German fuel dump on Pacific island airstrip

[Simon_G]

Not many people have ever heard of Matua Island in the Kuril Group, known to the Japanese as Matsuwa Jima. It had two exceptionally long concrete runways in an era when most aircraft only required 1200m dirt strips.



The runways were in parallel pairs. One was 2000 metres long whilst the other was 1570m x 35m. Under Japanese occupation hot geothermal water was channeled along concrete trenches either side of the runways and then piped beneath them to keep the runways free from snow all year round. Under Soviet administration this feature fell into disrepair.



The whole island was heavily fortified with 60 tanks, a network of anti tank ditches, many gun emplacements and an 8000 string garrison plus a fighter squadron. There were tunnels deep into the volcanic mountain behind which led across the island with an underground railway. These tunnels were sealed by the Japanese in February 1944 when the garrison was reduced. Traces of Plutonium which does not normally occur in nature, flow out of natural springs on the island.



Most interesting for me however is that the island has an extensive fuel dump of German fuel drums, many still containing fuel, manufactured in 1943 for the Wehrmact.









Did this island receive long range German flights from Norway or Finland during WW2?

[The Exorcist]

Did this island receive long range German flights from Norway or Finland during WW2?

Your kidding, right?

Not a chance in hell.
German gear like that was used by the Russians after the war. There were Red Army armories that had big stores of German weapons for decades after the war.
Why just throw it away?

[joea]

So instead of answering my post here:

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...7&postcount=59

You post more nonsense, you going to answer my question or disappear again?

[Salinator]

Originally Posted by joea

So instead of answering my post here:

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...7&postcount=59

You post more nonsense, you going to answer my question or disappear again?

Without checking, I am betting that was your response to his implication of threatened allied nuke bombing of Dresden in August 44. Strange how the Allies went with incendiaries in February 45 months after the Germans ignored the ultimatum.

[joea]

Originally Posted by Salinator

Without checking, I am betting that was your response to his implication of threatened allied nuke bombing of Dresden in August 44. Strange how the Allies went with incendiaries in February 45 months after the Germans ignored the ultimatum.

Yup, funny that, and Simon didn't imply he flat out stated the Allies threatened nukes. Just wanted a source.

[Mechashef]

Originally Posted by Simon_G

Traces of Plutonium which does not normally occur in nature, flow out of natural springs on the island.

First, the traces of Plutonium story may be true, but the claim at present is very short on references.

Second, traces of Plutonium do occur in nature (albeit at very very low concentrations). A minute's worth of Google research would have told you that.

Here is just one link. There are others: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...nic-elements-s

If that is a sample of your research abilities then

FAIL

[Simon_G]

Originally Posted by joea

So instead of answering my post here:

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...7&postcount=59

You post more nonsense, you going to answer my question or disappear again?

...and your response is that anything you have never heard of can't be true by virtue of the fact you have never heard of it?

...or by virtue of the fact you refuse to believe it?

Maybe you are just proving how limited your grasp or real politik of War is?

[Simon_G]

Originally Posted by Salinator

Without checking, I am betting that was your response to his implication of threatened allied nuke bombing of Dresden in August 44. Strange how the Allies went with incendiaries in February 45 months after the Germans ignored the ultimatum.

Simple answer to that is that Dresden was bombed in February 1945 to deny Dresden to the Soviets, nothing to do with the threat to Hitler in 1944 revealed by Harteck and Heisenberg in their secretly recorded conversations at Farm Hall in August 1945.

The ultimatum was not ignored. Clearly you never heard of Operation Sunrise, or even prior to that the surrender negotiations at Lisbon in late 1944 revealed at Nuremberg Trials by British prosecutors trying General Walter Dornberger?

Of course the other aspect, as the Nazi era plasma physics scientist Rolf Wideroe noted in his autobiography was the total destruction of von Ardenne's plasma physics laboratory. Wideroe noted after the destruction by bombing, he went to Dresden and recovered a certain German particle accelerator device and drove it back to Burggrub (near Bayreuth) on 28 March 1945 for ALSOS.

[Simon_G]

Originally Posted by Mechashef

First, the traces of Plutonium story may be true, but the claim at present is very short on references.

Second, traces of Plutonium do occur in nature (albeit at very very low concentrations). A minute's worth of Google research would have told you that.

Here is just one link. There are others: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...nic-elements-s

If that is a sample of your research abilities then

FAIL

NO Mechashef... You Fail

You Fail to even read the article which you yourself quote.

Firstly Matua Island is not pre-Cambrian. It is volcanic and one of the youngest and most active volcanic islands on Earth whilst pre-Cambrian is very old.

Secondly Uranium bearing Pitchblende is not present on Matua Island, but Plutonium is and in quantities greater than 1x1011 therefore it is not there as a result of natural processes.

[Simon_G]

Originally Posted by joea

Yup, funny that, and Simon didn't imply he flat out stated the Allies threatened nukes. Just wanted a source.

There's nothing I want or need from people who have not read and studied the facts as thoroughly as I have... so don't flatter yourself.

[Simon_G]

Originally Posted by Exorcist

Your kidding, right?

Not a chance in hell.
German gear like that was used by the Russians after the war. There were Red Army armories that had big stores of German weapons for decades after the war.
Why just throw it away?

The Soviets had huge oil fields in the Caucus region. They had more oil than they knew what to do with... So you advocate that although Wehrmacht fuel drums do not appear on other Soviet airfields around the eastern Soviet Union, you believe some Soviet noddy took it upon himself to ship 1943 fuel drums which somehow you advocate survived the desperate fuel shortage in Germany of October 1944, and not only were shipped all the way to Siberia and then were placed on a barge Vladivostok to an island 937 nautical miles out in the ocean... Yeah right, pull the other one.

Talk about grasping at straws...

And if your theory were correct then there would also be Nazi fuel drums at Matua from 1944 and 1945 but there aren't.

If your theory were correct then why are there no Wehrmacht fuel drums at Soviet bases on Sakhalin, at Baykovo air base on Shimishu, or at the Soviet base at Simushir in the Kurils too, but only on the most remote island of all?

Your explanation is nonsense.

[johns624]

I believe that the fuel drums were put there for Prinz Eugen's May 1945 breakout into the Pacific while being escorted to internment.
PS Where's Nikkie when you need her?

[Simon_G]

Post WW2, the Soviets attempted to piece together details about the island and the following chart is a modern schematic rendering of what was discovered there:



The Japanese were entirely unwilling to co-operate with any details of the underground aspects of WW2 installations. Russian investigators have gone as far as sending divers into flooded tunnels beneath Matua to map out Japanese installations.



Since 2003, a Russian man from Sakhalin named Eugene Vereschagi has made and published 14 scientific expeditions to Matua Island. His expeditions were sponsored by the Kamchatka boundary Library; the Roman Imangulov Regional Library and the Russian military. On some occasions the expedition has gone there courtesy of Russian Naval warships. It is these expeditions which have revealed Plutonium contamination flowing from subterranean springs. Details discovered thus far have been gathered by field expeditions, foreign literature and Soviet era archives.

[Simon_G]

Originally Posted by johns624

I believe that the fuel drums were put there for Prinz Eugen's May 1945 breakout into the Pacific while being escorted to internment.
PS Where's Nikkie when you need her?

The Drums are far away from the coast on a ledge 80 metres above sea level. They contain aviation fuel, not diesel. In addition the anchorage between Matua and Iwaki (islet) is only deep enough for vessels of 1,500 ton class. During WW2 the Japanese could only use shallow draft barges to approach the landing.



Prinz Eugen was involved with coastal fire support missions in the Eastern Baltic from June 1944 onwards until 8 April 1945 when she steamed into Copenhagen. There was no break out in May 1945. She was placed under British control at Copenhagen on 9 May 1945.

Clutching at straws... anything to dispute the facts and the obvious reason for placing a fuel dump on an airfield with unusually long runways.

[dutched]

Originally Posted by Simon_G

Most interesting for me however is that the island has an extensive fuel dump of German fuel drums, many still containing fuel, manufactured in 1943 for the Wehrmact.









Did this island receive long range German flights from Norway or Finland during WW2?

Were the god astronauts? The photos only show three barrels and of them pictured twice. Hardly enough for what you are suggesting. I really wonder wether the island is really littered with Wehrmacht fuel drums.

Ed.