Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-22
By SAUL PETIT

Associated Press Stan Correspondent
ABOARD USS GUACIER, Nc
Murdo Sound. Antarctica. Jan.
2I.-After less than a month in
the Antarctic. Operation Deep
freeze has two expanding bridge
heads on the worlds least in
.viting continent.
1.-THE worst is over-we are
now well into the final phase"
said Rear Admiral George j. Du-
fek. commander of Task Force 40.
The main base to be used the
next few years by International
Geophysical Year scientists is
well along at Kainan Bay. Little
America v. 400 miles to the east
on the fiat. wind-swept Ross sea
ice shelf
Here in McMurdo sound. a
huge horseshoe bay surrounded
by volcanic peaks. the Navy has
begun building an air base under
the difficult conditions Of the
tickle antarctic.
Work at the Little America
base has been progressing &C
lcording to plan. Here the plan
had to be thrown out the port
hole.
New Ways Devised
The whole operation at Nc
iMurdo has been a series of fasci-
mating improviSations. The bay
ice was strong enough to sup
port an air field for 32-ton
planes. Therefore it was too
tough for cargo ships to be led
through
Once the expeditions four big
planes landed here from New
Zealand. the first problem was to-
fuel them for long exploratory
flights. The air strip was 30
miles south of the edge of Nc
sMurdo bay ice.
Tractors took too long to carry
sthe fuel and they were needed
ELSEWHERE. At first helicoptersI
carried fuel in rubber gas tanks
from the ships to the planes but
sthey couldn't carry enough.
1 Then two Of the big planes
themselves - a pair Of ski
equipped, twin-engined NeptunesI
flew the 30 miles to the tanker
Nespelen and ferried fuel back
to the strip. Later it was de-
.cided to bring the planes to the
ships.
Before each long flight, the
planes we're flown from the land
ing strip to the ice edge, fueled
from the Nespelen and sent onI
their way. The cargo ship
Wyandot acted as q control
tower.
Had Improvised Base
Exploratory flights were made
while the flyers had no real base.
They were living in cold tents at
Hut Point or In ships. Capt. e.
l. Ketchum, deputy task force
commander. was trying to build
an airbase while keeping the
planes flying.
The ice had the icebreakersl
Edisto and East Wind stopped.
1t was so thick they could not
penetrate even half a ships
length.
At that point the Glacier, the
Nays newest and biggest ice
breaker arrived from Little
America. In 20 hours she carved
out a channel 10 miles long and
that much closer to the operat-
ing site. Then the three ice
breakers were able to start fer
rying cargo, unloading mate
rial from the cargo ships and
moving it up the bay.
The Glaciers block busting
tactics also helped make the bay
Of ice ripe for a big wind which
came Thursday and Friday.
Some TOO square miles of ice
were blown out to sea, permitting
the cargo ships to steam within
sl2 miles Of Hut Point.
Toughest Decision"
Admiral Dufek and his staff
knew the ice holding the planes
might break up any day. A big
crack had formed to the north
behind the landing strip. If an
other assure developed to the
south, the whole air strip could
hoat out to sea carrying the
planes with it.
This was the toughest deci-
sion ! had to make" said the
admiral.
I'VE had made six long range