BY BALLOON TO THE NORTH POLE: THE DOOMED EXPEDITION OF 1897

At exactly 2.30pm on 11 July, 1897, a gigantic silk balloon could be seen rising into the Arctic sky above Spitzbergen.

Inside the basket were three hardy adventurers, all Swedish, who were taking part in an extraordinary voyage.

The doomed balloon

Salomon Andrée was the instigator of the mission. Charismatic and confident, he managed to persuade Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel to accompany him on his historic balloon flight over the North Pole.

Andrée was confident of success. His balloon, the Eagle, used advanced hydrogen technology and he had developed a complex steering system using drag ropes.

Salomon Andree

A disastrous test flight suggested that Andrée’s confidence was seriously misplaced. The much vaunted rope-steerage system had numerous glitches and hydrogen was found to be seeping out of the balloon’s eight million little stitching holes.

The expedition ought to have been abandoned before it even took off. But Andrée overruled all objections and the launch was scheduled for the second week of July.

The problems began within minutes of getting airborne. As the balloon drifted across the sea to the north of Spitzbergen, it was weighed down by the weight of the drag ropes - so much so that the balloon actually dipped into the water.

Almost airborne

Andree jettisoned 530 kilograms of ropes, along with 210 kilograms of ballast. This lightened the balloon so much that it now rose too high: the change in air pressure caused huge quantities of hydrogen to escape through the little stitching holes.

Andrée remained optimistic, releasing a carrier pigeon with the message ‘All well on board.’

This was far from true. The first ten hours of troubled flight were followed by 41 hours in which the balloon - soaked in a rainstorm - flew so low that it kept bumping into the frozen sea.

Knut Fraenkel

The Eagle eventually crash-landed onto the sea-ice some fifty hours after taking off from Spitzbergen. No one was hurt, but it was clear that the balloon would never fly again. The men were stranded, many miles from anywhere and lost amidst an Arctic wilderness.

They were well equipped with safety equipment, including guns, sleds, skis, a tent and a small boat. Yet returning to the relatively safety of Spitzbergen involved a gruelling march across shifting, melting ice.

Nils Strindberg

The men spent a week at the crash site before setting out on their long hike. They had a reasonable quantity of food - meat, sausages and pemmican - but found it impossible to transport so much weight across the rucked-up ice. Much of the food had to be abandoned: henceforth, they were to rely on hunting for their survival.

They left their makeshift camp on 22 July and initially headed for Franz Josef Land. But the ice soon became impassable so they headed instead towards the Seven Islands, a seven-week march, where there was known to be a depot of food.

Over the ice

The terrain was so gruelling that they were reduced to advancing on all fours. But they eventually reached a place where the sea-ice had melted sufficiently for them to use their collapsible boat.

‘Paradise!’ wrote Andrée in his diary. ‘Large even ice floes with pools of sweet drinking water and here and there a tender-fleshed young polar bear!’

Their passage soon became impassable once again, forcing them to change direction. Aware that winter would soon be upon them, they built a hut upon an ice floe. But the ice broke up beneath them and they were lucky to struggle ashore onto desolate Kvitoya island.

Supper: polar bear

‘Morale remains good’, reported Andrée. ‘With such comrades as these, one ought to be able to manage under practically any circumstances whatsoever.’

It was the last coherent message he ever wrote. Within a few days, all three men were dead.

Their fate was to become one of the great mysteries of Arctic exploration.

What happened to them? They had shelter, food and ammunition and ought to have been able to keep themselves alive. In the absence of any news, the world’s media began to speculate as to what had happened.

Nils with sledge

It was not until 1930 - fully 33 years after the men were lost - that their remains were finally found. Far from answering questions, the discovery of their bodies only deepened the mystery.

The most plausible theory is that the men died of trichinosis, contracted after eating undercooked polar bear meat. They certainly had the symptoms of the disease and larvae of the trichinella parasite were found in a polar bear carcass at the site. But recent scientific evidence has thrown doubt on this conjecture.

Other suggestions include vitamin A poisoning from eating polar bear liver, lead poisoning from the food cans or carbon dioxide poisoning from their primus stove.

Their diary entries reveal that by the time they struggled ashore they were living off scanty quantities of canned goods from the balloon stores, along with portions of half-cooked polar bear meat.

They were suffering from foot pains and debilitating diarrhoea and were constantly cold and exhausted. Indeed they were so weary on their arrival at Kvitøya Island that they left much of their valuable equipment down by the water's edge.

Remains: 1930.

Nils Strindberg, the youngest, was the first to die. His corpse was found wedged into a crack in the cliff. Analysis of his clothing suggests he was killed by a polar bear.

The other two men seem to have weakened dramatically in the days that followed Strindberg’s death. As the Arctic winter struck in earnest, they lost the will to live.

It will never be known how many days they survived in their makeshift Arctic shack. By the time they were eventually found, all that remained was their diaries, a few spools of film (now developed) and a heap of bleached bones. 

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‘Giles Milton has a rare ability – a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems.’  Simon Winchester

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FIGHT OF THE CENTURY: BLACK VERSUS WHITE IN THE AMERICAN BOXING RING

It was a swelteringly hot afternoon. The mercury had risen above 110 Fahrenheit and there was not a whisper of wind.

But the heat inside the boxing ring in Reno, Nevada, was nothing when compared to the fiery atmosphere in the country at large.

Jack Johnson: black America.

The fourth of July, 1910, was to witness one of the most infamous boxing bouts in history - one that pitched black against white in a forlorn and foolish bid to demonstrate white racial supremacy.

The two men in the ring were both undisputed champions. Jack Johnson, the black-skinned son of an ex-slave, had been named World Heavyweight Champion in 1908 after successfully knocking out the Canadian fighter, Tommy Burns.

His victory had caused such racial animosity among whites that boxing promoters began to search for a ‘Great White Hope’ to crush the black upstart.

James Jeffires: white America

The ‘Great White Hope’ they settled upon was the former undefeated heavyweight champion, James Jeffries. He was persuaded out of retirement to challenge Johnson.

He represented the best hope for a white boxer to knock black Johnson down to size. After all, he had retired undefeated and was famous for his extraordinary strength and stamina. A natural left-hander, he possessed one-punch knockout power in his left hook.

But there was one problem. He was seriously out of shape by the time it came to fight Johnson. He hadn’t fought for six years and was hugely overweight. He also had little interest in the overtly racist fight, being quite content with his new life as a farmer.

Publicity for the fight

He was finally tempted back into the ring by the offer of a staggering $120,000.

There was intense nationwide interest in the fight and racial tension increased dramatically in the days beforehand.

‘No ring contest ever drew such an attendance,’ noted the Los Angeles Herald, ‘and never before was so 
many thousands of dollars fought for or paid by the sport-loving public to
 see a fight.’

To prevent any violence in the arena, guns were prohibited, along with the sale of alcohol.

White-skinned Jeffries remained out of the limelight until the day of the fight, whereas Johnson did everything he could to court publicity. Confident he would win, he appeared for interviews and photo-shoots. He was a celebrity athlete before his time and his constant womanising (with white women) ensured that he was a regular feature in the gossip columns.

The fight: a great deal at stake.

The fight took place on 4 July in front of 20,000 people. It quickly became clear that Jeffries was incapable of imposing his will on the young black champion. Indeed Johnson dominated the fight and by the 15th round, Jeffries had suffered enough. To the horror of his white supporters, he threw in the towel.

Johnson showed no magnanimity in victory. ‘I won because I outclassed him in every department of the fighting game,’ he said. ‘Before I entered the ring, I was certain I would be the victor.’

The outcome triggered immediate race riots across the United States. Johnson's decisive victory left many hard-line white supporters feeling deeply humiliated.

Not looking good for Jeffries.

According to the Los Angeles Herald, ‘race rioting broke out like prickly heat all over the country between whites, angry and sore because Jeffries had lost
 the fight at Reno, and negroes, jubilant that Johnson had won.’

Blacks were jubilant; they hailed Johnson's victory as a victory for racial advancement.

In some cities, the police joined forces with furious white citizens in order to subdue the black revellers. There were murders, knife-fights and even running gun battles. In New York, Chicago and other cities, violence spread throughout the poorer areas.

In all, riots occurred in more than 25 states and 50 cities. There were thirteen certified deaths and hundreds more were injured, some seriously.

It's real hot today.

The film of the fight, ‘Fight of the Century’ caused almost as much controversy as the fight itself. Many states banned it from being screened.

Within three days of the clash, there was a huge white campaign to censor Jack Johnson's victory by ensuring the film would never be shown.

The would-be censors found heavyweight support in former President Roosevelt, an avid boxer. He wrote an article supporting the banning of the film.

Not until 2005 did the Library of Congress decree that the film was of such historic importance that it should be listed on the National Film Register.

Almost a century after one of the most infamous fights in boxing history, the clash between black and white has finally been granted its official place in history. 

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‘Giles Milton has a rare ability – a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems.’  Simon Winchester

Enjoy the blog post? You may like to read my books: I have written eight works of popular history, all  available in print format and kindle. 

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HIGH JUMP: THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALFRED LOEWENSTEIN, THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN

In the early evening of 4 July, 1928, a fabulously wealthy businessman named Alfred Loewenstein boarded his private plane at Croydon Airport.

It was a routine flight that would take him across the English and French coastlines before landing at Brussels, where Loewenstein lived with his wife, Madeleine.

Into thin air: Loewenstein

Loewenstein was instantly recognisable to the staff at Croydon Airport. Indeed he was recognisable wherever he went. A spectacularly wealthy entrepreneur, he was widely known as the world’s richest man.

Already rich before the First World War, his fortune had increased dramatically in the peace that followed. His various companies provided electric power for developing countries: before long he was being sought out by heads of state around the globe.

But he also had many enemies. In 1926, he established International Holdings and Investments Ltd. that raised huge amounts of capital from wealthy investors. By 1928, these investors wanted some return on their money.

The plane: a Fokker

Loewenstein was pleased to be flying home on that July day in 1928. It was a fine evening for flying with scarcely a cloud in the sky. The pilot, Donald Drew, was able to assure him that it would be a smooth flight.

It was to prove smooth for everyone except Alfred Loewenstein himself. He was to vanish in mid-flight and mid-air, one of the strangest disappearing acts in history.

Suicide? Murder? Or unexplained mystery? Some 85 years after Loewenstein’s disappearance, the jury is still undecided.

There were a total of six people on that ill-fated flight in addition to Loewenstein himself.

The pilot, Donald Drew, stood by the doorway of the plane as the passengers boarded. He was joined in the cockpit by Robert Little, the mechanic. The cockpit was a sealed unit with no connecting door to the rest of the plane. Once the Fokker had taken off, Drew and Little had no access to the cabin.

The other people on board included Fred Baxter, Loewenstein’s loyal valet, who accompanied him everywhere, and Arthur Hodgson, his male secretary. There were also two women, Eileen Clarke and Paula Bidalon, his stenographers.

Loewenstein : frequent flyer

Shortly after 6pm, the Fokker FVII, a small monoplane, set off down the grass runway. Within minutes the plane was airborne and climbing to its cruising altitude of 4,000 feet.

Before long, everyone on board could see the Kent coastline below. A minute or so later, they were flying over the English Channel.

At the rear of the Fokker’s cabin there was a windowless door that led into a small toilet. This room also had an exterior door - the only means of entrance and exit to the plane.

The door was clearly marked EXIT and was equipped with a spring-loaded latch controlled from inside. It took two strong men to open in mid-air, due to the slipstream pressing against it.

Loewenstein spent the first half of the flight making notes. Then, as the plane headed out over the Channel, he went to the toilet compartment at the rear.

According to statements later made by Baxter, his valet, ten minutes passed and he had still not returned to his seat. Baxter grew concerned and knocked on the toilet door. There was no answer.

Croydon Airport, circa 1920s

Worried that Loewenstein might have been taken ill, he forced open the door. The toilet was empty. Alfred Lowenstein had disappeared into thin air.

An obvious course of action would have been for the plane to divert to St. Inglevert airstrip which lay between Calais and Dunkirk. Here, they could alert the coastguard to Loewenstein’s disappearance.

Instead, the pilot landed on what he believed to be a deserted beach near Dunkirk.

In actual fact, the beach was being used by a local army unit. When they saw the plane landing, they rushed to meet it.

It nevertheless took them six crucial minutes to arrive at the stationary plane. By that time, both passengers and crew were standing on the sand.

The cabin: how they were seated

They were questioned by Lieutenant Marquailles. Pilot Donald Drew behaved strangely, evading his questions for half an hour until admitting that they’d lost Alfred Loewenstein somewhere over the English Channel.

Next to question the pilot was a professional detective, Inspector Bonnot. He was puzzled by what he was told.

‘A most unusual and mysterious case,’ he said. ‘We have not yet made up our minds to any definite theory, but anything is possible.’

He arrested no one and even allowed the plane to continue its flight to St Inglevert and thence back to Croydon.

A long way down: the Kent coast

The ensuing investigation was bungled from the outset. Loewenstein’s body was finally retrieved near Boulogne on 19 July, more than two weeks after his disappearance. It was taken to Calais by fishing boat where his identity was confirmed by means of his wristwatch.

An autopsy revealed he had a partial fracture of his skull and several broken bones. Forensic scientists concluded that he had been alive when he hit the water.

The mystery of how he fell to his death remained unanswered, though there were many theories.

Some said the absent-minded Loewenstein had accidentally opened the wrong door and fallen to his death. This was most unlikely, given that it was virtually impossible to open the cabin door in mid-flight.

Others said he’d committed suicide, perhaps because his corrupt business practices were about to be exposed.

France: it's over there...

A far more plausible (and sinister) explanation is that Loewenstein was forcibly thrown out of the plane by the valet and the male secretary, possibly at the behest of Loewestein’s wife, Madeleine. She had a very frosty relationship with her husband and was desperate to get her hands on his fortune.

One thing is clear: all six people on board were almost certainly privy to the murder. Indeed, they had almost certainly planned it carefully in advance.

One theory as to why the Fokker landed on the beach was in order that a new rear door - already stowed on board the plane - could be fitted to replace the one jettisoned over the Channel.

Buried in an unmarked tomb

This fits neatly the story of a French fisherman who recalled seeing something like a parachute falling from the sky at precisely the moment Loewenstein went missing. This ‘parachute’ was almost certainly the rear door.

If the door and Loewenstein were jettisoned over the Channel, it was the perfect crime. No one was ever charged for the murder, nor even directly accused.

As for Loewenstein, he was so unpopular that when he was finally laid to rest, it was in an unmarked grave.

Even his ‘grieving’ widow, Madeleine, didn’t show up. She doubtless had more important matters to attend to, organising and investing the fortune she’d just inherited.

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CAPTURED BY NORTH KOREA: THE AMERICAN SPY MISSION THAT WENT WRONG.

The first warning that something was wrong came on 20 January, 1968.

The American ship USS Pueblo was cruising some 15 miles from the North Korean shoreline when it found itself under observation from an unidentified warship.

US crew surrenders to North Korea

Captain Lloyd Bucher was not unduly alarmed. His ship was armed with two Browning 50 calibre machine guns and he was confident he could defend his men against any attack.

Besides, there was no question of cancelling his mission. He was charged with gathering vital intelligence on the North Korean government.

This was serious business. Tensions between North and South Korea had never been higher: on 22 January - just two days after the USS Pueblo arrived in sight of the Korean shoreline - a North Korean assassination squad attempted to kill President Park Chung-hee of South Korea.

USS Pueblo shortly before capture

On the following day, when the USS Pueblo was sailing dangerously close to Korea’s territorial waters, it was approached by a North Korean chaser vessel and ordered to stand down or be fired on.

The chaser ship was joined by four torpedo boats, a second chaser and two MiG-21 fighters.

There was no question of the USS Pueblo putting up a fight without considerable preparation: her ammunition was stored below decks and her machine guns were wrapped in cold weather tarpaulins. At the very time when they were urgently needed, they were unprepared for action.

Captain Bucher: mistreated

The North Korean vessels attempted to board USS Pueblo, but Captain Bucher manoeuvred to prevent them. But his evading action came at a price. A North Korean chaser opened fire with a 57mm cannon, blasting directly into the pilothouse, the nerve centre of the command and infrastructure of the ship. One member of crew was killed.

The smaller vessels also started firing machine guns into USS Pueblo. Outgunned and surrounded, Captain Bucher had little option but to comply with the North Korean demand to come aboard. He ordered his men to destroy as much sensitive material as possible.

U.S. Navy authorities based in Kamiseya, Japan, had kept up radio contact with the vessel. As a result, the command of the Seventh Fleet was aware of USS Pueblo's situation.

Air cover - which might still have saved the ship and her crew - was promised but never arrived. The Fifth Air Force had no available aircraft and the USS Enterprise - which had four F-4B planes on board - had neglected to prepare them for air-to-surface engagement.

US prisoners in North Korea

The USS Enterprise's captain said it would take 90 minutes to get the aircraft into the air, by which time it would be too late.

President Lyndon B Johnson was also informed belatedly informed as to what had happened: he was powerless to save the USS Pueblo.

The ship was boarded by men from one of the North Korean torpedo boats. The crew members had their hands bound. They were then blindfolded, beaten, prodded with bayonets.

Once USS Pueblo had been brought safely inside North Korean territorial waters, it was boarded again, this time by senior-ranking North Korean officials.

The vessel was taken to Wonsan port - the beginning of a terrible ordeal for the crew, who were now interned in POW camps. They later testified that they were starved and regularly tortured while in North Korean custody.

Kim il Sung: Korea's leader

The treatment worsened when the North Koreans realized that crewmen were insulting them in staged propaganda photos, sticking up one finger at their capturers.

Captain Bucher was singled out for special treatment. He was psychologically tortured and put through a mock firing squad in an effort to make him confess.

When the North Koreans threatened to execute all his men, Bucher reluctantly agreed to ‘confess to his and the crew's transgression.’

US newspaper report of the incident

Bucher himself read out the confession, but he managed to keep his sense of humour. He repeatedly said: ‘We paean North Korea. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung.’

The North Koreans were delighted by the use of the word paean: it sounded like Bucher was venerating their country and leader. In fact, he pronounced it with a strong American accent and was actually saying, ‘We pee on North Korea. We pee on Kim il Sung.’

Following a written admission by the U.S. that USS Pueblo had been engaged in spying, along with an apology, the North Korean government eventually decided to release the USS Pueblo’s 82 crew.

The prisoners are freed

On 23 December 1968, they were taken by bus to the border with South Korea and told to walk in single file across the Bridge of No Return that spanned the frontier.

Eleven months after being taken prisoner, Captain Bucher led the long line of crewmen into the safety of South Korea. As soon as the men were safe, the U.S. verbally retracted the spying admission and apology.

Kim Jong Un: detests USA

USS Pueblo is still held by North Korea. In the autumn of 1999, it was towed from the east coast to the west coast, to the port of Nampo.

The U.S. government continues to state that the return of the still commissioned Navy vessel is a priority.

But recent tensions - and the threat by North Korea to unleash thermo-nuclear war on the world - suggests that the vessel is unlikely to be returned in the foreseeable future.

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‘Giles Milton has a rare ability – a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems.’  Simon Winchester

Enjoy the blog post? You may like to read my books: I have written eight works of popular history, all  available in print format and kindle. 

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PROJECT ICEWORM: AMERICA’S NUCLEAR BASE UNDER THE GREENLAND ICE CAP

In the spring of 1959, a group of 200 US Army soldiers and engineers set off across the Greenland ice cap on a highly secretive mission.

Their task was to research the feasibility of constructing an underground nuclear base in the extreme north of Greenland.

Constructing Camp Century

The idea was to bury hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missiles inside the ice cap: the missiles would be within easy reach of Moscow, Leningrad and other major cities in the then Soviet Union.

Project Iceworm was one of the most secretive military operations ever undertaken. The Danish Government, which had suzerainty over Greenland, was kept in the dark over what was taking place. To this day, most people know nothing about the existence of Project Iceworm.

One of the numerous tunnels

In order to mask what was taking place, the US Government devised an elaborate cover project called Camp Century.

This was presented as a purely scientific expedition whose purpose was to investigate the meteorology of northern Greenland. In reality, scientists were there to plan the construction of a massive nuclear base.

The deception was highly successful. Not until 1997 did the Danish Government finally learn what had really been happening at Camp Century.

Project Iceworm took place at the height of the Cold War. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war - gave added impetus to the construction of the Greenland base.

Building work from the outside

Iceworm was on a truly grand scale. It was to cover an area of 52,000 square miles, with nuclear warheads housed in a series of tunnels more than 4,000 kilometres in length.

Some 600 intercontinental ballistic missiles were to be kept here, for use against the Soviet Union.

The missile control centres were to be some 28 feet below the surface of the ice, while the missile launchers themselves were even deeper.

The base would have been almost impossible to destroy, for each hidden control centre was four miles from its nearest neighbour.

New tunnels were to be created each year: the idea was to dig thousands of launch pads and constantly rotate the missiles.

The weapon to be based at Project Iceworm was the Minuteman, an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking most big cities in the Soviet Union.

Entry tunnel to the base

Construction of Camp Century - the first stage in the projected nuclear base - was began in June 1959: the US engineers used Swiss-made ‘Peter Ploughs’ (gigantic rotary tunnelling machines) to cut massive trenches into the ice cap.

They were able to move 1200 cubic yards of snow and ice per hour.

Once the trenches were dug, they were covered with corrugated steel roofs that were buried in snow. From the air, the site was completely invisible.

Camp Century had twenty-one principal trenches, the longest of which was dubbed Main Street. It was 26 feet wide and 28 feet high.

Once the tunnels were completed, pre-fabricated wooden huts and barracks were built inside the ice tunnels. 

Each electrically-heated barrack had a common area and five rooms.

Air wells were dug to prevent heat building up and melting the ice. These wells were also used to pump cold air back into the ice.

By the autumn of 1960, the living quarters of $8 million Camp Century were almost complete: an entire city-in-miniature had taken shape beneath the ice.

The steam  water pump

As well as the living quarters, there were kitchens, a theatre, an infirmary and laundry, along with latrines and showers for the personnel living underground.

Some 200 people lived here permanently; all supplies were brought via Thule Air Base, some 150 miles to the west.

Living inside the ice cap presented major logistical difficulties, but the projected nuclear base was deemed so important that all of these were overcome.  

Electricity was provided by means of the world's first mobile/portable nuclear reactor, known as PM-2A. This was transported in pieces across the ice cap - four hundred tons of pipes, machinery and components packed into twenty-seven massive crates.

Inside the ice: the nuclear reactor

Fresh water was also a priority. High-pressure steam was pumped deep into an ice well; this created a constant supply of water. It produced over 10,000 gallons of fresh water daily - water that had first fallen as snow some two thousand years earlier.

Project Iceworm’s success depended on the ability to store hundreds of nuclear warheads. This, in turn, required the ice cap to be permanently stable and unmoving.

Scientists at Camp Century began a series of revolutionary tests, drilling deep into the ice to determine whether or not it shifted over time.

Two initial attempts to drill to the bottom of the ice sheet failed, because the machinery kept breaking. But in 1961, the experiment was finally a success. The scientists managed to penetrate the first 1,700 feet of the ice cap with a thermal drill, then switched to an electromechanical drill to smash through the next 3,000 feet.

Nuclear control panel

It was a historic moment. They were able to produce ice core samples representing 100,000 years of climatic history.

But they also revealed a far more worrying problem for Project Iceworm. It was discovered that Greenland’s glacial ice was constantly on the move. Indeed, this movement was far more dramatic than anticipated. Even Camp Century sustained damage: more than 120 tons of unwanted snow and ice had to be shifted each month.

It eventually became clear that the planned nuclear base was impractical. The ice was simply too unstable and threatened to bury the very warheads it was supposed to protect.

In 1966 the decision was taken to abandon both Camp Century and Project Iceworm. The nuclear generator equipment was dismantled and hauled back across the ice to Thule Air Base. The personnel, too, were taken back to Thule. Everything else - buildings, barracks and kitchens - was left underneath the ice.

It was almost the end of an extraordinary chapter in Cold War history. But not quite.

In the summer of 1969, an Army team revisited Camp Century. 

Camp Century in 1969.

It found that the underground city had undergone irreparable damage. The metal arches were buckled, the steel beams twisted and snapped. The barracks and living quarters, still furnished, were slowly being crushed under the intense pressure of the ice.

If Project Iceworm had ever become a reality, it would have almost certainly ended in disaster.

Today, more than fifty years after the last personnel left Camp Century, its buildings still lie entombed in ice, a hidden monument to a very cold war.

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‘Giles Milton has a rare ability – a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems.’  Simon Winchester

Enjoy the blog post? You may like to read my books: I have written eight works of popular history, all  available in print format and kindle. 

For my British readers, please click here. For my American readers, please click here. Books also available in 18 foreign languages.