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Operation Highjump




Operation Highjump (OpHjp), officially titled ''The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946-47'', was a United States Navy operation in Antarctica under the command of Richard Cruzen , which was launched on 26 August 1946 and lasted until 1947.

The stated claims of the operation were as follows
#to train personnel and test material in the frigid zones
#to consolidate and extend American sovereignty over the largest practical area of the Antarctic continent
#to determine the feasibility of establishing and maintaining bases in the Antarctic and to investigate possible base sites
#to develop techniques for establishing and maintaining air bases on the ice, with particular attention to the later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland. (where, it was then believed, physical and climatic conditions resembled those in Antarctica)
#to amplify existing knowledge of hydrographic, geographic, geological, meteorological and electromagnetic conditions in the area.


TIMELINE

The Western Group of ships reached the Marquesas Islands on December 12th, 1946, whereupon the ''Henderson'' and ''Cacapon'' set up weather monitoring stations. By the 24th, the ''Currituck'' had begun launching aircraft on reconnaissance missions.

The Eastern Group of ships reached research base, honouring the three killed crewmen, and in December 2004, efforts were made to find their bodies. {Link without Title}

The Central Group of ships reached the Bay Of Whales on January 15, 1947, where they constructed temporary Runway s along the glaciers, in a base dubbed ''Little America IV''. Vance N. Woodall died during a "Ship unloading accident" sometime after December 30 1946.

After the operation ended, a follow-up Operation Windmill returned to the area, citing that a large percentage of the Aerial Photograph s from the earlier mission had been poorly exposed, and needed to be re-shot. Finn Ronne also financed a private operation to the same territory, until 1948.


TRIVIA

  • Operation Highjump has become a topic among UFO conspiracy theorists, who claim it was a covert US military operation to conquer alleged secret underground Nazi facilities in the Antarctica and capture the German Vril Flying Disc s, or Thule mercury-powered spaceship prototypes.

  • Killed airman Maxwell A. Lopez had a mountain named in his honour after his death, Mount Lopez on Thurston Island .

  • Father William Menster served as Chaplain during the expedition. He became the first member of the clergy to visit the continent, and in a service in 1947 he consecrated Antarctica.



INVOLVED



Central Group



Research scientist Paul Siple also contributed to the expedition.


SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS


Conspiracy sites