LIFE OF MANY THRILLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

LIFE OF MANY THRILLS

An Intrepid Explorer

By j.m.c.

THE first man to fly to the North and. South Poles, Rear - Admiral Richard L. Byrd, ranks among the most adventurous men of this generation. Both young and old have thrilled to the stories of adventure and achievement which he told in his three vious 'books, ''Skyward," . "Little America" and u Antarctic Discovery." \ . Now for the first time the highlights of his career have been brought together in 0110 volume. 'Exploring with Byrd" is a selection ol the most, interesting episodes from all three books carefully adapted and revised to present the more significant phases ot the writer's life. Byrd begins by describing his expcrionces as a novice ilier in the wartime era of rattletrap aeroplanes when getting off the ground without a crash was a rare feat. He tells also how from the moment he became a fulljfledged navy pilot his ambition was to make a career 111 aviation in the pioneering sense. First Flights His initial step toward realising this ambition was to accompany the ISC flying-boats on the first two stages of their flight across the Atlantic via the Azores. Then after escaping the disastrous crash of the dirigible Zuo, he turned toward the Polar regions which had drawn his interest from b °ln°°Ktah, North Greenland, Byrd laid the foundations for his systema tic methods of conquering the treacherous gales and ice floes of the Polar regions. Then he set off for the North Pole with flo.vd Bennett as pilot on one of the most daring and hazardous flights of all time.. The next exciting episode 111 Byrd s career was his attempt to flv the Atlantic His Fokker three-engined plane crashed on its first flight, and when he finallv took off after Lindbergh had blazed the trail, be and his crew groped their way through dense fog looking for Paris, until Bernt Balchen brought the big machine down on the beach at Ver-sur-Mer. Lonely Vigil Having flown over the North Pole, Byrd naturally turned to the conquest of the South Pole. Ho describes the struggle he had, like every Polar explorer, to raise money for his first expedition to the Antarctic, and in.cxtracts from 4 'Little America tells now a miniature town was built on the ice, and how the aeroplane Floyd Bennett fought its way up over the lolar plateau and then on to the South P°'®Tlie final chapters describe Bvrd s second Antarctic expedition, which was assembled and departed under even "reater difficulties than the first. Byrd writes of bis lonely vigil at the advance weather base, and how the last great geographical mystery on the face of the earth was solved by a daring scries of flights. "Exploring with Byrd." compiled and revised by Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd (G. P. Putnam's Sons.).