This was the first Haunebu craft to be capable of space flight, and several writers have claimed that it was used for a suicide mission to Mars, taking selected personnel and equipment out of the reach of the advancing Allies in March 1945. While the evacuation did indeed take place, it was a far less desperate affair than these claims suggest: the Neuschwabenland base in Antarctica had already been prepared as a refuge and regrouping point.
With the burden of Do-Stra manufacturing taken on by Dornier, SS E-IV was able to complete multiple Haunebu III prototypes, while simultaneously designing and building the next craft in the series.
At 3.16 am on February 25, 1942, an unknown aircraft appeared in the skies over suburban Los Angeles. A photograph published in the next day’s Los Angeles Times shows searchlight beams converging on a large circular object, and the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade reportedly fired more than 1,400 rounds at the unknown craft. Despite several reported direct hits, the craft moved off in the direction of Long Beach and was lost to view.
Within hours of the incident Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox held a press conference, saying the entire incident was a false alarm caused by anxiety and “war nerves.” The US Government never explained the Battle of Los Angeles further, but UFOlogists have long claimed that the mystery craft was extraterrestrial in origin. However, it is interesting to note that the Haunebu I prototypes were already flying by early 1942, and the larger Haunebu II was under development.
The final stage of Haunebu development — at least on Earth — was twice the size of the Haunebu III at 390 feet across, making it the largest heavier-than-air aircraft ever to have flown in Earth’s atmosphere. Only one was constructed: barely airworthy when the Red Army advanced on Prague, it was able to limp to Antarctica for the final stages of fitting-out.
While early saucer craft were armed with the same guns as German fighters, Black Sun research soon provided Kammler with a new generation of energy-based weapons. Some problems arose from their power drain on the ships’ propulsion systems, but these were eventually overcome.
From November 1944 onward, Allied pilots began to report strange flying objects and phenomena. Round objects, often glowing red, white, or orange, were seen following their aircraft and making sharp turns that seemed aerodynamically impossible. Named “foo fighters” by American aircrews (from a nonsense word in a popular comic strip), they were impossible to outmaneuver or shoot down, and they often seemed to be toying with the aircraft they encountered, zooming nearer and further as if taunting them.
Various explanations were advanced, including a new type of flak weapon and a natural electrostatic phenomenon like Saint Elmo’s Fire or ball lightning, but none of the theories could account for the fact that the lights moved as if under intelligent control.
The Maschinenkanone (MK) 108 was a short-barreled 30mm cannon which became standard armament on most German fighters after 1943. Its predecessor, the MG/FF 20mm cannon, required around 20 hits to destroy a heavy bomber like the American B-17 Flying Fortress, which the MK 108 could accomplish in four.
Early Vril and Haunebu saucers were armed with MK 108s, mounted in packs of three, to supplement their energy-based weapons. However, the MK 108 was less suited to saucers than it was to conventional airplanes. The main problem was targeting: the saucers moved so quickly relative to their targets that gunners would “lead” by too much or too little. Energy-beam weapons, on the other hand, fired at the speed of light and struck almost instantaneously, making targeting much easier.
Despite this, the MK 108 continued to be fitted to most German saucers as a secondary weapon. After some trial and error, it became a fairly effective defensive armament, used mainly when the massive energy drain of a KSK shot left the craft hanging in the air.
Although the saucers that formed the Walhalla base almost certainly took their MK 108 armament with them, it is uncertain whether this weapon could be effective in lunar conditions. A 1947 report in the archives of Britain’s Ministry of Defence concludes that while the ammunition could be kept stable despite the wide temperature variation of a typical lunar day (-280 to +250 degrees Fahrenheit), there would still be some degradation in performance. The report also points out that the Moon’s lack of an atmosphere would affect the gun’s gas-operated mechanism to some extent. Be that as it may, after-action reports from attacks on the base have only mentioned its energy-beam weapons: the cannon do not seem ever to have been used.
The Feuerball (Fireball) was an experimental weapon, launched from the ground against Allied bomber streams. It was a small, unmanned disk aircraft, remote-controlled on takeoff and guided toward its target by sensors that tracked engine exhaust. It was fitted with an electrostatic field weapon developed at Messerschmitt’s Oberammergau facility in Bavaria: burning chemicals produced a fiery halo around the craft, along with a powerful electrostatic field that could knock out a target aircraft’s ignition systems causing total engine failure.
Normally deployed in groups of three to ten, the Feuerball weapons acted as a proof-of-concept for electrostatic weaponry, and led to further development. First deployed in November 1944 against RAF night attackers, the Feuerball saw service for barely two months before being replaced.
Not to be confused with the self-propelled antiaircraft gun of the same name, the Kugelblitz (Ball Lightning) was a larger version of the Feuerball’s electrostatic weapon, which was fitted to several early saucers. Although Kugelblitz- equipped saucers did fly test missions against the American bomber streams, the program’s main purpose was research and development. By the time the Haunebu saucers entered service, the electrostatic weapon concept had fallen out of favor. Future development of saucer armament focused on the more promising avenue of energy-beam weapons.
The Rheotron developed from a particle accelerator developed by Max Steenbeck at Siemens-Schuckert in the 1930s, similar to the Betatron developed by Donald Kerst at the University of Illinois in 1940. Both devices produced high-energy electron streams, but the German project was the first to weaponize the effect. By early 1945, SS E-IV had developed a vril-powered Rheotron small enough to be mounted in a large aircraft. Focused by a ring of electromagnets, the resulting energy beam was capable of melting aluminum in seconds.
The original Rheotron accelerator was captured by Patton’s Third Army at Burggrub in western Bavaria on April 14, 1945. No aircraft-mounted versions were ever recovered, but Dr Rolf Widerøe of the Dresden Plasma Physics Laboratory confirmed their existence when he was questioned by US intelligence officers. According to Widerøe, he had demonstrated the Rheotron for Kammler several times, and provided copies of plans and notes to be used by the scientists of SS E-IV.