Basis Nord was a proposed secret German naval base in Zapadnaya Litsa Bay, west of Murmansk provided by the Soviet Union. The base was part of a partnership that developed between Germany and the Soviet Union following German-Soviet Non-Aggression treaty of 1939, along with a broad economic agreement of 1940.
In 1939, the Soviet Union agreed to supply the base location to Germany for the purpose of supporting U-boats and commerce raiding. Germany sent supply ships that were anchored in the bay, no Kriegsmarine fighting vessels have been resupplied. Germany's April 1940 invasion of Norway thereafter rendered the base unnecessary.
In 2008, Basis Nord featured in a prominent BBC-PBS investigative history series, World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West, and a book of the same name by Laurence Rees in 2009.
Read more about Basis Nord: Background, Negotiations
Famous quotes containing the word basis:
““The Love that dare not speak its name” in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect.... It is in this century misunderstood ... and on account of it I am placed where I am now.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)