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FILE 065 · VOL XI · We Hired the Monsters
4,700 Men Went to Antarctica. Something Called Them on the Radio.
In the cold, every voice sounds like it needs help. That is how it hunts.
Based on: Operation Highjump
Intake record
| Recovered from | Attic, Duluth, Minnesota; a Navy footlocker belonging to a radioman, Operation Highjump |
|---|---|
| Contents | Personal radio log (December 1946 to February 1947), a reel of wire recording, letters home |
| Finder | Grandson |
| Status | Wire recording withheld. It will not play at normal speed. |
Recovered file
Seventeen ships. Wait, no. Thirteen. I keep counting the icebergs as ships, the way they come out of the fog.
For the record, since Ma will want to know what I was doing: this is Operation Highjump. Admiral Byrd is in charge of the expedition. Four thousand seven hundred men, thirteen ships, thirty-three aircraft. [1] The official purpose is training, testing equipment in the cold, and mapping coastline nobody has ever seen. The unofficial purpose, according to every guy in the mess, is the Russians. Nobody says the Russians out loud.
The other rumor in the mess is that the Germans were here first. That part is actually true. In 1938 and 1939, a German expedition on a ship called the Schwabenland came down to look for a whaling base, flew over a big piece of coast, dropped metal markers from planes, and named it New Swabia. [2] Then the war started. Guys say they built a base under the ice. Guys say a lot of things.
We lost contact with George 1, one of the PBM flying boats off the Pine Island, in the Eastern Group. Last position over a place called Thurston Island. Blizzard.
Something on 4.2 megacycles. Not one of our frequencies. Voice, very faint, very calm. English. Saying the crew of George 1 is alive and requesting position. Asking us to answer.
Chief Delano took the headphones from me, listened for a minute, and told me to write down nothing official.
The rest of this file is sealed. The ending, the sources and the archivist's note unseal with the file.
Unseal File 065 ($2.99) · its volume · everything ($49.99)
Built on real, cited records. The stories are dramatized. Disclaimer · If you are in crisis in the U.S., call or text 988.