Antarctic and Southern Ocean Meteorology (continued)

US exploration of the Antarctic continued to the beginning of World War II so it was not surprising that a US naval task force was sent to the Antarctic in December 1946 with 13 ships (including icebreakers) and a number of aircraft. The base for Operation Highjump was McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea. The aircraft included helicopters, float planes, flying-boats and ski-equipped larger aircraft. They took 15 000 aerial photographs over an area which included most of the Australian claim.

Operation Highjump maintained a 'Weather Central' which collected meteorological observations from the ships and other sources and produced twice-daily weather maps to be prepared for transmission to the various units in the task force.

The 1946–47 summer Operation Highjump terminated with the departure of the task force in March 1947, but another task force, Operation Windmill returned to the Antarctic in December 1948 with the objective of flying the flag, training crews in high latitude operations and establishing ground control for the aerial photographs taken by Operation Highjump.

Operation Windmill, which had two icebreakers carrying three helicopters and one amphibian aircraft, surveyed the coast from 180 degrees westward to 90 deg E, sailing at about 65 deg S, returning eastward to McMurdo Sound in late January and departing soon thereafter.

All of this activity naturally excited the territorial ambitions of other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, UK, France and the USSR. In addition to the establishment of bases on Heard and Macquarie Islands in 1947 and 1948, Australia sent the somewhat unseaworthy Wyatt Earp to the Antarctic early in 1947 to survey a possible site for the establishment of an Australian base on the continent. The ship was unable to penetrate the pack ice.

The Australian Cabinet had resolved to become more active in the Antarctic and, as a gesture of interest, decided that the RAAF should make aerial reconnaissance flights over the Southern Ocean. The first flight by a RAAF Liberator left Pearce (Perth) on 11 March 1947 with Gerry O'Mahony on board as a meteorological observer. Obviously Gerry's exploits in the RAAF Meteorological Service, where he flew with several operational missions and showed a keen interest in flying, made him an obvious choice for the flight.

Bureau of Meteorology