In later years Antarctica became more and more the playground of 'games of conquest'.
Technical know-how and political influences determined the journeys. Different nations carved themselves out on the map various large pieces of the continent and defended their rights; they maintained that with the claim they also held sovereignty. Previously, Goering had sent Dornier flying-boats to the Antarctic and had had marker poles with swastikas thrown out, to demonstrate the claims of tire Third Reich.
After the end of the Second World War, the US Navy commissioned the biggest expedition of all time to the eternal ice, under the command of Richard Byrd. Thirteen ships, among which were icebreakers and submarines, went to sea in 1946. They carried twenty three aircraft and helicopters on deck and had a complement of 4,700 men. When the fleet of this undertaking, code-named 'High jump', returned on 1 March 1947, the American pilots had made aerial photographs of 60 per cent of the Antarctic coastline. An area of 3.9 million square miles had been flown over.
The age of the independent adventurer was manifestly over. What counted now was the massive input of the most modern technology, for which costs private sponsors no longer sufficed. Now rich industrial nations made provision in their budgets, in order to have a 'foothold' in Antarctica. Scientific research was often thereby a pretext to 'occupy' the inhospitable land.
The year 1957 was declared International Geophysical Year (IGY). Twelve countries took part and sixty research stations were set up in the Antarctic. Above all, the USA were committed. On 31 October 1956 Captain George Dufek (1903-77), who had already participated in Operation 'High Jump', landed his aircraft at the South Pole. He was the first person to set foot on this point since Scott. In March 1958 there were already seven American bases in the Antarctic, for which they had expanded the remarkable sum of 245 trillion dollars. Whole arsenals of machines were stationed there, such as aircraft whose starting performances had been decidedly improved by rockets; crawler tractors, nicknamed Sno-cats; and converted tractors whose motors could cope with the extreme cold. The scope of expedition activity widened more and more through such technical finesse.
Thus equipped, the desire was to apply the new techniques to the old challenges. Vivian Fuchs b. 1908) organized the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition for the IGY. This plan, to realize the old Shackleton idea with machine power, was so called because not only Queen Elizabeth II accepted the patronage and donated 100,000 pounds but New Zealand, Australia and South Africa topped up Fuchs' coffers handsomely. This monster journey cost a vast sum in cash, logistics and technical extravagance.
With the aid of Sno-cats and special ice tractors, supplied and accompanied by aircraft, Fuchs intended, as it were, to 'waltz' across the Antarctic. The old plan made by Filchner and Shackleton, the land journey from the Weddell Sea to Ross Sea, must finally come to fruition.
To carry through this undertaking with machine power was above all a logistical affair. The engines of the special vehicles required massive amounts of fuel. Spare parts had to be made available, aircraft were employed for aerial reconnaissance. Where they could not get through with machines, they wanted to try with dogs. On the first voyage of Fuchs' ship Theron, his men unloaded 300 tons of materials alone.
In November 1955 Fuchs constructed a station on the Filchner Shelf Ice, which he named respectfully Shackleton Base. After overwintering, in January 1957 he reached a second depot 350 kilometres further south. By aerial reconnaissance, he established the best route to the Pole for his 'armoured trucks'.
Concurrently With the Fuchs group, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary (b. 1919), the first man to climb Everest, was working his way southwards from the Ross Shelf Ice on McMurdo Sound. He was to prepare the route for Fuchs with fuel and food dumps. In so doing Hillary followed a completely new route which led over the Skelton Glacier and Victoria Land to the Pole. On 14 October 1957 he departed with his armour-like, reinforced crawler tractors and, despite constant technical problems, reached the Pole on 4 January 1958. Only 90 litres of fuel remained in the tanks. It had taken him eighty-one days to cover the 1,600 kilometres.
Fuchs and his convoy had started their Antarctica traverse on 24 November 1957, arriving at the Pole on 19 January 1958, where he stayed five days in the American base. Hillary had flown back to McMurdo and remained there as emergency back-up. On 24 January 1958 Fuchs set out for McMurdo without great problems and, thanks to Hillary's dumps, he reached there on 2 March. Fuchs had covered 3,472 kilometres in ninety-nine days, corresponding to a daily average of 35 kilometres. With that the problem of the land crossing of Antarctica was officially resolved. Who in the Space Age would think of a traverse in the style of Scott?
