Fast forward another century, between the time of the Great Depression and WWII, as Admiral Richard E. Byrd of the U.S. Navy pioneered further exploration of the poles. And after a multitude of trips to the arctic territories, there is one Byrd narrative that sticks out more than the rest: his record-setting flight over the North Pole.
According to an alleged diary entry written during his polar flight, Byrd came across a warm, lush climate with Mammoth-like creatures and an ancient human race that had been residing within the Earth.
His plane was commandeered mid-air and landed for him by people in the center of the Earth who intercepted his plane with saucer-shaped aircraft. Upon landing, he was met by emissaries of a civilization many assume to be the mythical Agartha. These alleged Agarthans expressed their concern about humanity’s use of atomic bombs during WWII and employed Byrd as their ambassador to return to the U.S. government and relay their sentiment.
The striking issue regarding the validity of this diary entry is that it is dated February 1947. If it is to be believed this story covers Byrd’s inaugural flight over the North Pole, then one need only look at the actual date when he achieved this feat more than 20 years earlier on May 9, 1926. In fact, upon further inspection, it appears Byrd probably didn’t quite reach the North Pole and instead fabricated his navigation records, poaching credit from another team that actually set the record a few days later.
But what makes this entry so intriguing is that, if it is real, could it have potentially been misconstrued from a later mission to Antarctica? Is it actually referring to the notorious Operation Highjump?
Highjump was one of the largest operations ever conducted in Antarctica with over 4,000 men sent to study, map, and reside on the continent for eight months. The expedition included 13 Navy support ships, an aircraft carrier, helicopters, flying boats, and an array of more traditional aircraft.
This expedition, as well as the subsequent Operation Deep Freeze eight years later, established an American military presence on Antarctica, which is prohibited today. So why, exactly, was there such a rush to facilitate this occupation?
Byrd later told a reporter for the Chilean newspaper, El Mercurio, that his expedition taught him the U.S. should “prepare for the possibility of hostile planes coming from the polar regions” as part of a “recapitulation of his own polar experience.” Many took this to be evidence of the flying craft he saw coming from what is believed to have been Agartha.