Operation Highjump
United States Navy operation
HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The operation was organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN, Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by Rear Admiral Ethan Erik Larson, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68. Operation HIGHJUMP commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and 33 aircraft.
Operation objectives
Conceived as a fleet-scale, single-season trial of sustained polar operations, HIGHJUMP's mission was to establish Little America IV on the Ross Ice Shelf and to validate, under Antarctic conditions, the full logistics chain of ships, aircraft, and shore parties while generating large-scale aerial photography and hydrographic, meteorological, and related scientific data for charting and future base selection. The operation also addressed national-security requirements by testing high-latitude sterilized
navigation, communications, and air operations relevant to polar approach routes, and by maintaining a United States presence in sectors where sovereignty claims might be advanced.
HIGHJUMP's stated objectives were:
Training personnel and evaluating ships, aircraft, vehicles, clothing, fuels, and maintenance procedures in Antarctic conditions
Determining the feasibility, costs, and risks of establishing, supplying, and operating permanent or seasonal bases in Antarctica, and identifying candidate sites
Developing and standardizing techniques for constructing, maintaining, and utilizing air bases on snow and shelf ice—including runway preparation, ski-equipped aircraft operations, and cold-weather servicing—with particular attention to later applicability in interior Greenland
Conducting wide-area photographic reconnaissance and mapping of coasts and inland ice, and expanding records in electromagnetic, geological, geographic, hydrographic, and meteorological fields
Consolidating and extending potential United States sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent (publicly denied as a goal before the expedition ended)
Supplementary tasks associated with Operation Nanook (a smaller equivalent conducted off eastern Greenland)
Timeline
The Western Group of ships reached the Marquesas Islands on December 12, 1946, whereupon the USS Henderson and USS Cacapon set up weather monitoring stations. By December 24, the USS Currituck had begun launching aircraft on reconnaissance missions.
The Eastern Group of ships reached Peter I Island in late December 1946.
On December 30, 1946, the Martin PBM-5 George 1 crashed on Thurston Island killing Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez, ARM1 Wendell K. Henderson, and ARM1 Frederick W. Williams. The other six crew members were rescued 13 days later.
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