SUBMARINES IN ARCTIC

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27631, 12 April 1955, Page 17

SUBMARINES IN ARCTIC

ROLE IN WAR OF FUTURE

VIEW OF SIR HUBERT WILKINS (From a Reuter Correspondent) ANCHORAGE, (Alaska). Atom-powered submarines travelling to the attack under the frozen surface of the Arctic seas may be the West’s answer to any future Soviet aggression, according to the world famous Australian aviator and Polar explorer, Sir Hubert Wilkins. Sir Hubert Wilkins is at present in the far north testing Arctic clothing for the military authorities. Before coming to Alaska he attended the launching of the first atom-powered submarine, the Nautilus, at New London, Connecticut. He says he is convinced that such undersea craft could play a decisive role. in any northern war operations of the future. His exploits include numerous Arctic and Antarctic expeditions using ships and aircraft, and one aboard a submarine. His first trip to the Polar regions was as a member of the Stefansson Arctic expedition of 1913. Nearly 20 years later, in 1931, he commanded the first undersea exploration of the Arctic, in the area north of West Spitsbergen. An earlier namesake of the Nautilus was used for this expedition.

“After many years of war, people are finally starting to believe me when I say the Arctie is important in world affairs,” Sir Hubert Wilkins said. He emphasised that as early as 1919 he and General “Billy” Mitchell were lone proponents of the idea that the Arctic would some day be a bastion of defence against Russia. Today, the concentration of military forces and defence outposts in the Arctic by both the East and the West bears out their visionary belief. In this atom age, America must face the intense cold of the Arctic if she was to be prepared for defence and,*if need be,. offence, according to the Australian explorer. “This means the United States must maintain an army in the Arctic at all times,” he said. Flights Over Pack Ice Sir Hubert Wilkins said that he-be-came convinced that submarines could play a decisive role in Arctic defence or offence even before his undersea exploration of the Polar seas. In 1927, as head of the Detroit Arctic expedition, he made numerous flights over the Arctic pack ice from the northern coast of Alaska. On March 29 of that year, he and Mr Ben Eielson, a pioneer Alaskan bush pilot, took off from remote Point Barrow on their first long trip over the Arctic Ocean. When they were more than 500 miles from Alaska’s northern shores, their engine began to miss. Eielson brought the crippled plane down safely on the Polar sea.

While the bush pilot was repairing their craft, Sir Hubert Wilkins chopped holes in the ice and detonated charges to take echo soundings. He found that the Arctic Ocean at that point was more than three miles deep. Until then, popular opinion was that the water in the Polar seas was only 1500 feet or less deep. Sir Hubert Wilkins said that the great depth of the Polar seas, combined with the unusually clear quality of the water, convinced him that wartime submarine operations there were possible. The explorer believes that atom-powered submarines would be an important weapon in any future Arctic war because of their ability to stay submerged indefinitely. Aircraft from Alaskan and other bases, he declares, would have to smash through a heavy Russian network of aerial defence in the event of the United States being forced into war and wishing to carry out offensive strikes. But, he added, “submarines could move without much detection. Then they could surface, launch their missile and disappear as unobtrusively as they came.”