WWII was just that - a world war spanning the globe. There were many lesser known battlegrounds, places both real and imaginary that were drawn into the fighting.
To the Ends of the Earth[]
Antarctica[]
Believed to be an access point to the hollow earth Antartica was also proposed as place where Nazis, some of whom had faked their deaths (including Hitler), had escaped to.[1]
Adm. Richard E. Byrd Antarctica expedition in late 1946 (Operation High Jump) resulted in wild stories of Byrd fighting Nazis who resided in secret South Pole bases. This was quickly followed by even more fantastic stories of UFOs possibly being Nazi craft.
Ironically, the Russian discovery of the Schatzgräber ("Treasure Hunter") base in 2016 on the opposite side of the planet has given the idea of a secret Nazi Antartica base a shot in the arm. The "logic" is if a base abandoned in 1944 could remain hidden in the Arctic just 620 miles from the North pole for 72 years then why couldn't there be an undiscovered Nazi base in Antarctica?
Deep in the Jungle[]
The jungles of darkest Africa and South America still held many mysteries in the ’30s and ’40s. These mysteries included secret operations and Nazis escaping justice.
The Bermuda Triangle[]
Contrary to popular belief the legend of the Bermuda Triangle didn't really become a thing until 1952 and didn't really hit the public's consciousness until 1962 but that hasn't stopped it from being used in fiction set in WWII.[2]
Egypt[]
Egypt had long been a focus of archeological interest and with stories of a magical curse it wasn't hard to believe other fantastic tales.
Tibet[]
The Nazis believed Tibet might be home to the last of the original Aryan tribes, the supermen that they were supposedly descended from. It was also where Shangri-La was believed to reside. The result was the Ahnenerbe expeditions.
Off the Maps[]
Atlantis[]
Plato's c 355 BCE story of Atlantis got many reworkings over the centuries. More over the idea that the Earth's continents were stationary meant there were no shortage of possible lost continents and submerged land bridges.
For example, there was Lemuria for the Indian or Pacific Ocean and Mu for the Pacific.
Thule: a legendary island to the north heard by the Greek explorer Pytheas in the time of Plato.
The Hollow Earth (Hohlweltlehre)[]
"The notion that the Earth might be hollow dates back to early mythology. The Greeks and Romans believed in a literal underworld inhabited by the souls of the dead. Norse mythology told of dangerous trolls and dwarves dwelling in deep caves. Chinese, Indian, and Navajo lore all tell of a subterranean paradise or paradises: 9th century Chinese scholar Tu Kuang-t’ing described 10 'cave heavens' and 36 'small cave heavens' scattered inside mountains." A related concept is the underground super science city of Agartha
Mars[]
In addition to invader from Mars trope there is also the idea that perhaps the Nazis escaped to Mars.
The Astral Front[]
WWII could be so expansive that it enters into realms not part of the physical world such as Dreamworlds or the domain of Faërie.
References[]
- GURPS WWII: Weird War II pg 118-127
- ↑ Secret Nazi Antarctic Base - Fact or Fiction?
- ↑ The Paradise Island of the Linda Carter Wonder Woman was in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.