WITH BYRD AT THE POLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 181, 11 December 1942, Page 8

WITH BYRD AT THE POLE

Adventures Recalled In New ZB Series

girls who do not grow up with the idea that some day they will go out into the big world of adventure, scale hitherto unscalable mountains, push through the jungle, or sail over the rough seas in search of treasure islands. But such ambitions soon fade, and most of us have to adventure vicariously, contenting ourselves with reading about the explorations of others. Among the explorers of to-day whose expeditions have from time to time capare probably few boys and nade

tured the popular imagination is Admiral Byrd. The Commercial Broadcasting Service is giving New Zealand listeners a chance to recall some of Byrd’s exploits in a new series of programmes, Adventures with Admiral Byrd. We in New Zealand have a special interest in Byrd’s expeditions to the Antarctic, because it was from here that they sailed. Some of us saw his ships and some of his men; and there will be some who remember his great huskies that were housed for a time at the Hermitage, Mount Cook. The first episode of the ZB series re-enacts the dramatic flight over the South Pole, and although listeners will know that the return to Little America was safely accomplished, they may none the less feel authentic twinges of anxiety as sack after sack of food has to be jettisoned to lighten the ‘plane so that it can rise over the great heights of the Queen Maud range of mountains before reaching the Polar plateau, There are tales also of the flight over the North Pole, of the many difficulties that might have wrecked Byrd’s flight over the Atlantic in the three-motored Fokker ’plane the "America," of trouble with dogs, and the many other amusing and odd incidents that always crop up on these expeditions. We find Byrd wrestling with the hordes of volunteers who try by every means to go with him-men who volunteered in order to dodge gaol, to escape mothers-in-law, to prove themselves to their sweethearts, and women who tried last-minute stunts of wangling themselves aboard "to write up the official history of the expedition." We find also members of the expedition dealing with the Polynesians on Easter Island who offered their wives and their houses for the shirts and trousers of Byrd’s crew. Again, we hear of such bad moments as those which Byrd experienced when, alone at the advance base in the middle of winter he discovered, not that he had carelessly slammed his front door, but that it had got frozen over while he was making his weather observations. There is also the interesting fact at the end that when in 1940 the U.S. Government of America decided to give Byrd another medal for distinguished service, it was discovered that the Admiral had already received all the medals it was within the Government’s power to bestow. The programme may be heard from 1ZB on Mondays at 6 p.m., and from 2ZB on Tuesdays and Fridays at 8.45 p.m.