ALL-OUT ASSAULT ON AMERICAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000400300002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 40
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 15, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 1, 1956
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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COPYRIGHT? 1956 BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, WASHINGTON, D. C. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED
All-out Assault on Antarctica
141
Operation Deepfreeze Carves Out United States Bases for a Concerted
International Attack on Secrets of the Frozen Continent
BY REAR ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD, USN (RET.)*
\
'OT long ago I received a radio mes-
sage from the southernmost human
..... beings on earth.
"Huts buried to rooftops with drifting
snow; temperature plunged to minus 53," re-
ported Little America, 8,761 miles from Wash-
ington, D. C., and 812 miles from the South
Pole. "Ninety percent personnel talked to
loved ones via ham radio. Beautiful aurora
observed daily."
Winter at the Bottom of the World
In the heat of a Northern Hemisphere sum-
mer it may be hard to realize that down at
the other end of the world 166 Americans are
living amid blizzards, bone-piercing cold, and
a four-months-long night.
These men are the hardy Seabees and Navy
specialists we left behind in Antarctica last
March to build and man two bases 447 miles
apart at McMurdo Sound and Little America
V (map, page 147). Around them rages the
worst weather in the world; yet in their snug
huts in the snow the men enjoy daily movies,
innerspring mattresses, hot and cold running
water, soft drinks, and steaks to order.
Other countries hold similar beachheads,
for this is a great international effort. Eleven
nations are joining forces in the biggest assault
ever made on the secrets of the white con-
tinent, nearly twice the size of the United
States, that covers the bottom of our planet.
This major campaign is being waged in
behalf of science, but it is using many of
war's tools?ships, planes, and ponderous
tracked vehicles. Its "troops" are as hiah
trained as any that a fighting war demands.
To a man who has devoted thirty years of
his life to exploring the polar regions and
preaching the importance of Antarctica, it is
an enormous satisfaction to see this job at last
get the tools that it demands. It is my privi-
lege to have a part in it as Officer in Charge
of United States Antarctic Programs, now and
during the International Geophysical Year.t
When I sailed on my first expedition to
Antarctica in 1928, my flagship was the
wooden bark City of New York, 502 tons
displacement and 200 horsepower. On my
fifth and most recent trip, the 1955-56 phase
of U. S. Operation Deepfreeze, the ship that
took me to the south polar continent was the
Navy's newest icebreaker, Glacier, 8,625 tons
displacement and 21,000 horsepower.
Quite a difference?and it's typical of the
big advantage we have today.
* For three decades the National Geographic So-
ciety has been privileged to cooperate in the history-
making polar explorations of Richard Evelyn Byrd,
first man to fly over the North and South Poles and,
since 1953, a Trustee of The Society. Admiral Byrd's
five previous personal narratives in the NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE are immortal chapters in the
annals of arctic and antarctic exploration: "Flying
Over the Arctic," November, 1925; "First Flight to
the North Pole," September, 1926; "Conquest of
Antarctica by Air," August, 1930; "Exploring the Ice
Age in Antarctica," October, 1935; and "Our Navy
Explores Antarctica," October, 1947.
f See "The International Geophysical Year: Man's
Most Ambitious Study of His Environment," by Dr.
Hugh L. Dryden, Director of the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics, Home Secretary of the
National Academy of Sciences, and Trustee of the
National Geographic Society, in the NATIONAL GEO-
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C) National Geographic Society 142
Berthed in Ice, U.S.S. Glacier Brings Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Back to Antarctica
The Navy's newest icebreaker crunched to this majestic landing at Ross Island on December 18, 1955. Helicopters
from the shislo eifyyda) Vtilr fKeliespA4)r2bity2atice -
e? f MAL Rififi8Z08117t'LliiZOIONOOMOOCi2-s7uth?
143 Kodachrome by Andrew H. Brown, National Geographic Staff
Mount Erebus, Landmark for Explorers, Backdrops Sailors Playing Tag with Penguins
The dozing volcano climbs 13,200 feet from bay ice to clouds above McMurdo Sound; a faint plume of steam rises
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' ?
144 The Aironal Geographic Magazine
My first flight to the South Pole, on No-
vember 28-29, 1929, was made in a Ford
trimotor. It had 975 horsepower and cruised
at 105 miles an hour. To get over the Queen
Maud Range, we had to throw out 300 pounds
of food.
On my latest flight to the South Pole, on
January 8, 1956, I rode in a four-engine Sky-
master (the Navy's RSD). It weighed more
than six times as much as our Ford trimotor
of 1929 and flew twice as fast. Far from hav-
ing to jettison food, we had a hot lunch of
pork chops, French fried potatoes, and peas
above the world's most forbidding terrain.
Why Back for the Fifth Time?
Late last year Operation Deepfreeze sailed
to Antarctica with 1,800 men. This Novem-
ber another big task force goes south to com-
plete and staff the scientific stations, carry on
the expedition's work, and relieve the winter-
ing-over parties.
By Christmas of 1957 the year-round popu-
lation of Antarctica will be many hundreds. If
all goes well, 15 of this number will be Ameri-
cans living and working at the geographic
South Pole. Think of it! That is no longer
a dream but a serious scientific objective.
People ask me why I keep going back to
Antarctica again and again. Well, I like it
there. I like the endless reaches of wind-
rippled snow, the stark peaks, the awesome
glaciers.
I like the clatter of tractor trains, the whir
of helicopters, and shouts of men wrestling
with vehicles and gear. Yes, and the howl-
ing of the huskies too; they're still needed for
rescue work. I like the symbols of life's tri-
umph in a lifeless land: the squawking skua
gulls, the comical penguins, seals wheezing at
their blowholes, the arching backs of whales.
Most of all, I guess, I like the challenge
of it, for Antarctica still plays for keeps. And
I believe, as the scientists do, that the things
we can learn there will have a profound effect
upon the lives of us all.*
Thus it was with the old sense of excite-
ment that I stood on the bridge of the brand-
new icebreaker Glacier, on December 15,
1955, as she entered the south polar pack,
the ring of floating ice that guards the Ant-
arctic Continent. We were scouting far ahead
of the rest of the task force?two other ice-
breakers, three cargo ships, and a tanker.
Rear Adm. George J. Dufek, operations corn-
I want to make it clear at the outset that
the credit goes to Admiral Dufek and those
under his command for the direction of the
ships, planes, and men. George Dufek, who
was with me on two previous antarctic ex-
peditions, commanded Task Force 43, which
had for its mission the establishment of our
antarctic bases (page 150).
With two of my staff I had joined Glacier
in New Zealand after flying there from the
United States and conferring on polar mat-
ters and the IGY program with Prime Min-
ister S. G. Holland and other high officials of
his Government. My companions were Dr.
Paul Siple, now my deputy, whom many re-
member, I'm sure, as the Eagle Scout who was
picked from the entire country to go with me
in 1928 on my first antarctic expedition, and
Maj. Murray Wiener of the Air Force.
As I explained to our New Zealand hosts,
we planned the establishment of two main
bases. One, to be erected on the Ross Ice
Shelf in the Little America region, was to be
the chief U. S. scientific station.
An Air Operating Facility, to be built on
land far back in McMurdo Sound, would be
the staging base for a daring airlift at the end
of 1956. From it, Air Force planes would
carry to the South Pole itself 500 tons of ma-
terials, as well as construction and wintering-
* As the Government's senior representative for
antarctic affairs, Admiral Byrd is in charge of United
States expeditions in the southernmost continent.
Supervising multiple aspects of U. S. south polar
programs, he coordinates the efforts of all Govern-
ment departments concerned with the Antarctic. His
unmatched knowledge and experience are called upon
to keep the public accurately informed on antarctic
matters and to foster harmonious relations in common
scientific and operational goals with other countries
taking part in the International Geophysical Year.
Admiral Byrd also is charged with setting up a
permanent unit for administration of U. S. antarctic
undertakings.
Page 145
"Whirlybird" Thrashes Skyward to Scout+
a Safe Course Through the Ross Ice Pack
Last December Operation Deepfreeze sent seven
ships and 1,800 men to the bottom of the world.
Laden with prefabricated buildings and a staggering
variety of supplies, the expedition prepared for
United States scientific studies in Antarctica during
the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58.
Here Glacier carves a channel through a 400-mile
band of pack ice guarding the approaches to Antarc-
tica. Steaming south in convoy, Greenville Victory,
Nespelen (half hidden), Wyandot, and Arneb gin-
gerly follow in her wake.
? National Geographic Society
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this knowled workers
in construction, forestry,
and, especially, agricul-
ture run into the billions.
An increase of good will
among peoples will be an
almost inevitable byprod-
uct of some 40 nations
working together in world-
wide collaboration. Typi-
cal of this spirit was the
heart-warming reception
that was given us in New
Zealand.
Six days after we sailed
from Lyttelton we were
crunching through the
400-mile-wide pack with
helicopters scouting ahead.
Glacier's skipper, Comdr.
Eugene ("Pat") Maher,
smiled approvingly as his
burly ship slashed through
four-foot-thick ice.
We had reached the
world of 24-hour daylight.
Often we stayed up all
night because there was
no night. The sun was a
giant lamp swinging in a
circle around a blue ceil-
ing.
Seals dotted the ice: a
few fat, lazy Weddells,
many slimmer, more agile
crabeaters, and the occa-
sional voracious sea leop-
ard and rare Ross seal.
Adelie penguins, Antarc-
tica's perennial welcoming
committee, tobogganed on
their stomachs across the
ice to escape the onrush-
ing ship (page 158).
On December 17 we
shook free of the pack and raced on across
the open southern Ross Sea.
Late that evening, through frost haze and
wind-torn clouds, we had our first sight of
Antarctica?the furrowed cone of Mount Ere-
bus, puffing a plume of steam and smoke
(page 143).
Very early the next day Glacier rested her
scarred gray chin on the hard ice of McMurdo
Sound. As the ship's engines fell silent, crew
and passengers lined the rails, spellbound by
the gleaming peak of Erebus and the blue-
: ttA-ikbi:litdk6filgobiRtitheoillo2-7
146 Andrew II. Brown, National Geographic Staff
Old Antarctic Hands Plant a Flag Atop Little America II
"I am mayor of this place," jokes Admiral Byrd (left). The tip of a
70-foot radio mast in the background marks his 1928-30 base, buried
by snows of three decades. Little America II, built in 1934 above the first
camp on the Ross Ice Shelf, lies 40 feet below the surface.
Dr. Paul A. Siple (laughing), Admiral Byrd's deputy, has accompanied
the explorer on all five of his antarctic trips. He went on the first as a
19-year-old Eagle Scout. Other polar veterans (left to right): Maj. Murray
Wiener, Air Force adviser to the Admiral, on his third trip with Byrd;
Lt. Richard E. Byrd, Jr., on his second; and Edward E. Goodale, an IGY
representative, also on his second.
over personnel, for Pole Station,
IGY-
assigned U. S. scientific outpost.
The International Geophysical Year, from
July, 1957, through December, 1958, is per-
haps the most important cooperative effort of
scientists in the history of man. From it we
are going to learn a great deal about this old
world we've crawled around on for so long.
In the single field of weather, for instance,
the antarctic IGY stations will greatly enlarge
our understanding of the basic circulation of
the atmosphere, and thus improve long-range
forecaAl
0,6tiir6i.sr46khie2tiotlik5/4b
LITTLE AMERICAS-Li
1934 atop buried Little Am
were installed in 1940 an.
in 1956 by Operation De-.
e America II established in
:ca I of 1929. III and IV
7 and V was built
ze.
Rock fellee-
\N
Route of a 7-man mechanizdd---N.
expedition which penetratect381 N.
miles into Marie Byr
Little America V.
STATUTE MILES
C) National Geographic Map
Drawn by John it Lathers and Victor). Kelley
OPERATION
DEEPFREEZE
PHASE I, 1955-1956
U.S. participation in the Interna-
tional Geophysical Year antarctic
programs. July 1957 to Dec. 1958
1956 Flights Unveil
Nearly a Sixth of Antarctica
During the next four years 11
nations will man bases around the
frozen continent, sending scientists
to make intensive earth observations
in an area nearly twice that of the
dom United States.
"I am hopeful that Antarctica,
in its symbolic robe of white, will
shine forth as a continent of peace
as nations working together there in
the cause of science set an example
of international cooperation," says
Admiral Byrd.
e Established IGY Stations
*AD P 8 0 RO 1 7 M) attaltion
Previous exploration
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148
4"Mr. Antarctica" Visits
Hut Point Airbase
Admiral Byrd (left) has lived
and led the 20th-century evolu-
tion of antarctic exploration
from dog teams and wooden
ships to far-ranging aircraft.
In yellow Byrd Cloth parka
and trousers, he has come by
helicopter to inspect the Deep-
freeze air camp on McMurdo
Sound and to visit Robert Fal-
con Scott's 1902-4 base camp,
still standing on Ross Island's
Hut Point (page 155).
Here Admiral Byrd talks with
Air Force Master Sergeant Hen-
drik Dolleman, veteran dog-
team driver of the U. S. Ant-
arctic Expedition of 1939-41.
+Page 149, above: Dolleman's
huskies curl happily near a
snow-drifted sled. Though
planes now blaze polar trails,
rescuing dogs can still mean life
or death to downed flyers.
Glacier Skirts a ->
Mighty Wall of Ice
Four times Manhattan's size,
this giant island berg measures
nearly 100 square miles. Ex-
perts estimated its average
height as 125 feet and its depth
below water as 750 feet.
The monstrous mesa split off
from the Ross Ice Shelf and
cruised for 200-300 miles before
grounding between Ross and
Beaufort Islands.
C)National Geogranhic_Societ
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National Geographic Staff
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150 John E. Fletcher, National Geographic Staff
Rear Adm. George J. Dufek (Left) Plots the Course South for Task Force 43
Three icebreakers, three cargo ships, and a tanker made up the support fleet for Operation Deep-
freeze. Here the Admiral confers with Edisto's captain, Comdr. Roger W. Luther (center), and the Deep-
freeze base operations chief, Capt. Richard B. Black. The National Geographic map helped mark ship and
plane positions on the 2,400-mile course from New Zealand.
We had returned to reawaken the echoes in
the region where Scott and Shackleton made
antarctic history early in this century.
Getting to Know the Natives
Glacier quickly shed her deckload of over-
snow vehicles and one of the expedition's four
single-engine Canadian-built de Havilland
Otter planes (page 165).
Off-duty shifts played softball on the ice or
hiked three miles to the bare, black slopes of
Cape Bird to visit a penguin rookery. There
30,000 family-minded Adelies were busy
hatching eggs and tending the trembling
young. Rapacious skua gulls perched and
hovered near by, ready to pounce on un-
guarded eggs and young (pages 158, 159).
Marching penguins made heavy two-way
traffic on the crushed-lava slope from ice edge
to rookery.
"While one bird tends the eggs, the mate
heads for seal holes or the open sea," explained
Dr. Oliver L. Austin, Jr., U. S. Air Force
observer and ornithologist who was banding
penguins and skuas for the U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. "Here it's a round-trip walk
of about five miles.
"Birds come back from salt water full of
mouse-gray blobs of fluff that were their shrimp. After some affectionate billing a,nd
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All-out Assault on An711.Fctica 151
squawking, the penguins switch places on the
pebble nests and the hungry shift takes off
for the sea. Both parents feed the hatched
young by regurgitation."
The Glacier had pushed quickly ahead to
McMurdo Sound to reconnoiter an ice air-
strip that could receive the eight multi-engine
aircraft assigned to Task Force 43. These
planes were waiting in New Zealand for the
go-ahead on the hazardous 2,400-mile over-
water hop.
Airstrip Laid Out on Bay Ice
During Operation Highjump, in 1947, I
took part in the successful 800-mile flight of
six twin-engine R4D's (Douglas DC-3's) from
the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea to Little
America, a flight led by Comdr. William M.
("Trigger") Hawkes, who flew to Antarctica
on Deepfreeze, too, as Aviation Transit Offi-
cer.
This new air movement, however, would
span a three times greater mileage and would
be the first fly-in of big planes to Antarctica
from a land jump-off point.
To locate the required airstrip, a team took
off from Glacier by helicopter. Heading it
was Comdr. Gordon K. Ebbe, commanding
officer of the air squadron that would put aloft
the long-range aircraft.
Thirty-five miles to the south, near Hut
Point, site of Scott's first expedition cabin,
they red-flagged an 8,000-foot snow strip that
could easily handle the biggest airplanes
(page 152).
A helicopter flew three of the correspond-
ents to see the newly marked runway, landed
them, and took off again. At the snowy strip,
hours later, they stamped feet and rubbed
nipped cheeks, waiting for a helicopter to pick
them up. It was cold and very lonely on
windswept McMurdo Sound.
"Well," said one, "we surely ought to make
it back to the Glacier before dark."
The others nodded agreement?then jerked
to attention, realizing it wouldn't be fully
dark here for several months.
First New Zealand-Antarctica Flights
News of the airstrip was radioed to Admiral
Dufek aboard Arneb and to the plane crews
waiting in New Zealand. Then the south-
bound task force ships steamed to their ocean
stations for picket duty at intervals along the
flight route. As soon as weather permitted,
the historic air hop would be ordered.
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Glacier left McMurdo on December 20,
heading for her plane-guard station 200 miles
north. Half a dozen emperor penguins?
three-foot-tall patriarchs weighing 60 to 90
pounds?wagged flippers at us as if in au
revoir.
Soon word came that all eight aircraft so
vital to fulfillment of our exploration plans
were airborne from New Zealand.
The four larger planes, two Neptunes
(P2V's) and two Skymasters (R5D's), landed
safely at McMurdo Sound that evening. The
R5D's were the first four-engine aircraft ever
to fly in Antarctica, and the first to land there
on wheels alone.
"It's the most miserable flight I ever made,"
said the pilot of the first plane in, Lt. Comdr.
Joseph W. Entrikin. "Oh, it was smooth all
right, and we had very little icing up. But
it seemed so long, not knowing what to ex-
pect, wondering if the weather would hold,
and with no place to land but just one spot
in the whole continent where there were peo-
ple on the lookout for us."
What magnificent achievement lay ahead
for these airplanes and their crews!
Earlier, to our regret, the four smaller air-
craft, ski-wheel DC-3's and Grumman Alba-
tross triphibians, had been forced to return
to New Zealand because of adverse winds.
Time forbade holding the ships on station for
another fly-in attempt.
Plane Crashes Near McMurdo Sound
Soon Glacier plowed north to rendezvous at
Scott Island with the three cargo carriers and
the tanker. Gathering them in convoy col-
umn behind her, she led them southward
through the loosening pack ice (page 145).
The days just before Christmas were
clouded by news of the crash on December
22 of the Otter aircraft unloaded four days
before from Glacier. But by Christmas Eve
all hands got the good news that none aboard
had been killed, though one officer was seri-
ously injured and one enlisted man suffered a
painful, but soon-mended, back injury.
The small plane, jam-packed with passen-
gers and supplies for Hut Point, had cracked
up immediately after take-off from the north-
ern edge of the McMurdo Sound ice.
A weasel snow vehicle at the crash site
transmitted an S 0 S to Hut Point. One of
the Neptunes flew to the ice edge and took
the injured men to the tent camp.
The base doctor gave first aid. But as vet
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410 All-out Assault
First Flight to Antarctica from Land
' Touches Down on McMurdo Sound
Ski wheels reach for a flag-marked runway on
snow-carpeted bay ice as a twin-engine Navy P2V
Neptune completes a historic flight from New Zea-
land.
Four planes successfully made the 2,400-mile non-
stop hop on December 20, 1955, after Glacier had
raced ahead to pick a landing site. Two of them?
Navy R5D Skymasters?were the first four-engine
planes ever used on the south polar continent.
he had neither instruments nor shelter ade-
quate for treatment of his patients.
One of the task force ships had to be
summoned. But the camp radio at Hut Point
failed to contact the ships at sea.
Commander Ebbe checked his big planes.
One Skymaster had about an hour and a half's
gas left. (Until a tanker arrived, it was im-
possible to refuel the planes.)
Radiogram Goes Long Way Round
"Get up there," Commander Ebbe ordered
its crew, "and try to contact an icebreaker."
No luck. So the pilot climbed to 10,000
feet, his gasoline rapidly dwindling, and raised
a commercial radio station 2,800 miles away
in Auckland, New Zealand. When he landed,
his plane's tanks held only 30 minutes of fuel.
The Auckland station alerted the ships.
Edisto, outbound from McMurdo, "did a one-
eighty," turned up flank speed, and raced to
the crash scene.
When Edisto reached the ice on Christmas
Eve, 50-knot winds canceled out the take-off
of the rescue helicopter. Thirty-three hours
ticked away with exasperating slowness before
the pilots, Lt. Comdr. Charles Costanza and
Lt. (jg.) John Bacon, whirred up to Hut
Point and picked up the crash victims.
In the air again, the "choppers" plunged
into whiteout conditions, the dread of polar
flyers, when ground, sky, and horizon all are
lost in a milky haze.
"I felt like a fly trapped inside a ping-pong
ball," said Jack Bacon.
But the helpless passengers were safely de-
livered to Edisto's warm sick bay.
Page 152
? A Batter Aims at Lofty Mount Erebus
Softball on McMurdo ice makes home seem not
so far away on New Year's Day. Under the ant-
arctic summer sun, temperatures sometimes rose
higher than on the same days in New York City.
? National Geographic Society
John E. Fletcher, National Geographic Staff
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on Ant tica 153
Christmas at sea was a day of worship and
feasting. I was invited to eat Christmas din-
ner with the crew and enjoyed talking with
these fine Navy men.
To Glacier from Arneb came a message by
blinker light: "Radar contact friendly sleigh
drawn by eight reindeer led by Rudolph
piloted by Kris bearing zero zero zero and
flashing continuously 'Merry Christmas.'"
Bound now for Little America, Glacier
cruised along the face of the fabulous Ross
Ice Shelf, or Barrier. This fortresslike white
cliff is the seaward edge of a sheet of glacial
ice as big as California (page 148).
The Shelf is an amazing feature, a striking
example of Antarctica's "living Ice Age." Fed
by glaciers pouring into Ross Sea from the
continental uplands, it also grows by the de-
posit of fresh snow on its surface.
Recent dramatic changes in the ice front
became evident when we compared the Gla-
cier:s carefully plotted positions with the
Barrier face as charted in 1947. Between
Little America and a point in longitude 178?
E. a chunk of ice about 200 miles long and
10 miles wide had broken off, a piece as big
as Delaware.
I asked Dr. Siple, an expert on puzzles of
the Barrier, his opinion on how this happened.
"Probably at quite long intervals?perhaps
decades," he explained, "the right combination
of tides, storms, and waves, prolonged snow-
falls, or perhaps even a cataclysm like an
earthquake, must cause multiple breaks along
the whole Barrier edge."
Back to Little America
Very early on the clear, cold morning of
December 28 we raised the Bay of Whales.
Soon, through binoculars, appeared, the tips
of radio towers and poles of Little America,
deserted since 1947.
At 4 a.m, a helicopter lifted me off Glacier's
flight deck for a look at the few square miles
of ice that have such special meaning for me.
As we fluttered comfortably along, my mind
flew back to a scene of sweat and strain that
was acted out in this very setting 28 years
ago. Vividly I saw in memory the grunting,
heaving line of men and dogs that hauled our
Ford trimotor plane, its wings removed, five
uphill miles across the ice to our first Little
America camp.
We buzzed Little America III and IV,
where radio poles and tents protruded from
the snow, and then alighted at Little America
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Blizzard-beaten Camps
of Antarctic Pioneers
See Life Again
Three half-century-old huts
cling to the black lava shores
of Ross Island as monuments
to men who dared break the
way to the South Pole.
4-Britain's Capt. Robert Scott
built this camp on Cape Evans
in January, 1911. Racing Roald
Amundsen for the Pole, he set
out southward November 1,
never to return (page 175).
Deepfreeze work teams sam-
pled some of the food sup-
plies left by Scott and by
Shackleton's Ross Sea party in
1915-16. They tasted English
cocoa and curried rabbit, still
perfectly preserved.
National Geographic photog-
rapher Jack Fletcher (right)
looks upslope toward Scott's
main supply dump and the
South Pole 850 miles beyond.
+Page 154, below: From this
hut on Cape Royds, Sir Ernest
Shackleton's 1907-9 expedition
climbed Mount Erebus and pio-
neered a route to within 97
miles of the Pole.
Whistling winds, sun, and
rocky terrain keep this spot
clear of snow.
+On Hut Point, at Scott's 1902
base, Admiral Byrd (left) in-
spects a pickax found lying out-
side the snow-filled building.
0 National Geographic Society
Andrew H. Brown,
National Geographic Staff
155
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156 John E. Fletcher, National Geographic Staff
Ghostly Cabin Filled with Frozen History Waits for Explorers to Finish a Last Meal
Capt. Robert Scott built the hut on Cape Evans in 1911. Last men to occupy it were seven survivors of
Sir Ernest Shackleton's Ross Sea party. Shackleton came to their rescue in January, 1917, with the ship Aurora.
Sailing home, he wrote, "I had the hut put in order and locked up." Thirty-nine years later shore parties from
Operation Deepfreeze were forbidden to enter, but photographer Fletcher aimed camera and flash into the gloom
through a broken windowpane and shot a series of pictures. This dramatic view developed, showing the table's
wine, bread, and cheese perfectly preserved by Antarctica's natural icebox. A pot stands on the stove ready for
cooking. King George V and Queen Mary appear on the wall in precoronation portraits. Snow, choking all but
thi?oomAtittrOvettForliZeleg&e 243o214i1taTia1I1R131P8G1OVP3TROG040031306024et?n.
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All-out Assault on AnWctica 157
I and II. There, above the surface, still
pioject three wooden antenna poles and the
tops of two steel radio towers, about 10 feet
of one and 8 of the other.
Old friends from former expeditions had
flown in, too. We raised the American flag
and I reminisced a bit (page 146).
"It's great to get back here, with about 10
buildings of my first two camps right under
my feet. They're likely to be there for a
long time to come, locked away tighter than
a mummy in a pyramid, but their contents
still well preserved and available if needed....
"You know, these radio towers were 70 feet
tall when we put 'em up in 1929. When we
came back in 1934, the first base was com-
pletely buried. We just put the second one
down right on top of it."
A knife-edge wind sliced in from the south
across 400 miles of unbroken ice. The tem-
perature was four or five below zero. White
snakes of ground drift hissed across the snow.
And this was midsummer!
Towers and poles only accented the aban-
doned feel of the place. The men, wandering
about in their bright parkas, seemed like be-
wildered visitors from another world.
In relays we hopped back to the ship, hun-
gry both for warmth and for breakfast.
Old Site Ruled Out
It seemed doubtful whether it was worth
while to try to establish our new base in the
Bay of Whales. Sometime between 1948 and
1954 the ice capes enclosing the once bottle-
shaped bay had broken out. In most places
sheer white cliffs precluded putting ships'
cargo on top of the Barrier. I felt certain
we would find better locations to the eastward.
In Kainan Bay, 30 miles northeast, Paul
Siple found the right combination: bay ice
for unloading, gently sloping snow ramp to
the Barrier summit, and a ridge of Shelf ice to
support the buildings and give their tenants a
view over Kainan Bay and the Ross Sea (page
166).
Glacier broke out an ice harbor 1,000 yards
wide and 1,200 long. The supply ships Arneb
and Greenville Victory tied up and began dis-
charging cargo. From Greenville Victory
Capt. Stevan Mandarich, USN, came aboard
Glacier to join me as my chief of staff.
Probing showed up many ice cracks and
crevasses along the five-mile route between
open water and base site. Most were drifted
over with snow, but one crevasse was a gap-
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ing turquoise slit 60 feet deep and 25 to 30
feet across.
Under Army Warrant Officer Silas Bowling,
with years of experience bridging crevasses on
the Greenland Icecap, Seabee teams spanned
bay ice cracks with aluminum bridges that
could support 70 tons. They dynamited
crevasses in the Barrier fringe. Drivers
brought up 35-ton D-8 tractors rigged with
bulldozer blades and shoved hundreds of tons
of snow into the beautiful but treacherous
mantraps there and farther inland (page 180).
Within ten days of the first landing, tractor
trains already had delivered hundreds of tons
of construction materials to the base site and
to a temporary dump on the bay ice.
Shore Parties Greet 1956
The ships celebrated New Year's Eve with
gala shore parties. Colored flares flamed
wanly in full daylight. Men wearing tissue-
paper hats and false noses chanted, with
monotonous logic, "We're here because we're
here, because we're here because we're here!"
On January 4, 1956, I joined Admiral
Dufek in the formal dedication of Little Amer-
ica V. Here would arise 17 bright orange
buildings, chief structures of the 73-man base
(pages 166 and 168).
On the way to the flag-raising ceremony,
my Sno-Cat broke down and Amory ("Bud")
Waite, Army Signal Corps representative,
picked me up in one of his weasels. Bud was
one of three men who saved my life in 1934,
rescuing me from my solo vigil 123 miles by
trail inland from Little America after I had
been badly poisoned by carbon monoxide
fumes.
During Deepfreeze I, Bud Waite made valu-
able studies of radio wave propagation in
snow and ice. He confirmed that snow, unlike
water, won't short-circuit a copper antenna
wire laid across its surface.
In the snow, Waite and his men dug two
pits 20 feet deep and a mile apart. Even
with very low-power equipment, they were
able to talk easily by radio through the inter-
vening barrier of hard-packed snow.
In his "cosmic ray shack" on Arneb, Rochus
E. Vogt, of the Enrico Fermi Institute for
Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago,
kept busy mapping the force of the earth's
magnetic field and taking fixes on the geo-
magnetic equator in outer space. He did this
by interpreting the influence of the earth's
magnetic field on cosmic rays.
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158 Andrew H. Brown, National Geographic Stall
Adelie Penguins Leap from Beneath the Ice Like Porpoises in Boiled Shirts
Clown princes of their frozen kingdom, Adelies rollick at ice edge like boisterous children. Inordinately
curious, they scolded Deepfreeze ships, craned necks at man's odd labors, and waddled into sailors' softball
games. A skua gull perches on the ice; his kind regularly steal penguin eggs and newly hatched young.
Vogt's dozen cosmic ray counters, embedded
in paraffin and separated by massive lead
blocks, received the cosmic radiation produced
by high-energy particles. Arneb's route in
antarctic waters, and bound to and from them,
allowed Vogt to make tangent readings that
accurately located the geomagnetic equator.
Knowledge of the geomagnetic field in outer
space, among other values, is useful for pre-
cise aiming of ballistic missiles.
Other scientists pursued their researches in
many fields. Ornithologist Austin banded
thousands of penguins, and one of the hydrog-
raphers dredged up a sea worm 30 feet long.
"Heat Wave" Brings Crisis
After Glacier left to return to McMurdo
Sound early in January, there arose at Little
America V a major emergency. Later I heard
the story from Comdr. V. L. Pendergraft,
Task Force Air Operations Officer.
"To speed off-loading, we took a chance on
setting up that big supply dump you saw
growing on the Kainan Bay ice close to the
Barrier," he said. "As fast as equipment
came out of Arneb and Greenville Victory,
tractor trains hauled it to the halfway dump.
Seabees piled up the stuff by the hundreds
and hundreds of tons, despite the calculated
risk involved in trusting it to the bay ice.
"Then an antarctic 'heat wave' moved in.
Temperatures rose to the freezing point.
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"On January 7 surveyor Frank Biba,
sighting through his theodolite, saw the ice
edge heaving up and down. What if every-
thing we'd off-loaded?supplies, tractors, Sno-
Cats, aircraft?were lost to Davy Jones?
"Admiral Dufek, against the advice of some,
at once ordered every box, crate, drum, and
bundle in the supply dump moved to the base
site on the Barrier within 48 hours. By now
the ice the surveyor had seen quaking was
nothing but a jumble of tossing ice cakes."
All hands turned to, many spurred by the
danger of losing the means of their survival
over the long antarctic winter to come. A
day and a half of fierce exertion?and every
stick of equipment was safely relocated on
the Shelf ice.
In a howling storm of blowing snow, ve-
hicles and loose equipment near the ice edge
were hauled back aboard ship (page 164).
Within hours after the move, wind and seas
licked Kainan Bay clean of the last bay ice.
The natural float that had supported the sup-
ply dump was entirely gone.
McMurdo Ice Claims a Life
The ships moved in and tied up to the
face of the Barrier at a low point almost at
deck level (page 162). Officers and men, the
crisis weathered, were wiser for their experi-
ence. Moral: Young bay ice is fickle stuff,
never tD be trusted.
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All-out Assault on Antarctica 159
Hardly had Glacier returned to McMurdo
Sound when a man died almost within sight of
our decks. Seabee Construction Driver 3d
Class Richard T. Williams, of Ilion, New
York, had just jockeyed his 28-ton D-8 trac-
tor across a bridged crack in the bay ice
opposite Cape Royds and moved on about 20
feet when the ice suddenly split all around it.
The metal monster slid out of sight, and
driver Williams with it. The water was 100
fathoms deep. There was nothing anybody
could do.
Later the new Navy airbase in McMurdo
Sound was named Williams Air Operating
Facility in honor of this faithful young Seabee.
In happy contrast to this tragedy was the
safe completion of the aerial exploration pro-
gram. In 10 spectacular flights from the
McMurdo Sound ice, between January 3 and
January 14, U. S. Navy long-range planes of
Air Development Squadron Six observed ap-
proximately 800,000 square miles of Antarc-
tica previously unseen by human eyes. That
means more than a fourth as much territory as
there is in all the United States.
A series of short, preliminary flight-famil-
iarization hops was called by the pilots "fright-
familiarization."
The air tracks of the two Skymasters and
two Neptunes fanned out across the heartland
of the continent. Four of the flights crossed
the South Pole.
Jack Fletcher, National Geographic pho-
tographer, had the distinction of taking part
in a flight that found the highest area yet dis-
covered on the white glacial dome of Ant-
arctica's hinterland. An area near latitude
82? S. and longitude 55? E. humped up to
about 14,000 feet (map, page 147).
I had expected to find this high land because
of the furious and continuous south winds that
ships and land parties have bowed before on
the Adelie Coast of Wilkes Land. Neverthe-
less, this discovery was a most worth-while
geographic find.
The Australian, Sir Douglas Mawson, a
great scientist and my good friend, as long
ago as 1912 reported 90-mile winds blowing
there for days, with gusts hitting 200 miles
per hour. Other explorers confirmed these
gales, which revealed a sharp contrast with
the situation at Little America. There 14 mph
was the average for the windiest month, and
75 mph was the strongest recorded wind.
Ice Dome Helps Solve Wind Mystery
From the observations of the various plane
crews Siple deduced that a shallow trough
lies between the tall mountains of Victoria
Land, some of which reach up to 15,000 feet,
and the high dome found by our planes in
central "East Antarctica."
Sloping down evenly from near the South
Pole toward the Adelie Coast, this wind chute
spills out cold air from the ice plateau. Gain-
ing speed from the pull of gravity as it pours
downhill, the air reaches the sea as a scream-
ing antarctic gale.
Saul Pett, Associated Press correspondent,
became the first newspaperman to fly over the
South Pole. Pett won local fame for his lively
sense of humor. Once, sharing with other cor-
An Antarctic Ambassador Erupts from the Depths
Black-and-white Adelies pop comically from water to ice with the suddenness of watermelon seeds squeezed
from fingers, yet maintain an erect stance worthy of a diplomat in full dress. They size up the ice edge
from 20 to 30 feet away, rush at it under water, and shoot up to land feet first on the snow.
John E. Fletcher, National Geographic Staff
,01111,4,,44114
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160 The I\onal Geographic Magazine
respondents a temporary drop in morale, Pett
suggested, "Let's go out on the ice and build
snowwomen."
The summer's first transcontinental sweep
was a 3,000-mile flight across Wilkes Land to
the Knox Coast and back. The plane swung
within distant view of the area where, a few
days later, the Russian IGY expedition began
setting up its Mirny Base. Other flights
crossed areas where the U.S.S.R. plans to
build inland bases.
"S 0 S, S 0 S, S 0 S!" brought the air op-
erations room aboard the W yandot to tense
alert in the late evening of January 6. The
distress call came from Lt. Comdr. Joe
Entrikin. His Neptune was 1,200 miles out
from McMurdo.
Entrikin reported his starboard engine fail-
ing. Power output was wavering as revolu-
tions per minute fluctuated wildly. The crew
jettisoned bomb bay fuel tanks and stripped
the airplane of everything but essential radio
and survival gear.
What a relief when radar spotted the cripple
100 miles away, staggering in over the 10,000-
foot mountains west of McMurdo Sound!
Ten minutes from the airstrip, the star-
board engine failed completely. But the
pilots made a perfect single-engine landing.
No wonder crews sometimes referred to
these hazardous air journeys as "long-rage
missions"!
The aerial survey program ended with a
tremendous transcontinental effort in which
"Trigger" Hawkes and his teammates flew a
Neptune from the Ross Sea to the Weddell
Sea and back. The 3,200-mile trip was the
longest flight yet made in Antarctica.
Third Time to the Pole
To me, of course, my own flight to the Pole
?my third?stands out with special vividness.
We took off from McMurdo Sound, and
our first goal was the so-called "area of in-
accessibility," the heart of the United States-
size section of "East Antarctica" that, until
this year's survey flights, never had been seen
by man. I also wanted to go to the South
Pole to inspect the surface of the snow and
neve there to get an idea of what conditions
may be found by the plane, or planes, that
will have to land the Pole Station construc-
tion personnel this fall.
With me rode Paul Siple, who has been
asked to take charge of the U. S. base to be
built4
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During the long flight we kept checking
the navigator's headings with the same Bum-
stead sun compass we used in 1929. This
simple but ingenious device was invented by
Albert H. Bumstead, first Chief Cartographer
of the National Geographic Society.
At a point 20 minutes beyond 85? S. and
90? E. we began to ice up and flew into a
thickening whiteout. So we headed for the
Pole, the visibility improving en route. Each
time I've approached the Pole from a different
direction. This time we came in along the
90th meridian, east.
It's quite easy to find the Pole when the
sun is visible. Using the periscopic sextant,
we took a true south heading. From tables
we knew the angle of declination of the sun
south of the Equator at the Pole for the day,
January 8. When the sextant showed the
sun's altitude above the horizon equal to its
declination, we would be over the Pole.
Plane Overshoots the Target
The trouble was that broken clouds inter-
fered with our sun fixes, and we overshot the
Pole by 17 minutes. But we promptly back-
tracked and soon hit our almost featureless
target, hub of the vast flat snow field of the
polar plateau.
Our altimeter reading, plus radar, confirmed
the Pole's elevation at about 10,000 feet.
We circled the Pole three times, the first
time any of us had made three round-the-
world trips in 10 minutes. Naturally we kept
crossing the international date line (180? east
and west from Greenwich).
"How should we count this on per diem?"
quipped Commander Ebbe, squadron CO
along for the ride.
We dropped an American flag and a brown
paper bag signed by all of us and stuffed into
a piece of pipe. The crew chief threw out
four pennies.
Pilots of other expedition aircraft had re-
ported the Pole blanketed with snow so soft
(Continued on page 169)
Page 161
"Chopper 81" Lowers a Skyhook
for a Ship-to-air Pickup
Six Sikorsky helicopters gave Operation Deep-
freeze unprecedented mobility, shuttling staff officers
between ship and shore, delivering cargo, and serving
icebreakers as lookouts.
This whirlybird hovers above icebreaker Edisto's
landing platform to hoist canvas cargo bags.
C) National Geographic Society
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162
+ Gray Ships Moor to an Ice Wharf
Carved in Kainan Bay
Admiral Byrd landed supplies for four previous
Little America expeditions at the Bay of Whales,
a natural bight in the Ross Ice Shelf, or Ross Bar-
rier. Since 1948 a vast ice section has split away,
taking with it a small part of Little America IV
and leaving sheer ice ramparts.
For Little America V, icebreakers sought another
landing spot with a gentle slope for hauling sup-
plies to the Barrier top. They found it in Kainan
Bay, 30 miles northeast of the Bay of Whales.
With 21,000 horsepower behind its blunt nickel-
steel bows, Glacier chopped a harbor in the 6- to
8-foot-thick ice apron.
Here Arneb (left) and Greenville Victory flank
Glacier, carrying Little America's share of the 9,200
tons of supplies brought for U. S. antarctic bases.
Unloading begins under a bright midnight sun.
Sno-Cats and weasels scratch the first curving
tracks across wind-streaked snow.
Ice floes drift seaward toward a double horizon
formed by low-hanging clouds, their dark under-
sides reflecting the sea in a polar "water sky."
Navigators in pack ice watch for such a sky to
spot open water. A cotton-white overcast, or "ice
blink," reveals snow-covered ice fields.
Two Miles of Bay Ice Pave the Way +
to the Jutting Barrier Cliffs
Little America's first heavy equipment was un-
loaded with extreme caution, for the relatively thin
ice of Kainan Bay floats over more than 1,000 feet
of water. Before the work was finished, the ice
broke up in a storm (page 164). Ships scurried
to the safety of open water, then returned to tie
up directly to a deck-high section of the Barrier.
C) National Geographic Society
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165
+ Cargo Booms Swing Canadian
Bush Planes into Antarctica
Bad luck dogged the de Havilland Otters
used in Operation Deepfreeze. One dropped
when an unloading rig buckled, and another
crashed taking off from McMurdo Sound. A
third pancaked in soft snow on Edward VII
Peninsula.
+ Lashed by a Snow-filled Gale,
Crewmen Battle to Save Supplies
Page 164: When cracking ice threatened a
temporary supply dump on Kainan Bay, thou-
sands of tons of gear were rushed to the
Barrier. The last vehicles came back aboard
ship just as the blizzard struck. Hours later
wind and raging seas had swept the bay clean.
Cary-Lifts were jacks-of-all-work, hoisting
heavy loads, stacking cargo, and shoveling
snow.
+Amid blowing snow a work gang struggles
to lead out a line to a loaded cargo sled.
Spare sled runners stand in the foreground.
0 National Geographic Society
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Ave
World's Southernmost
Town Takes Shape at
Little America V
The main U. S. antarctic base
for scientific work in 1957-58
springs from a vast jumble of
supplies. Navy Seabees erected
bright orange cubicles in hours
from prebuilt panels and girders.
For morale of a 73-man party
left here to spend the antarctic
winter, "L.A." stands on a slight
rise overlooking Kainan Bay.
Farther inland, only snow and
sky meet the eye in every direc-
tion. Beyond a row of parked
sleds, Edisto nudges the distant
ice edge.
-)Page 167, below: Visitors
from Edisto stroll L.A.'s "Whit-
ney Lane," named for Seabee
Comdr. Herbert W. Whitney.
+ Stars and Stripes go up be-
fore construction begins. Side
by side, Admiral Byrd (in cari-
bou-skin suit) and Admiral
Dufek salute.
? National Geographic Society
:John E. Pletcher, National
Geographic Staff, and (lower left)
Comdr. Vernon L. Pendergraft, USN.
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All-out Assault on Ant, Ttica
as to preclude a plane landing either on skis
or on wheels. Our findings differed. We flew
very low and concluded that the snow surface
looked firm enough to land on. This was in-
dicated by the crisscrossing and fan-tailed
form of the sastrugi, or snowdrift pattern.
Our homeward flight track shadowed the
route by which Captain Scott trekked back
from the South Pole in 1912 and perished with
his four companions.
What changes two generations had wrought!
Where Scott and his ill-fated trail mates
man-hauled heavy sleds, we rode past at three
and a half miles a minute with the security
of four engines and magical new electronic
navigating equipment. Tea was served at in-
tervals.
Inland Glaciers Have Shrunk
At the head of the majestic Beardmore Gla-
cier, route of both Scott and Shackleton to
the polar plateau, we found the mountains
bare over broad areas. And from the upper
Beardmore, blue ponds, completely ice-free,
winked up at us. Many of the bowl-like
mountain cirques were empty of ice.
Paul Siple agreed with me that these fea-
tures gave evidence of slight glacial with-
drawal?or at least snow starvation?in this
area. Certainly glaciers here once had greater
extent.
At 10:30 on the evening of January 8 we
landed smoothly at the Hut Point airstrip. In
11 hours and 10 minutes we had flown 2,310
miles. I had never before made a polar flight
under such comfortable conditions.
Apart from two ranges of mountains found
west of the Victoria Land peaks, and other
ranges discovered inland from the Weddell
Page 168
Seabees Play Polar Dominoes
on a Table of Snow and Ice
Deepfreeze huts, designed for 100?-below-zero tem-
peratures and 100-mph winds, are refrigerators in
reverse, keeping heat in and cold out. Skylights are
the only windows at Little America. Winter bliz-
zards will bury the base to the eaves, but furious
winds will sweep flat roofs clear until, years from
now, snow engulfs all. Silvery structure is an alumi-
num test building. Helicopter parks on the snow.
Before March storms struck, outside stores had to
be carefully stacked and marked with flags. Even-
tually all supplies except fuel were placed indoors or
in snow caverns branching from burlap-and-wire-
walled tunnels connecting the buildings.
C) National Geographic Society
John E. Fletcher, National oellyei litOtr
Approved For Release 200
169
Sea, our wide-reaching surveys brought to
light no important new land features. What
our eyes and aerial cameras mostly viewed
was a relatively featureless waste of snow,
level or gently tilted over the high heart of
the continent, crevassed and splitting into gla-
cial tongues at the margins.
By mid-January the four big aircraft had
completed much of the work they came south
to do. Furthermore, the frozen runways that
had served so well were softening up and
cracking. Besides, they lay in the path of
unloading operations.
On January 18 the planes flew uneventfully
back to New Zealand for further staging
homeward to the United States.
Stubbornly the ice clung to McMurdo
Sound, impeding week after week the trans-
fer of materials for building the Air Operat-
ing Facility at Hut Point. This "Airopfac"
will be the staging base for installation next
season of the South Pole scientific station.
It also will support the Pole outpost through-
out the IGY program.
But the return of Glacier changed the pic-
ture. Within two days the rugged ship ground
out a 20-mile channel through hard 6-foot
ice to within about 10 miles of Hut Point.
Captain Maher handled the ship superbly.
Icebreakers as Cargo Ferries
This pathway, unfortunately, was jammed
with ice rubble that would quickly put holes
in the cargo ships' thin sides. By necessity
the icebreakers became cargo ferries. At the
edge of open water the freighters off-loaded
onto the icebreakers' helicopter flight decks
(the helicopters temporarily perching on the
ice). Glacier, Edisto, and Eastwind took
turns moving up "the slot," soon hacked out
to within five miles of Hut Point. They
boomed off their loads directly onto giant
cargo sleds lined up on the ice.
"The toughest ice operation in polar his-
tory," Admiral Dufek called it.
Fortunately, as the summer waned, the bay
ice kept breaking out. Once, within three
days, McMurdo Sound sent to sea giant ice
pans covering 350 square miles, an area as
big as New York City.
All of us on board Glacier watched with
awe as the ship smashed solid, unbroken ice.
Against the sides great blue slabs heaved up
on edge (page 170).
The undersides of the floes were spread with
ht AO iAtirdii Li 605 o o 02-7
170 U. S. Navy, Official
Smashing Through Ice Six Feet Thick, Glacier Batters Down Antarctica's Guard
The 10-engined Glacier fulfills a motorist's dream for solving traffic jams: she backs off and charges headlong.
Advancing a few yards, she shudders to a halt, retreats, and rams ahead again. In heaviest going, the ship's
slanting bow slides up onto the ice, crushing it by the sheer weight of her 8,625 tons. Crewmen compare ice-
breaking to riding a runaway bus over a hummocked, corkscrew road.
Here, forced off course by a stubborn stretch, Glacier plows a looping furrow up McMurdo Sound toward
Hut Point. Thin-skinned cargo ships, moored far behind, could not come up the floe-choked channel. Icebreakers
ferried supplies to waiting tractor trains. "The toughest ice operation in polar history," said Admiral Dufek.
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All-out Assault on Antlirtica 171
"During continuous daylight of the ant-
arctic summer," Eddie Goodale, a polar vet-
eran and an IGY representative on Deep-
freeze, explained to the men, "dark-brown
plankton, drawn by sunlight, accumulates on
the underside of the bay and sea ice.
"The sun's rays easily penetrate the snow
and ice. The plankton, absorbing the heat,
concentrates warmth on the bottom of the ice.
So, except in the warmest weather, ice melts
more quickly there than on top. During the
sunny period, therefore, ice that seems hard
on the surface often is dangerously mushy
underneath, ready to break up at the first
strong wind."
After the middle of January the Hut Point
base grew apace. When I flew up there early
in February, I found a cluster of tight and
spacious buildings perched proudly on a black
bluff overlooking the cape where Scott's storm-
buffed 1902 cabin still stands (page 175).
Someone had put up a sign that read:
There's no place
Any place like this place
Anywhere near this place
So
This must be the place.
To the south rose Observation Hill. I could
easily see on the peak the tall cross raised by
Scott's expedition mates to commemorate their
leader's conquest of the Pole and his tragic
death with his trail companions.
In McMurdo Sound I transferred from Gla-
cier successively to the cargo ships Wyandot
and Arneb. The captains of these two vessels,
respectively Capt. Lindsey Williamson and
Capt. Lawrence W. Smythe, not only were
the finest of skippers but also were won-
John E Fletcher, National Geographic Stall
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172 The NWonal Geographic Magazine
derfully hospitable and considerate hosts.
From Little America, late in January, ant-
arctic veteran Lt. Comdr. Jack Bursey and
a six-man trail-blazing team headed across
the inland ice in two Sno-Cats and a weasel.
Their hoped-for destination was about 600
miles away at latitude 80? S., 120? W., the
chosen site for the U. S. scientific outpost in
Marie Byrd Land. But bad crevasses and
engine trouble slowed the trail blazers and
at last forced them to turn back 381 miles out.
An Otter aircraft had supported Bursey's
party by laying down fuel caches. On Feb-
ruary 3, while ferrying four members of the
trail group back to Little America, the Otter
failed to turn up.
Six days later, Lt. Don M. Sullivan, flying
another Otter, spotted the smashed plane on
a snowy mountainside in the Edward VII
Peninsula near La Gorce Peak. But there
were no men in sight.
The search plane couldn't land?the snow
surface was too rough?so radioed the posi-
tion and returned to Little America. A heli-
copter flew out and found tracks leading away
from the crash scene. The "chopper" fol-
lowed them and overtook the seven missing
men 45 miles to the northwest.
Crash Victims Unhurt
None of the party had suffered anything
worse than shock and scratches. The search
Otter made rendezvous with the helicopter;
between them the two aircraft evacuated the
rescued men to Little America. It was miracu-
lous that no one was hurt.
Their story: "We'd swung north of our
course to duck bad weather. Ran into clouds,
whiteout, and freezing drizzle. The plane iced
up fast. We couldn't hold altitude and
mushed, nose up, into the mountainside with-
out ever seeing it till we hit."
They had broken out tents and dug into
the snow. With food and fuel they were com-
fortable enough. On the fourth day they
took off on foot toward Little America. They
knew their exact position and figured they had
enough food at least to reach Okuma Bay,
where seals could be killed.
It was on the inland ice also that Antarctica
struck one more fatal blow as the bitter au-
tumn settled in. Construction Driver Max R.
Kiel of Joseph, Oregon, was using his D-8
tractor to shove snow into an ice chasm to
fill it up and thus make a bridge, when his
den and unsuspected. So deep was the
crevasse that neither the body nor the ve-
hide could be recovered.
Early in February I left Antarctica, return-
ing to New Zealand on Arneb and continuing
home by sea and air.
By the end of March all ships had left the
Ross Sea area. Behind, 93 men remained at
McMurdo Sound and 73 at Little America.
These groups would spend the long antarctic
winter getting ready to build the South Pole
and Marie Byrd Land bases, work that will
begin late in 1956, weeks before ships can
reach Antarctica.
In March, Admiral Dufek led Glacier on a
notable survey cruise halfway around the
frozen continent. The purpose of the voyage
was to find sites for two additional IGY sci-
entific bases on the coast of Antarctica.
Site Found for New Base
Bucking the wretched weather of the ant-
arctic fall, Glacier's survey teams picked one
base site on the Knox Coast, at the Windmill
Islands in Vincennes Bay.
Inland from this shore reaches out the vast
expanse of Wilkes Land, named in honor of
Charles Wilkes. As a young lieutenant, Wilkes
led an American exploring expedition that
skirted this coast in 1840. It was Wilkes,
in fact, who first recognized that Antarctica
probably was a great continent.
Admiral Dufek intended also to locate
another base site near Gould Bay in the Wed-
dell Sea. So late in the season this place
could not be reached, although a party got
ashore at Byrd Bay in Queen Maud Land.
Having fully proved her worth on a diffi-
cult maiden voyage, Glacier at last departed
antarctic waters on March 30.
I hope this brief narrative has made it evi-
dent that the field tasks of Operation Deep-
freeze were a cooperative effort of 1,800 well-
trained men and officers.
On any large-scale expedition, and par-
ticularly where the scene of action is so hos-
tile as Antarctica, success depends on efficient
day-to-day fulfillment of responsibilities, in-
cluding many that may at the time seem
trivial. The over-all supervisory role which
I held freed me from most operational detail.
The attainment of most of the goals set
before Task Force 43 reflects great honor on
the United States Navy. It is a tribute, too,
to all the officers and men who took part in
vehicle plunged through another crevasse, hid- the expedition.
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? National Geographic Society
41/4 Restless Seas Gnaw the Barrier
at a Continent's Icy Rim
Wind, wave, and summer storm have swept sea ice
from Kainan Bay. A ghostly veil of snow blows from
the jagged face of the Ross Ice Shelf. Pushed by
antarctic glaciers, the California-sized ice sheet here
creeps seaward more than four feet a day.
173 John E. Fletcher, National Geographic Staff
Afloat in Near-freezing Waters,
Swimmers Test Polar Rescue Suits
Navy volunteers Kenneth S. Meyer (left) and
Roland R. Robichaud tread 29? F. water in McMurdo
Sound, only 1.5? above sea water's freezing point.
Survival suits of rubber and cotton over waffle-weave
cotton longies keep the men surprisingly warm.
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175
? Snow Tractor Growls Uphill
to Hut Point Supply Dump
Williams Air Operating Facility, hud-
dled on Ross Island's southern tip, was
named for a Seabee lost when his tractor
broke through ice into 600 feet of water.
McMurdo Sound's thick ice (back-
ground) will provide runways for the
heaviest planes.
Atop Observation Hill (left) stands a
wooden cross in memory of Captain Scott
and four companions who died in March,
1912, while returning from the Pole.
Carved on its staff are the oft-quoted
words from Tennyson's Ulysses: "To
strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
+Giant melter, heated by diesel exhaust,
hot antifreeze, and hot air, turns snow to
water at 100 gallons an hour.
+Windows are usable in prefab buildings
at wind-swept Hut Point. Four-inch-
thick panels are plywood and aluminum
sandwiches filled with Fiberglas.
? National Geographic Society
Kodachronies by Andrew H. Brown,
National Geographic Staff
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176
Pilots Chart a Flight Beyond the Pole
On 10 survey sweeps by Deepfreeze planes, men saw for the first
time some 800,000 square miles of unknown territory?a sixth of
Antarctica. Comdr. Henry P. Jorda (left), pilot of the Navy R5D,
confers with squadron leader Comdr. Gordon K. Ebbe on a 2,545-mile
flight over the "area of inaccessibility," Antarctica's remotest region.
John E. Fletcher, National Geographic Staff
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177
+ Take-off Rockets
Spew an Icy Plume
Across McMurdo Sound
JATO boosters, hurling a
Neptune skyward beneath
Mount Erebus, leave a mile-
long trail of frozen vapor,
smoke, and snow. An engine
faltered on the return of this
flight over Wilkes Land toward
the Knox Coast. Jettisoning
loose gear, the Neptune barely
limped over the high mountains
west of McMurdo and glided
home to a single-engine landing.
Foreground plane awaits re-
fueling from a near-by tanker
tied up to the bay ice.
4-The flight into the area of
inaccessibility, to the right of
the South Pole viewed from the
Ross Sea, crosses jagged peaks
knifing through a flowing sea of
snow and ice. Beyond, the
bleak polar plateau rises gently
toward its highest level yet
discovered, roughly 14,000 feet.
Iron oxides tint the mountain
flanks reddish brown. Layered
strata slashing across the near-
est slope are sedimentary de-
posits, probably sandstones.
John E. Fletcher and (above)
Andrew H. Brown, National
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179
Decks Rimed with Ice,
Glacier Noses Against the Barrier
In a cold, cutting February wind the icebreaker
returns to Little America's frozen waterfront.
Crewmen on the forecastle chop away a thick
sheath of frozen sleet and spray on exposed lines
and fittings. A mooring team linked by a safety
line goes out on the ice. Flags stuck in the snow
mark crevasses.
4-A line-handling gang walks out the heavy wire
mooring cable to a "deadman" of stout timber
which has been frozen solid into the ice. In an
emergency the mooring line can be freed quickly by
knocking loose a wooden toggle.
After gun turrets straddling Glacier's flight deck
are pointed forward to prevent guns from fouling
helicopters. The ship's five-inch guns fired star
shells to signal the fleet's rendezvous point when
murky weather dimmed visibility and icebergs
cluttered radarscopes.
+Bundled in cold-weather gear, a sailor swings a
wooden mallet to knock a six-inch crust of ice from
the anchor chain.
? National Geographic Society
Andrew B. Brown and (right) John E. Fletcher,
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Icy Jaws of a Snow-bridged Crevasse Could Swallow Man or Tractor Train
Between sea edge and Little America V lay a fissured dip in the Barrier surface dubbed "Crevasse Valley."
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