Far to the north of our country lies an archipelago of gigantic
islands comprising an area nearly half as large as the United
States, separated from continental America by wide bays and
narrow straits, bounded on the east by Baffin Bay and the adjacent
shores of Greenland and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. A
century ago the famous Franklin expedition was lost in the heart
of that vast archipelago, and in subsequent decades many explorers
went in search of survivors or vestiges that would tell the story of
their fate. Consequently the archipelago is remarkably well
mapped for so large and inaccessible a region, but still its intri-
cate coastlines are so extensive and so remote that their geog-
raphy is but crudely delineated, while the interior is largely
unknown. This great land of islands might have been of vital
importance in World War II; it may yet be a key to the preven-
tion of World War III.

Whether as a locus of defensive outposts or as a meeting ground
for friendly coöperation in polar research with our European
neighbors, the lands that bound the North Polar Sea are of major
concern to coming generations.

Many persons engaged in the war effort visited this northern
area between 1940 and 1945 on missions pertaining to air trans-
port and weather forecasting. My part in these missions, though
small, was unique in the successive contacts with various phases of
the problem, and the experiences I enjoyed seemed to me worth
recording.

Grateful acknowledgments are due to John T. Rowland,
Samuel E. Morison, Bliss Perry, William S. Carlson, and E. C.
Sweeny, all of whom read the manuscript and offered construc-

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