Secret bunker found in Austria

[greatwhite]

Sorry if this has already been posted , but i am sure we will hear more about this, SS helmets and other bits already recovered.

A network of underground tunnels and bunkers used by the Nazis to develop an atomic bomb has been discovered in Austria by a filmmaker.

The complex was discovered just outside the small town of St Georgen an der Gusen, near Linz. Its exact location was determined using intelligence reports and radiation tests, which revealed higher than normal levels of radioactivity.

Andreas Sulzer, the filmmaker who is leading the exploration, discovered a critical 1944 report by the forerunner to the CIA, from an American spy who noted the existence of a secret weapons programme in the area.

The facility was built using slave labour from a nearby concentration camp, Mauthausen-Gusen.

Covering up to 75 acres, the vast site was believed to be connected to the underground Bergkristall factory, where the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first jet-powered fighter plane, was built.

Following the war, the factory was inspected by the Allies, but they never uncovered the well-hidden, secret complex.

Heavy earth moving equipment was required to break through the soil, concrete and granite blocks to unearth the entrance to the bunker.

Mr Sulzer told the Sunday Times: “Prisoners from concentration camps across Europe were handpicked for their special skills - physicists, chemists or other experts - to work on this monstrous project and we owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth.
He also said that the site is likely to have been the largest weapons facility in the Third Reich. The site and concentration camp were considered so important to the Nazis that the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, visited in 1941.

Up to 320,000 slave labourers toiled and died working on the site from the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in horrific underground conditions.

Police stopped excavations last week as the team did not have a permit to work on historical sites, but Mr Sulzer is confident that the dig can be restarted soon.

A number of historical artefacts, including SS helmets and Nazi relics, have already been recovered from the complex.

[CARL]

Thank you. Moved to the appropriate forum. The discovery is addressed within the links below:

Secret Nazi nuclear bunker discovered in Austria by filmmaker - Europe - World - The Independent

Vast underground complex where the Nazis developed WMD is discovered in Austria | Daily Mail Online

[harryamb2]

thanks both of you.

[SteveR]

Neat articles.

The plutonium used for the American Fat Man bomb was refined from uranium yellow cake the Nazis were sending to Japan by submarine in May of 1945.
Hitler knew Germany wouldn't last and was shipping it to Hong Nam, Korea where the Japanese were trying to build their own bomb but didn't have the uranium to work with. He hoped the Japanese would use it against America. Germany surrendered and the sub turned itself to the American navy and the guys at Los Alamos got it and used it to make plutonium.

Just a side note.

[tailor marc]

Love to see pictures of the relics. Bet the SS helemets were in really good condition. Also wonder if there will be a documentry about this come out?

[greatwhite]

It was a film crew that opened it up, sure to be some great footage.

[TrondK]

It was a film crew that opened it up, sure to be some great footage.

Maybe. Lets hope the filmcrew were not straight from hollywood with moronic dark voices and spooky lightsettings....

[Watchdog]

It was a film crew that opened it up, sure to be some great footage.

Hmmmm! A film crew eh?

I am really trying not to be cynical but I am getting a "spider sense" tingling that hints at a not so hidden agenda here

Many of these tunnel complexes exist in the former Third Reich territories and were used by military authorities during the cold war. Many others being derelict are still maintained for safety reasons by local government surveyors. Most have been bricked up to some degree and "lost" as far as the public are concerned.

The derelict ones are obviously so and full of rubble and decaying detritus (Mittelbau Dora Nordhausen for instance). The ones used by the military even having been since abandonned are like these, clean tidy, free of rubbish and fitted with fluorescent lighting.

This having been a nuclear facility is it really likely to have been "lost" or just forgotten?

Nobody enjoys a good "startling discovery" more than me but as we often say in this hobby; "buy the badge not the story". Also, if one had made such a discovery wouldn't just a few pictures of the atrifacts recovered be part of the public display of glory?

Don't take me for a doubting Thomas here, I would love this to be fully as described but I just need a little more convincing

Now, about that film crew. What do you reckon, Discovery Channel or Nat Geo?

Regards

Mark

[Studly]

The Architectural design look more like 1960's Cold War design than 1940's .

Greg

[StefanM]

This was reported by Forbes way back in Feb 2014...wonder what has reactivated this story again?

Search Is On For Hitler's Secret Atom-Bomb Lab Under Death Camp - Forbes




One of the helmets found by Andreas Sulzer