Balchen, Bernt
First Edition
Contents
1. Race for the Pole, 1926
2. Another World, 1926-1927
3. Rim of the Arctic, 1927
4. The Great New York to Paris Air Derby, 1927
5. The Last Viking, 1927-1928
6. Antarctica, 1928-1930
7. New Horizons, 1931-1941
8. Bluie West Eight, 1941-1943
9. Ve Do It, 1943-1945
10. True North
Maps
Antarctica, From Little America To The South Pole
Greenland
The Scandinavian Countries
If ever there was a modern-day Viking in spirit and deed, Bernt Balchen is that man. Explorer, pilot, adventurer - Balchen symbolizes the rugged North and man's eternal aspiration to explore and conquer the unknown. This is Bernt Balchen's autobiography, told in terms of the dramatic events which have shaped his life. It is the thrilling personal adventure story of a Norwegian boy who became a United States Colonel and played a key role in some of the most extraordinary feats of exploration this century has known.
The story opens in 1926 in Spitsbergen, where under the command of the famed Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian-American-Italian expedition is preparing for the first flight over the North Pole in a dirigible. There it was that Bernt Baichen met the man who was to play such a significant part in his entire professional career - Richard E. Byrd. Balchen helped the young American naval commander and Floyd Bennett take off in their big ski plane for their own North Pole flight. When the Byrd expedition returned to the United States, Bernt Balchen came with them. Closely associated with Byrd in the years that followed, Bernt Balchen won fame for his work as a pilot on the adventurous flight of Byrd's "America" across the Atlantic. Two years later he piloted Byrd in the Floyd Bennett over the icy expanses of Antarctica to the South Pole. Bernt Balchen tells graphically of these historic flights with the Navy explorer.
Every page of Come North With Me is alive with the drama of true adventure. Here are not only the gripping inside stories of the great New York-Paris air derby of 1927, in which Balchen's piloting played such an important part, and of Byrd's famous first Antarctic expedition, culminating in the flight to the bottom of the world. We also share with Bernt Balchen the thrills of bush flying in the frozen Canadian wilderness; the rescue of the downed Bremen fliers; the fantastic wartime air operations led by Balchen in Greenland, where his challenging assignment involved hundreds of aircraft and cost the lives of many men before it was successfully completed. No less exciting and inspiring is Bernt Balchen's tense account of his adventures in heading up United States air operations in support of the secret fighters of the Norwegian resistance - such as the hush-hush mission when he went to Nazi-occupied Oslo to meet with members of the Underground and was almost captured when an old friend recognized him in a crowded restaurant.
Woven into Bernt Balchen's story, too, are fascinating glimpses of the great leaders of aviation whom he has known personally: Floyd Bennett, "Hap" Arnold, "Tooey" Spaatz, Ira Eaker, Jimmy Doolittle, and the ill-fated Amelia Earhart, as well as the legendary Richard Byrd. But above all, Bernt Balchen's autobiography is the portrait of a remarkable man who has actually lived the adventure that all men dream of - and few achieve.
Hardcover with dust jacket
318 Seiten / pages
photos and maps
book good condition, dust jacket rubbed with tears at the edges
New York - 1958 - E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
Art.Nr. 282
