THE SAVING OF NOBILI.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1928, Page 17

THE SAVING OF NOBILI.

SWEDISH AIRMAN’S HEROIC ADVENTURE. FLYING- UNDER MIGNIGHT SUN CAPTAIN LUNDBORG’S OWN STORY (Copyright North American Newspapers’ Association and Auckland “Star.”) (By CAPT. EINAR LUNDBORG.) It was with deep pleasure that the crew of my Fokker plane received orders from the chief, Captain fornberg, early on the morning of June 21 to begin landing and setting up the machine. The Quest and the Tanja were lying in Virgo Bay in the Spitzberggn group, and two Hansa machines bel/tiging to the Swedish relief expedition were already at work searching for the missing Italians. As, however, no duties had yet been assigned to my Fokker, the setting up of the machine had been temporarily suspended.

Ice conditions were far from satisfactory in Virgo Bay, and it was really no small job to get all the equipment hauled ashore. Both the lifeboats of the Tanja were lashed together and made into a fine raft, and on this the body of my machine was landed, and later on the two lower wings were brought ashore one at a time. ’The Fokker had to be conveyed a distance of 1500 metres from the ship to the edge of the ice, which we had examined the day before and found to be well suited as a mounting ground. Bringing the machine ashore had to be done very carefully, because the sea was rough with big waves and the individual parts of the Fokker were pretty heavy. The upper wing alone weighed 450 kilogrammes and was 16 metres in length. It will be seen that our task was anything but light, but my mechanics, Carlson, Weibar, Gull and Nielsson. who were assisted by men of the crews of the Quest and the Tanja gave themselves no rest until everything had been landed and the mounting of the machine could begin. Our mounting chamber was a giant snow grotto. Owing to the distance from the ships the work took a long time to finish, but when number 31, my machine, went up into the air on the night of June 22 rousing cheers were raised by three deadly tired men who had helped to put the aeroplane together. My first trial flight was made with the midnight sun shining brilliantly over the rocks, glaciers and fjords of Spitzbergen, and the motor and wireless of the Fokker functioned splendidly. Landing On the Snow. After I had made a 30 minute flight recoimoitring the neighbouring area, I landed on the eastern lowlands of Amsterdam Island, where I had planned to establish a base for the Fokker for the time being. There was still plenty of snow, which was rather compact and quite good, so that there was really not much more danger in taking off or landing here than there would have been at home in out own aerodrome at Malmslett.

When Lieutenant Schyberg, my companion, and I returned on board the Quest at 2 a.m., the Hansa machines had just come back from their reconnoitring flights to the district's around Foyn Island, and they brought back the good news that they had not only discovered General Nobili’s camp on the ice, but that they had also succeeded in dropping various necessaries by parachute to him, including food, tobacco, arms and collapsible rubber boats. It was then that I received orders to undertake my first job—and it was a job which was promising enough to keep even an old pilot awake for the rest of the night in spite of two days’ hard k. My orders were to land close General Nobili on the followirm day.

Fully loaded with myself, my observer and our ‘full petrol supply the Fokker weighed nearly two tons. When, after an unexpectedly speedy start, I had got up to a height of some hundreds of metres, I saw that the two machines piloted respectively by the chief and Lieutenant Jacobsson had also fone up towards the mouth of Virgo Bav. A few minutes later I had joined them, and our three machines were flying eastward. Our intention was that ‘we'should travel together as far as Hinlopen Straits, where Jacobsson should alight, while the chief and I without any intermediate landing should proceed direct to General Nobili’s camp. There I was to land, pick up one of the marooned party as quickly as possible and hurry back to Hinlopen Straits. Jacobsson’s machine and the second Hansa ’plane were in the meantime to have selected a place suitable for landing both for land and seaplanes, and there I was to deliver the first man rescued and go back at once to the camp for the next man. Over an Immense Desert.

It is not easy to describe my impression of this first flight over an immense desert, which was a most inhospitable area from the point of view of landing possibilities. The western coast of Spitsbergen is a true reflection of the name of this group of islands surrounded by drifting ice, the islands themselves being great ice-covered stretches with coast glaciers scarred by broken bluishgreen cliffs. We left the coast and steered towards Broch Island and Foyn Island. Ice stretched out as far as eye could reach There was not even a smooth surface anywhere where a motor sleigh or an ice boat could work. This frozen desert was composed of gigantic heaps and masses of ice, with here and there a small canal or iee island, but with far too little foothold anywhere for a landing.

Although Broch and Foyn were islands, they looked anything but inviting, having the appearance of two tremendous colossi of stone rising from the ice. The vast pack ice lay before us pitiless, yet in its way majestic, and it passed through my mind to ask myself how much use all our wonderful inventions would be if once this ice got hold of us.

After about 30 kilometres of a monotonous flight over the pack the chief’s Hansa made a turn to the right, and there almost beneath us, like small pin heads, were a couple of living human beings by the side of some smoke that was rising to the sky. A moment later a small tent came in sight with some coloured flags and a little mast with some sort of banner at the top. I also caught sight of a T-shaped landing mark which Nobili had drawn up in response to a request dropped to him by aeroplane as the most suitable landing ground for my Fokker. Here it wasT. then.

The Hansa machine now flew in large circles round the camp at a good height, and I endeavoured to go down on the iee flow which formed the most northerly landing place I have ever negotiated.