9 NOV 1946

Big Navy Antarctic Force Poised With Planes and 5,000 Experts

North American Newspaper Alliance

   WASHINGTON, Nov. 8--One of the largest polar task forces ever assembled by the United States Navy is poised to make a 10,000 mile jump to the Antarctic, it was learned tonight.

   In a race to gain "strategic" control of what suddenly has become a vital part of the world, the Navy is preparing to send more than a score of planes, a dozen icebreakers and airplane tenders and as many as 5,000 technicians and trained polar experts to explore the subcontinental South Pole.

   The mission, described officially as a "top secret" Navy project, is planning to get under way about Dec, 2, it was disclosed, with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, polar hero and veteran explorer, in charge.

   Trained men are being drawn from as far as Alaska and the Aleutians to help man the flotilla of small ice-breakers and dog-sled teams for the project. Personnel transferred to the United States now is being assembled at East and West Coast ports.

   Called "Operation High Jump" by Navy planners, the project is expected to head directly for the "Little America" site formerly occupied by Admiral Byrd and to spend at least two months photographing the icy wilderness and exploring the ice cap for evidence of uranium and other sources of atomic energy.

   Admiral Byrd, now polar adviser to Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, will be assisted by Capt. Richard H. Cruzen, task force commander, who has direct charge of assembling the men, ships, and materials for the expedition.

   Latest Navy reports indicated that if Admiral Byrd--who now is in semi-retirement--is not able to make the trip, Captain Cruzen will head the expedition. If Admiral Byrd goes, however, it will mark his fourth to the South Pole area and his sixth expedition into polar regions.

   Officers connected with the expedition declined to state specifically what would be the main object of the trip, but a high-ranking officer emphasized privately that is was of a "highly strategic" nature.

   To Test Personnel, Weapons

   The expedition not only is part of an international race to find new sources of atomic energy, he indicated, but also is intended to test personnel and new weapons under Antarctic conditions and to map the South Pole area into an operational weather weapon in the event of another war.

   The South Polar region, it was pointed out, is the breeding place of cyclones and the "Pandora box" from which weather for all parts of the world originates. Data of winds, currents and ice-flow here would provide the whole backlog on weather in Europe and America.

   An officer supervising the expedition's personnel said the project had no connection with another private expedition to the antarctic sponsored by the American Antarctic Association and the New York Geographical Society.

   The latter expedition is headed by Naval Comdr. Finn Ronne and Capt. Carl R. Eklund of the Army Air Forces and includes eighteen scientists. It is not scheduled to leave until Jan. 15.