
March 6: A meteorite strikes Nikolskoye near Moscow, USSR.
November 30: A meteorite strikes a home in Sylacauga, Alabama (on a similar latitude to Los Angeles), injuring one person.
1958
Date unknown: The Lunex project plans a US Moon landing in 1967 and an underground moonbase by 1968. It is abandoned in 1961 due to technical difficulties.
May: Project A119 is begun, planning a nuclear attack on the Walhalla base. It is abandoned in January 1959 after calculations show that the United States could not place a sufficiently large warhead on the Moon.
1959
April 7: A meteorite falls near Přibram, Czechoslovakia, about 30 miles from Prague.
June 8: Project Horizon proposes a lunar outpost by 1966. Officially, it never progresses beyond a feasibility study and is abandoned in favor of the Apollo project. It is revived after the attack on Apollo 13.
October 13: A meteorite strikes a house in Hamlet, Indiana, close to Chicago.
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bsp; 1965
April 16: Project Moon-Blink begins a survey of the Moon to search for signs of Black Sun activity.
December 24: Meteorite fragments shower Barwell, England, close to Birmingham.
1966
December 24: Luna 13 lands in the Ocean of Storms, transmitting images to Earth for five days before being disabled.
1967
July 11–15: Meteorites fall on Denver, Colorado, close to the Rocky Flats nuclear weapon facility and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) center.
1968
December 24: Apollo 8 achieves lunar orbit and takes high-resolution photographs of the surface, including the Walhalla base.
1969
July 19: Apollo 11 enters lunar orbit. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon, Michael Collins conducts a classified photographic survey of the Walhalla base.
1970
April 14: Apollo 13 is damaged by long-range fire from the Walhalla base, forcing the mission to be aborted. The remaining Apollo missions are simulated while Operation Lyre is planned.
1971
January: The revived Project Horizon begins landing components for the creation of an American moonbase.
1972
March 17–19: US forces from Horizon base attack Walhalla but are repulsed. Both US and Soviet planners switch their strategy from attack to defense.
1973
March 15: A meteorite falls in San Juan Capistrano, California, close to Los Angeles.
May 28: Salyut 2 begins the Almaz program, aimed at creating a ring of armed Soviet satellites to defend against US intercontinental ballistic missiles and saucers from Walhalla.
October 27: A meteorite falls near Canon City, Colorado, close to the NORAD command center and the US Air Force Academy.
1978
February 22: The first GPS satellite is launched as the US aims to counter the Soviet Almaz program.
1980
December 29: First reported sighting of a “black triangle” UFO, near an American air base at Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England.
1983
March 23: US President Ronald Reagan announces the Strategic
Defense Initiative. Officially this is a response to the Soviet nuclear threat but it is also intended to track and shoot down trespassing Black Sun saucers.
1985
September 13: The US conducts a successful test of the Vought ASM-135 antisatellite missile, launched from an F-15 fighter from 38,100 feet. The ASM program is developed as a backup to SDI satellite defenses in case of a saucer attack from Walhalla.
1990
January: The Japanese probe Hagoromo loses its transmitter after coming under fire from Walhalla, and is unable to transmit any data back to Earth.
1992
October 9: A meteorite falls in Peekskill, just outside New York City.
2006
September 3: The European SMART-1 probe is shot down.
2009
Date uncertain: Surveillance images show construction of a large turret, possibly for a giant KSK weapon. Dubbed the “GSK,” this structure becomes a high-priority target.
March 1: The Chinese Chang’e 1 probe crashes onto the lunar surface after being fired on by Walhalla.
June 10: The Japanese Kayuga orbiter crashes into the lunar surface. Officially the crash was planned, but the crash date was brought forward by two months owing to damage from an unspecified source. The Okina relay satellite, part of the same Japanese mission, is brought down a few days later.
August 29: Contact with the Indian Chandrayaan-1 probe is lost, probably as a result of fire from Walhalla.
2010
January 18: A meteorite falls in Lorton, Virginia, close to Washington, DC.
April 22: First launch of the X-37 unmanned space vehicle, ancestor of the MQ-14 drone.
2012
April 22: A meteorite explodes above Sutter’s Mill, California, not far from San Francisco.
2013
February 15: A huge meteorite, estimated at over 10,000 tons, explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia.
2014
January 25: China’s Yutu rover is immobilized a few hundred yards from the Chang’e 3 lander after suffering unspecified “mechanical damage.” Further Chang’e missions are postponed.
2015
May 8: Operation Eclipse begins with the first MQ-14 Lunar Hawk drone attack on Walhalla. Attacks have been ongoing up to the time of writing.
Officially canceled in favor of the Apollo program, Project Horizon was revived after the attack on Apollo 13. (Artwork Hauke Kock)
Further Reading, Watching, and Gaming
Books
Farrell, Joseph P., Reich of the Black Sun (Adventures Unlimited Press, Kempton, IL, 2005). Provides a broad overview of Nazi weird science, including UFOs and the Antarctic refuge.
Hastings, Robert, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites (Author House, Bloomington, IN, 2008). A painstaking collection of accounts of UFO incidents at American nuclear facilities since 1948.
Heinlein, Robert, Rocket Ship Galileo (Del Rey, New York, 1977). Plucky young astronauts travel to the Moon in a home-modified rocket and encounter a secret Nazi moonbase.
Herwig, Dieter and Heinz Rode, Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Strategic Bombers 1935–45 (Midland Publishing, Earl Shilton, UK, 2000). Covers various advanced aircraft, including designs for the Amerikabomber project.
Hite, Kenneth, The Nazi Occult (Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2013). A brief but wide-ranging survey of Nazi occult and weird-science projects.
Myrha, David, Sänger: Germany’s Orbital Rocket Bomber in World War II (Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA, 2002). An account of one ancestor of Nazi Germany’s space program.
Nomura, Ted, and Mirando, Justa, Luftwaffe 1946 Tech Manual (Antarctic Press, San Antonio, TX, 2006). A companion to the Luftwaffe 1946 comic series (see below), this book contains information on saucer craft as well as other advanced aircraft.
Scott, Chris, Hitler’s Bomb (Stein & Day, New York, 1986). A history of German nuclear weapon research, compared to Allied progress on the same front.
Stevens, Henry, Hitler’s Flying Saucers (Adventures Unlimited Press, Kempton, IL, 2002). A complete source on Nazi disk craft.
Von Braunfels, Ilsa, Iron Sky: Nazis on the Moon (MFM Entertainment, Nashville, TN, 2012). A digital short story tie-in to the first Iron Sky movie (see below).
Comics
Mignola, Mike, Hellboy (Dark Horse Comics, 1993–present). Nazi superscience and occultism form the background of this long-running comic series.
Nomura, Ted, Luftwaffe 1946 series (Antarctic Press, San Antonio, TX, 1996–2006). An adventure comic featuring many of Germany’s advanced aircraft designs.
Games
DUST (Fantasy Flight Games). This miniatures game features Nazi mecha and other dieselpunk-inspired troops.
Gear Krieg (Dream Pod 9). A line of tabletop games including roleplaying and miniatures-based titles.
GURPS Weird War II (Steve Jackson Games, 2003). A roleplaying game sourcebook featuring Nazi UFOs and other superscience.
Hellboy: The Science of Evil (Konami, 2008). The comic-book hero battles Nazi robots in Romania.
Iron Sky: Invasion (TopWare Interactive, 2012) is based on the movie of the same name (see below) and allows players to fly various Nazi spacecraft. Rocket Ranger (Cinemaware, 1988). Features the player collecting rocket parts in order to fly to the Moon and shut down Nazi extraction of a mineral called lunarium.
Tannhäuser (Fantasy Flight Games). A Weird War II miniatures game featuring a wide range of Nazi weird science.
Wolfenstein: The New Order (Bethesda Softworks, 2014) features a moonbase level where the player must stop Nazi nuclear research. Other titles in this long-running series feature Nazi zombies and cyborgs, as well as a power-armored Hitler.
Movies and TV
Danger 5 (2012 and 2015). This Australian action-comedy series parodies Nazi supe
rscience and 1960s action shows as it faces its heroes with various Nazi foes, including a giant mech piloted by Hitler himself.
Hellboy (2004). Based on the comic book series, the movie includes Nazi cyborgs and other fantastic foes.
Iron Sky (2012). This cult movie tells of a Nazi invasion of Earth in 2018, launched from a secret moonbase that has remained hidden since 1945.
Iron Sky: The Coming Race (scheduled 2016). Teasers for this sequel feature a Nazi-ruled Hollow Earth and an undead-looking Hitler riding a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012). Another film about a secret Nazi base within the Hollow Earth, this features Nazi zombies and a battle robot controlled by Hitler’s head.
