George I Mishap Report         December 30, 1946         EBAY: 1946 Manuscript Journal 1946 MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL - Photos - ANTARCTIC RESCUE EXPEDITION - Primary Source Archive of an Antarctic Rescue Primary Source Unpublished Manuscript Journal Photographs and Diary of Events as they Unfold Operation High Jump 1946-1947 Chronicling with precision and intensity the locate and rescue mission of US bomber 'George One' and her six survivors, this is the archive of an astute naval officer who was part of Task Force 63 on the USS Brownson DD-868, in conjunction with Task Force 68 for Operation Highjump, of Rear Admiral Byrd's Fourth Antarctic Expedition Antarctic Expedition Archive, 1946-1947. 8vo. Manuscript diary, over 100 pages, and a hand drawn coloured map within text, entries dating from 2 December 1946 to 10 March 1947, relating to rescue efforts to find George One. The diary's author, naval officer James G. Snyder, is identified by his accompanying naval aviator certificate and identification. Red cloth gilt-lettered diary, with Operation Highjump stamp to title page, ink spot to front board, otherwise very good condition. Together with 39 original photographs, several with manuscript captions, all taken by the officer while on the USS Brownson DD-868 in Antarctic waters, showing the crew performing rescue work, the vessel itself, and rare views of south polar islands. Together with ephemera pertaining to the Antarctic expedition, including two unofficial naval certificates, one of which is signed by Byrd, both produced onboard in teletype print; two nautical charts printed onboard the USS Brownson DD-868 which do not have a termination date as the expedition was currently underway; and a typed briefing dispatched over two consecutive days 12 & 13 January 1946 from the USS Brownson DD-868 which outlines the rescue of the six survivors of the US navy bomber 'George One' missing since 30 December 1946. Operation Highjump' led by Rear Admiral Byrd was the largest Antarctic expedition to date. All items in this archive were written, photographed, printed, and present in Antarctica on USS Brownson DD868, which crossed the Antarctic Circle 76 times during the expedition. The armada arrived in the Ross Sea on December 31, 1946, and made aerial explorations of an area half the size of the United States, recording ten new mountain ranges. The major area covered was the eastern coastline of Antarctica from 150 degrees east to the Greenwich meridian. Original Photographs: The participating units of Eastern Group (Task Group 68.3) include Seaplane Tender USS Pine Island, Tanker USS Canisteo, and of course Destroyer USS Brownson, all of which are seen here. Furthermore, USS Philippine Sea, on which Rear Admiral Byrd was boarded for a time. Thirty-nine images of the rescue expedition, a scarce find, USS Brownson DD-868 is prominent in this visual record, ploughing through packice, also on approach to Alexander I Island, Rothschild Island, Charcot Island, and in the Ross Sea alongside the USS Philippine Sea transferring provisions. The vessel is also shown in rough waves, receiving fuel from the fleet oiler USS Canisteo, and taking on two survivors, co-pilot William Kearns and Lieutenant Blanc of the PBM Mariner George 1, thirteen days after having crashed in a blizzard. A view of USS Pine Island (AV-12) highlights her helicopter pad while a distant view serves to illustrate planes launching from it. Icebergs of unique formation are also photographed, as is one which is the recipient of a projectile explosion from the ship. Black and white photographs, varying slightly in size, hand trimmed, measuring approximately 4 x 5 inches, with exception of one smaller photographer circa 3 x 3 inches. Maps: Two confidential nautical charts printed on photographic paper, one titled 'Operation Highjump Overall Track Chart', the other 'U.S.S. Brownson DD-868 Phase Chart No.4 Cored from Antarctic Polar Chart.' Each measures 8 x 10 inches, date stamped 24 March 1947 to verso. Both also stamped 'Confidential, etc.' by order of the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. "Briefing Reports Mariner George 1": A typed dispatch over two consecutive days 12, 13 January 1946 from the USS Brownson DD-868 which outlines the rescue of the six survivors of the US navy bomber 'George One' missing since 30 December 1946. Folio. 6 pages typed on 3 single leafs. Officer's Identification: In the original gilt tooled leather pocket folder is found three important US Navy documents, Snyder's identification card with portrait photograph, his Pilot's Clearance Card, issued at Corry Field in Florida and signed by Commander G.G. Price, 13 October 1949, and, finally, his Naval Aviator Appointment Certificate, issued 14 October 1949, signed by Chief of Naval Air Training, J.W. Reeves Jr. All three produced after the Byrd expedition when the officer became a US Navy pilot. Expedition Ephemera: Two navy ceremonial certificates, informal but nonetheless significant to marine men, and worthy of Captain's signatures. On this voyage, Snyder is presented with two such commemorative documents. 'Order of the Penguin' certificate, signed in the original by Commander Harry M.S. Gimber Jr., and Rear Admiral Byrd himself. These were given when crew members of Operation Highjump when they crossed the Antarctic Circle into "the Domain of the Penguins" 'Brotherhood of the Horned Shellbacks', issued after rounding Cape Horn, dated 17 February 1947, also signed by Gimber. Both measure 8 x 10 inches, with original signatures; one is in color. Manuscript diary: The very young naval officer, only 21 at the time of departure, was somehow privileged to partake in this celebrated Antarctic expedition. In his private journal he documents the grand adventure and important events, including the rescue of the six survivors of George One Navy Patrol. A very legible, thorough, pleasing account enhanced by a sketch map of the rescue vessels at the crash site. With emphasis on the rescue, following are excerpts from the journal: 2 December 1946 "This is a running account of my experiences aboard the USS Brownson (DD86) attached to the task force 68 for operation High Jump... Two hours ago we left our mooring at Pier 4, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and headed out to sea..." 8 December "Completed the passage through canal at 1600 yesterday... This morning to get equipment to replace that damaged by fire..." 12 December "Stopped in the Gulf of Panama for a couple of hours yesterday to practice radar controlled seaplane landings with planes from the Pine Island. As we got underway again the Shellbacks took over the ship..." 18 December "During the fueling operation we also received about 8 tons of welcome provisions from the Canisteo... Around 2045 last night the floor of the sea rose about 8 miles (16 knots-1/2 hour)... assumed to be an enchanted high spot in that area so we unofficially named it the Brownson Plateau..." 18 December "Expect to reach Peter I Island on the 26 December so should be across the Antarctic circle for Christmas." 22 December "Last night we entered the land of the icebergs which have on several occasions been sighted as far north as 45 degrees S." 31 December "We pushed southward until 2000 Saturday night when we ran into closed pack, heavy fog and snow forcing us to reverse course and head back to clear water. Acting as an emergency aerodrome and weather station for the Pine Island, now about 150 miles east of us, it is necessary... for a PBM to land. In preparation for such an event we have 4000 gallons of aviation gasoline stored amid ships..." "George 1 took off at 0245 yesterday morning with fuel for twenty-one hours on a ten hour flight to photograph and explore the Demas Mountains [discovered in Byrd's 1939 expedition] and coastline of Cape Dart... Reporting every half-hour, the last report was received at 0606, location L71-22S & 99-30W... sky completely overcast, objects not visible 2 miles, snow or sleet... With the exception of fragments of a garbled transmission on two channels at 1425, the five guarded channels have been silent.... he is definitely down somewhere... rescue flights impossible... Thus the situation stands as I write this at noon today." 3 January 1947 "Still no word from G1... constant fog formed of ice particles instead of water droplets. Have crossed the Antarctic Circle 5 or 6 more times so it ceases to be a novelty. Everyone craves action. As yet no search planes have been able to get off... considerable speculation.. as to who will be on the landing party should it become necessary...no shortage of volunteers..." 10 January "...we sighted our first penguin on a large ice floe close about the port bow, of the Emperor species, he stood 4' to 4 1/2' high. Our presence didn't seem to bother him in the least and he put on quite a show... Later in the day we sighted another one astern of us and following us... for twenty minutes or so before giving up the chase. We saw a 20' whale and a number of seals. The watch last night reported having seen a school of ten or twelve whales which played around the ship..." 11 January "It is now 12 days since we last heard from George 1. Only four flights have been able to start on a search but weather conditions forced them all to turn back... 1116 - Just intercepted following message: From George 2 Action: Pine Island - Mariner George 1 Burnt wreckage and alive men at 71-03S 98-47W" While waiting for further developments on the rescue operations we sighted a seal... Dr. Gilmore from the Department of Interior is now on the fantail inspecting the specimen and making preparations to skin it... 1930 - George 3 has landed. The survivors are walking the eight miles to open water dragging one injured member on a sled. So far communications with the survivors have been by visual means so reports have been very sketchy. [Snyder draws a map here in the text to illustrate the site of the wreckage, the approach of USS Brownson and USS Pine Island, as well as ice conditions] Upon landing at 1920 George 3 sent two men ashore in a rubber life raft to aid the survivors... rescue operations completed 24 hours after survivors were first sighted. 7 February "... we also spied with envy a small Adélie Penguin in the arms of one of the Canisteo's officers.... the fuel hose broke spraying oil all over our starboard side..." 8 February "We joined the Pine Island at 69-59.3 S which was the furthest south we have been so far... entirely surrounded by 80 to 100 icebergs... awaiting commencement of provisioning operations... Pine Island prepared to send off two flights..." 1 March 1947 "We are now operating in east longitude north of the German claim - New Schwabenland... no ice having been sighted for quite some time... unusual since in the Bellinghausen Sea we usually encountered heavy pack around 67 degrees S." 10 March 1947 "Rendezvous with Pine Island... wait for the seas, which are still quite high, to diminish sufficiently for us to transfer stores. Each day, however, our food supply gets yet lower ad lower so we cannot delay too long. We are now about 40 degrees S with the weather becoming very pleasant. It seems very strange to see the sun and blue sky for days at a time... " End Excerpts. James G. Snyder (17 December 1925 - ?), author of the material, was granted a brief leave from his service on the USS Knight, a Gleaves-class destroyer, to become a member of Rear Admiral Byrd's Fourth Antarctic Expedition team. As an ensign on the USS Brownson DD-868, he would have the distinct honor of being involved in the monumental rescue following the tragic crash of a patrol bomber flying boat on the Antarctic continent. Clearly exhilarated, and having merited advancement, he became a pilot for the United States Navy shortly thereafter, in 1949. 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 south polar blizzard. The surviving six crewmembers, including Aviation Radioman James H. Robbins and co-pilot William Kearns, were rescued 13 days after. 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, and ongoing efforts continue even today to repatriate the bodies of the three men who perished. The Gearing-class destroyer USS Brownson (DD-868) participated in Operation Highjump between November 1946 and April 1947. On 10 February 1947, a boat party attempted to make a landing in the Antarctic on Charcot Island but was unsuccessful because of heavy field ice within three miles of the coastline. USS Pine Island (AV-12), was a Currituck-class seaplane tender, and the only ship of the United States Navy to hold this name. She contributed to the aerial exploration of Antarctica in Operation Highjump, and saved several downed aviators from the hostile climate. Departing Norfolk on December 4, she crossed the Antarctic Circle on 25 December 1946, carrying three PBM-5 Mariner seaplanes, one Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter and one Curtis SOC Seagull amphibian. Departing the Antarctic in March, she traveled from Rio de Janeiro via the Panama Canal to San Diego, California, arriving there in April. USS Phillpine Sea was the largest aircraft carrier of the Essex class. From Norfolk, 29 December 1946 Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd boarded her for the departure of Operation Highjump. She also took on six Douglas R45 Skytrain transports, two OY-1 Sentinel liaison aircraft, and a Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter along with cargo, spare parts, skis and Task Force 68 personnel. At the end of January, 660 miles (1,060 km) from Little America, Commander William M. Hawkes Rear Admiral and Byrd both disembarked from this vessel to board the aircraft with which they would begin exploration. Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888-1957), was a pioneering American polar explorer, aviator and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. Achieving tremendous feats of exploration, he organized polar logistics, was the first to reach the South Pole by air, and led five expeditions to the Antarctic. He had taken up aviation in 1917, and after World War I, gained great fame in the air. He commanded the naval air unit with the arctic expedition of D. B. MacMillan in 1925, prior to his Antarctic work, which is essentially his legacy. The Byrd Expeditions: On May 9, 1926, Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett attempted a flight over the North Pole in a Fokker F-VII Tri-motor called the Josephine Ford. This flight went from Spitsbergen (Svalbard) and back to its take-off airfield. Byrd claimed to have reached the Pole. This trip earned Byrd widespread acclaim, including being awarded the Medal of Honor and enabled him to secure funding for subsequent attempts to fly over the South Pole. First Antarctic Expedition, 1928-1930: In 1928, Byrd began his first expedition to the Antarctic involving two ships, and three airplanes: a Ford Trimotor called the Floyd Bennett (named after the recently deceased pilot of Byrd's previous cross-Atlantic expeditions); a Fairchild FC-2W2, NX8006, built 1928, named "Stars And Stripes"; and a Fokker Universal monoplane called the Virginia (Byrd's birth state). A base camp named "Little America" was constructed on the Ross Ice Shelf and scientific expeditions by dog-sled, snowmobile, and airplane began. Photographic expeditions and geological surveys were undertaken for the duration of that summer, and constant radio communications were maintained with the outside world. After their first winter, their expeditions were resumed, and on November 29, 1929, the famous flight to the South Pole and back was launched. Byrd, along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, flew the Ford Trimotor to the South Pole and back in 18 hours, 41 minutes. They had difficulty gaining enough altitude, as such were forced to empty gas tanks, as well as their emergency supplies, in order to achieve the altitude of the Polar Plateau. Nonetheless, the flight was successful, and it entered Byrd into the history books. After a further summer of exploration, the expedition returned to North America on June 18, 1930. A 19 year-old American Boy Scout, Paul Allman Siple, was chosen to accompany the expedition. This expedition was honored with the gold medal of the American Geographical Society. Byrd, by then an internationally recognized, pioneering American polar explorer and aviator, served for a time as Honorary National President (1931-1935) of Pi Gamma Mu, the international honor society in the social sciences. In 1928, he carried the Society's flag during a historic expedition to the Antarctic to dramatize the spirit of adventure into the unknown, characterizing both the natural and social sciences Second Antarctic Expedition, 1933-1935: Admiral Byrd also led the 'United States Second Antarctic Service Expedition'. His men mapped 450,000 square miles (1,165,000 km) of territory and carried on research in more than 20 branches of science. From the shores of Ross Sea, Byrd made radio broadcasts to the United States, a distance of 10,000 miles (16,000 km). For five winter months in 1934 he lived and worked alone, operating the meteorological station 'Advance Base' on the Ross Ice Shelf, near the South Pole, from which he narrowly escaped with his life after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a poorly ventilated stove. Unusual radio transmissions from Byrd finally began to alarm the men at the base camp, who then attempted to go to Advance Base. The first two trips were failures due to darkness, snow, and mechanical troubles. Finally, Dr. Thomas Poulter, E.J. Demas, and Amory Waite arrived at advanced base, where they found Byrd in poor physical health. The men remained at advanced base until October 12, when an airplane from the base camp picked up Dr. Poulter and Byrd. The rest of the men returned to base camp with the tractor. This expedition is described by Byrd in his autobiography Alone. It is also commemorated in a U.S. postage stamp issued at the time, and a considerable amount of mail using it was sent from Byrd's base at Little America, which was powered by a Jacobs Wind 2.5 KW. Third Antarctic Expedition, 1939-1940 This was the first expedition for which Byrd had official backing from the U.S. government. The project included extensive studies of geology, biology, meteorology and exploration. Within a few months, in March 1940, Byrd was recalled to active duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. The expedition continued in Antarctica without him. The fourth culminating expedition, 'Operation Highjump', in 1946, was the largest Antarctic expedition to date. US Navy Secretary James Forrestal assembled a huge amphibious naval force for an Antarctic Expedition expected to last six to eight months. Besides the flagship Mount Olympus and the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea, there were thirteen US Navy support ships, six helicopters, six flying boats, two seaplane tenders and fifteen other aircraft. The total number of personnel involved was over 4,000. The armada arrived in the Ross Sea on December 31, 1946, and made aerial explorations of an area half the size of the United States, recording ten new mountain ranges. The major area covered was the eastern coastline of Antarctica from 150 degrees east to the Greenwich meridian. The expedition was terminated abruptly at the end of February 1947, six months early, the entire remaining armada returning immediately to the United States. The only explanation ever given for the early termination of the mission was provided in an interview granted to Lee van Atta of International News Services aboard the support ship Mount Olympus on the high seas and published in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio on Wednesday 5 March 1947. The following extracts show the abstract manner in which the admiral was thinking and may explain why conspiracy theorists specializing in alleged Aryan or Nazi activities in Antarctica have speculated extensively about this mission: "Admiral Richard E Byrd warned today of the necessity for the United States to adopt protective measures against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile aircraft proceeding from the polar regions. The admiral said: "I do not want to scare a 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." On the subject of the recently terminated expedition, Byrd said 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. The admiral warned of the necessity to "remain in a state of alert and watchfulness". He said that he "realized perhaps better than any other person the significance of the scientific discoveries made in these explorations because I can make comparisons" (i.e. between now and when he was in Antarctica pre-war). "We are abandoning the region after making important geographical discoveries." Byrd undertook one more expedition to Antarctica from 1955-1956, commanding the U.S. Navy 'Operation Deep Freeze I' which established permanent Antarctic bases at McMurdo Sound, the Bay of Whales, and the South Pole. This expedition was part ofthe multinational collaboration for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) project. A series of Antarctic exploration base camps was setup by Byrd's consecutive south polar expeditions, located on the Ross Ice Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales, naming them Little America (Stations I-IV). The first base was established in January 1929, the second in 1934, some thirty feet above the site of the original base. The third was established six miles to the north for the 1940-41 season, and Little America IV was established in 1946-47, where James Balsley was successful in using an airborne magnometer. "USS Pine Island (AV 12) George 1 Memorial Summary Page"