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Naval ships and personnel were withdrawn back to the United States in late February 1947 and the expedition was terminated, due to the early approach of winter and worsening weather conditions (Summerhayes & Beeching, 2007, p.15-16).
Naval ships and personnel were withdrawn back to the United States in late February 1947 and the expedition was terminated, due to the early approach of winter and worsening weather conditions (Summerhayes & Beeching, 2007, p.15-16).


Admiral Byrd in an interview with Lee van Atta of [[International News Service]] aboard the expeditions command ship, the [[USS Mount Olympus (AGC-8)|USS Mount Olympus]], discussed the lessons learned from the Operation. The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947 edition of the Chilean newspaper ''[[El Mercurio]]'', and read in part as follows:
Admiral Byrd in an interview with Lee van Atta of [[International News Service]] aboard the expeditions command ship, the [[USS Mount Olympus (AGC-8)|USS Mount Olympus]], discussed the lessons learned from the Operation. The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947 edition of the Chilean newspaper ''[[El Mercurio]]''. In the interview Byrd warned of an imminent attack on the United States and the necessity to "remain in a state of alert and watchfulness" and take defensive precautions against "the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile aircraft proceeding from the polar regions". Byrd said, "I do not want to scare anybody but the bitter reality is that in the event of a new war the United States will be attacked by aircraft flying in from over one or both poles." Byrd explained that, "the most important of the observations and discoveries made was the of the present potential situation as it relates to the security of the United States...I can do no more than warn my countrymen very forcibly that the time has passed when we could take refuge in complete isolation and rest in confidence in the guarantee of security which distance, the oceans and the poles provide." Byrd said that the United States was now in a better position due to the "discoveries" made during the expedition, saying that he now, "realized perhaps better than any other person the significance of the scientific discoveries made in these explorations because I can make comparisons." Byrd finished the interview by stating, "We are abandoning the region after making important geographical discoveries."<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|coauthors=|title=A bordo del Monte Olimpo en Alta Mar|newspaper=[[El Mercurio]]|location=[[Santiago, Chile|Santiago]]|pages=|language=Spanish|publisher=|date=March 5, 1947|url=|accessdate=}}</ref><ref>http://www.jimnicholsufo.com/22-admiral-byrds-secret-diary/</ref>
‘Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions. The Admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles. This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. Talking about the recently completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States. The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the Admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety.’ <ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|coauthors=|title=A bordo del Monte Olimpo en Alta Mar|newspaper=[[El Mercurio]]|location=[[Santiago, Chile|Santiago]]|pages=|language=Spanish|publisher=|date=March 5, 1947|url=|accessdate=}}</ref><ref>Summerhayes & Beeching 2007, p.17</ref>


After the operation ended, a follow-up [[Operation Windmill]] returned to the area, in order to provide ground-truthing to the aerial photography of Highjump. [[Finn Ronne]] also financed a private operation to the same territory, until 1948.
After the operation ended, a follow-up [[Operation Windmill]] returned to the area, in order to provide ground-truthing to the aerial photography of Highjump. [[Finn Ronne]] also financed a private operation to the same territory, until 1948.

Revision as of 12:36, 11 April 2011

USS Sennet (SS-408) participating in Operation Highjump

Operation Highjump (OpHjp), officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946-1947, was a United States Navy operation organized by RADM Richard E. Byrd Jr. USN, (Ret), Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by RADM Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68. Operation Highjump commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947, six months earlier than planned due to an early onset of the Antarctica winter. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and multiple aircraft. The primary mission of Operation Highjump was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV.

Highjump’s objectives, according to the US Navy report of the operation, were:

  1. training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions;
  2. consolidating and extending United States sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent (This was publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended);
  3. determining the feasibility of establishing, maintaining and utilising bases in the Antarctic and investigating possible base sites;
  4. developing techniques for establishing, maintaining and utilising air bases on ice, with particular attention to later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland, where conditions are comparable to those in the Antarctic;
  5. amplifying existing stores of knowledge of hydrographic, geographic, geological, meteorological and electro-magnetic propagation conditions in the area;
  6. supplementary objectives of the Nanook expedition. (The Nanook operation was a smaller equivalent conducted off eastern Greenland.)[1]


Timeline

Antarctic expeditions
International agreements
Belgium Belgium
United Kingdom British Empire / Commonwealth
Germany Nazi Germany Germany
Sweden Sweden
France France
Japan Japan
Norway Norway
United States United States
Soviet Union Soviet Union
International

The Western Group of ships reached the Marquesas Islands on December 12, 1946, whereupon the Henderson and Cacapon set up weather monitoring stations. By the 24th, the Currituck had begun launching aircraft on reconnaissance missions.

The Eastern Group of ships reached Peter I Island in late December 1946.

On January 1, 1947, LCDR Thompson and Chief Petty Officer Dixon utilized "Jack Browne" masks and DESCO Oxygen rebreathers to log the first dive by Americans under the Antarctic.[2] Paul Allman Siple, PhD was the senior U.S. War Department representative on the expedition. Dr. Siple was the same Eagle Scout who accompanied Admiral Byrd on the previous Byrd Antarctic expeditions.

Human losses

On December 30, 1946, aviation radiomen Wendell K. Hendersin, Fredrick W. Williams, and Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez were killed when their PBM Mariner George 1 crashed during a blizzard. The surviving six crewmembers, including Aviation Radioman James H. Robbins and co-pilot William Kearns, were rescued 13 days later. A plaque was later erected at the McMurdo Station research base, honoring the three killed crewmen.

In December 2004, an attempt was made to locate the remains of the plane.[3] There are ongoing efforts to repatriate the bodies of the three men killed in the crash [4] Killed airman Maxwell A. Lopez had a mountain named in his honour after his death, Mount Lopez on Thurston Island.

Additionally, Vance N. Woodall died during a "ship unloading accident" sometime after December 30, 1946. In a crew profile, deckman Edward Beardsley described his worst memory as "when Seaman Vance Woodall died on the Ross Ice Shelf under a piece of roller equipment designed to "pave" the ice to build an airstrip."

Afterwards

Father William Menster served as chaplain during the expedition. He became the first member of the clergy to visit the continent, and in a service in 1947 he consecrated Antarctica.

The Central Group of ships reached the Bay of Whales on January 15, 1947, where they constructed temporary runways along the glaciers, in a base dubbed Little America IV.

Naval ships and personnel were withdrawn back to the United States in late February 1947 and the expedition was terminated, due to the early approach of winter and worsening weather conditions (Summerhayes & Beeching, 2007, p.15-16).

Admiral Byrd in an interview with Lee van Atta of International News Service aboard the expeditions command ship, the USS Mount Olympus, discussed the lessons learned from the Operation. The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947 edition of the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, and read in part as follows: ‘Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions. The Admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles. This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. Talking about the recently completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States. The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the Admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety.’ [5][6]

After the operation ended, a follow-up Operation Windmill returned to the area, in order to provide ground-truthing to the aerial photography of Highjump. Finn Ronne also financed a private operation to the same territory, until 1948.

As with other U.S. Antarctic expeditions, interested persons were allowed to send letters with enclosed envelopes to the base. Here commemorative cachets were added to their enclosures which were then returned to the senders. These souvenir philatelic covers are readily available at low cost.

Operation Highjump has become a topic among UFO conspiracy theorists, who claim it was a covert US military operation to conquer alleged secret underground Nazi facilities in Antarctica and capture the German Vril flying discs, or Thule mercury-powered spaceship prototypes. This has been the central theme of Robert Doherty's "Area 51" series of novels.

An esoteric Hitlerist legend recounts that Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide in 1945, but fled to Argentina, then to an SS base under the ice in New Swabia during the early 1950s where he resumed his career as a painter. According to this account, Operation Highjump, the largest expedition mounted to the Antarctic, is claimed to have been sent to wipe out the Nazi presence.

Formation of Participating Units

Eastern Group (Task Group 68.3)[7]

CAPT George J. Dufek, USN, Commanding.

Western Group (Task Group 68.1)

CAPT Charles A. Bond, USN, Commanding.

Central Group (Task Group 68.2)

RADM Richard H. Cruzen, USN , Commanding Officer.

Carrier Group (Task Group 68.4)

RADM Richard E. Byrd Jr. USN, (Ret), Officer in Charge.

Base Group (Task Group 68.5)

CAPT Clifford M. Campbell, USN, Commanding.


See also

References

  1. ^ Summerhayes, C. & Beeching, P. "Hitler’s Antarctic base: the myth and the reality", Polar Record 43 (224):1–21 (2007) doi:10.1017/S003224740600578X, p.14
  2. ^ Lang, Michael A and Robbins Ron (2009). "Scientific Diving Under Ice: A 40-Year Bipolar Research Tool". In: Krupnik, I; Lang, MA; Miller, SE (eds). 2009. Smithsonian at the Poles: contributions to international Polar Year science.: 241–52. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  3. ^ News Archives from Antarctica - An at www.antarcticconnection.com
  4. ^ George One Operation Highjump Crew Recovery
  5. ^ "A bordo del Monte Olimpo en Alta Mar". El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. March 5, 1947. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Summerhayes & Beeching 2007, p.17
  7. ^ Kearns, David A. (2005). "Operation Highjump: Task Force 68". Where Hell Freezes Over: A Story of Amazing Bravery and Survival. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. p. 304. ISBN 0312342055. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
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