Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff

Author:Mitchell Zuckoff
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: United States, Military, Expeditions & Discoveries, World War II, History
ISBN: 9780062133410
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2013-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

ON JANUARY 21, 1943, Pappy Turner’s crew dropped a note to the Motorsled Camp with a bundle of wooden stakes and fifty red bandanna handkerchiefs. It described Balchen’s rescue plan and said a PBY Catalina/Dumbo would try to land on the first clear day. The note instructed Spencer to put his pilot training to work and choose a smooth, crevasse-free landing area and mark it with the stakes. Spencer was told to tie two bandannas to each stake, one at the top and one at the bottom, to create a gauge the PBY pilot could use to estimate distance from the ground. The note ended, “Be seeing you soon.” It was signed, “The Boys.” Spencer tucked it away for safekeeping.

On January 25, the two PBYs flew from Balchen’s base at Bluie West Eight across the ice cap to Bluie East Two. There, Pappy Turner and his crew briefed the rescue fliers about conditions. In the lead PBY, Balchen would act as supervisor and adviser to the pilot, Bernard “Barney” Dunlop, a thirty-one-year-old U.S. Navy lieutenant from Long Island, New York. The copilot was Lieutenant Junior Grade Nathan Waters, with two enlisted men, flight engineer Alex Sabo and radioman Harold Larsen, as the crew. Also assigned to Dunlop’s plane was Captain P. W. Sweetzer, the doctor at Bluie East Two, ready to treat O’Hara even before he left the ice. The second PBY would serve as a backup, in case Dunlop’s plane went down.

Also aboard Dunlop’s PBY was an experienced U.S. Army Air Forces dogsled rescue team consisting of Captain Harold Strong, who’d served in Alaska; sergeants Joseph Healey and Hendrik “Dutch” Dolleman, who’d made their reputations in Antarctica; and nine sled dogs. Balchen respected Strong as an Arctic veteran, and he knew he could rely on Healey and Dolleman, who’d been part of the trail team in the My Gal Sal rescue.

The crews and the planes were ready, but the weather wouldn’t cooperate. When January ended with no relief at the Motorsled Camp, Don Tetley grew depressed. A mission that he thought might take a few days had stretched to two months, with no end in sight. Two men had fallen to their deaths in crevasses before his eyes. As days turned to weeks, he focused his remaining hopes on being rescued before February 1, the birthday he shared with his wife.

Tetley’s target date arrived with no sign of a PBY. He became morose, thinking about what he was missing back home and how worried his wife must be. The Motorsled Camp was out of cigarettes, so Tetley glumly passed the hours collecting tobacco from spent butts. Sizing up his partner’s mood, Harry Spencer sprang a birthday surprise. When they’d been flush with cigarettes, he’d set aside a full pack for just such an emergency. Now he made a fuss of presenting it to Tetley with birthday wishes.

The gift was one of untold acts of kindness, large and small, that the men bestowed upon each other. Each one revealed a bond that was crucial to their survival.

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