Men against the Arctic

On the huge U.S. Army-built air base near Churchill, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, a whistle shrilled through the ice-cold, early morning air. Before eleven weird, tanklike "snowmobiles," a group of men snapped to attention. They listened as Brigadier R. O. G. Morton, Canadian Army commander of the military district, told them: "The ground you will cover is historic. Brave men have given their lives there for the advancement of the race." He finished with a command: "To post!" The Canadian Army's "Operation Musk-Ox" was under way.

It was 43.3DEG below zero when the men--41 specially trained Canadians, one British and five American observers--clambered up the shining aluminum sides of their 4 1/2-ton vehicles and dropped through topside hatches into 6 ft.-by-5 ft. cabins. Young (33), British-born Lieut. Colonel Patrick Douglas Baird, 6 ft. 7 in. from the peak of his blue parka to the soles of his mukluk boots, stood waist-high and erect in the hatch of the No. 1 "snow" as it moved ponderously out of line, swung left, headed down the street. The other vehicles, each tugging two supply-laden sleds in tandem, followed. The base's siren whined farewell.

The snowmobiles lumbered swiftly through Churchill, four miles away, through the cheers of the town's 125 people and two salutes from two 200-year-old cannon. They rumbled on, down the sloping banks of the frozen Churchill River and across. Finally they disappeared into the treeless Arctic wastes to the north. For a long time the thudding of their 120 h.p. engines came back across the ice. Five hours later a radio message from Commander Baird reported that the "snows" were 36 miles out. In the 80 or more days they would be gone, they would be supplied by four Dakota Transports (C-47s) and seven sturdy, single-engined Noorduyn Norsemen.

Before the expedition reached Edmonton some time next May, the men of Musk-Ox would have traveled 800 airline miles (1,150 route miles) north to Cambridge Bay, some 600 more southwest to Fort Norman on the mighty Mackenzie River, and 900 airline miles south in the Mackenzie Valley. It would be comparable to a trip from Tallahassee to Chicago to central Nebraska to Corpus Christi. The region has been visited so infrequently by man that close-up maps of it are liberally sprinkled with such vague comments as "flat country" and "rolling plains with numerous lakes."

Operation Musk-Ox had set out to learn about this unknown country. The mechanized explorers of Musk-Ox would study the geology, meteorology and topography of the Dominion's upper reaches, the performance of snowmobiles (originally designed for the Allied invasion of Norway but never used), the suitability of new-type winter clothing and winter shelters. They would test the feasibility of supplying ground forces by air under Arctic conditions.

They would also find out whether men can live--and fight--in the far, far north.

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