Bernt Balchen

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Bernt Balchen
Aviator
, navigator, engineer, military leader
Spouses
  • Emmy Alvhilde (née Sorlie),
  • Inger (née Engelbrethsen),
  • Audrey (née Schipper)
ChildrenBernt Jr, Lauritz
Parent(s)Lauritz, Dagny (née Dietrechson)

Bernt Balchen (23 October 1899 – 17 October 1973) was a Norwegian pioneer

Distinguished Flying Cross
.

His service in the

U.S. Air Force, as well as a highly regarded private consultant in projects involving the Arctic and aviation.[1]

Early years

The son of a country doctor, Balchen was born at the farm Myren in Tveit, just outside Kristiansand, Norway. After having finished Norwegian middle school in 1916, he attended a Forestry School from 1917 to 1918.[2] Next he enrolled in the French Foreign Legion, and his unit was assigned to the Verdun front in World War I.[3] In 1918, before seeing action, Balchen was recalled to Norway. He transferred to the Norwegian Army, and was sent to an artillery school, where he graduated shortly after.[4]

Under an assumed name, Balchen fought as a cavalryman with the

1920 Olympics. Besides being a championship boxer, he was also an expert marksman and an accomplished skier.[6]
Balchen was very knowledgeable about wilderness and northern survival, skills that he would later exploit.

While waiting for his acceptance as an Olympian, Balchen received word that he also qualified for flight training, resulting in his decision to become a pilot in the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service in 1921.[4]

Aviation

Amundsen-Ellsworth Relief Expedition

Gaining recognition as an accomplished pilot, the Norwegian Defense Department selected Balchen in 1925 to become part of the Amundsen-Ellsworth Relief Expedition, a rescue mission for the missing explorer Roald Amundsen under the command of Flight Lieutenant Lützow-Holm. The expedition consisting of two seaplanes, was sent to Spitsbergen on the Svalbard archipelago.[7] This assignment would make Amundsen, already a family friend, a lifelong friend and confidant.[8]

During the next year, Balchen became part of a ground party led by Lieutenant J. Höver, providing technical services for the Roald Amundsen,

dirigible
flight as Nobile was in charge of picking the crew, which already had a complement of 23.

Support of Byrd's North Pole flight

After observing the crash of the

U.S. Navy, Amundsen asked Balchen to help in preparing the airplane for a flight to the North Pole. Under Balchen's supervision, the damaged aircraft skis were repaired with improvised wooden supports from a lifeboat's oars and some survival gear was loaned to Byrd for the flight.[9] This enabled Byrd and his pilot, Floyd Bennett
to continue with their attempt to fly to the North Pole and back on 9 May 1926.

In 1926, under the sponsorship of Joseph Wanamaker, Balchen officially joined the Byrd party, as the co-pilot and

Fokker Aircraft Company at the Teterboro Airport
, New Jersey.

Trans-Atlantic Flight

On 29 June 1927, Balchen, as the co-pilot with the chief pilot

Roosevelt Field on Long Island
.

Due to Acosta's reported lack of ability to successfully fly via aircraft instruments, and the foul weather for most of this flight, Balchen did most of the flying. Bad weather and low visibility over France made landing at the Paris airport impractical, despite their repeated attempts. When their aircraft was running low on aviation gasoline, Balchen decided to fly back to the western coast of France, and there he landed the Fokker Trimotor —-which was not designed for a water landing —- on the ocean with no injury to the occupants.[10]

Bremen rescue

In late April 1928 the three-man crew of the aircraft Bremen was stranded on Greenly Island, Canada following the first east to west non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe. Balchen and Floyd Bennett flew a Ford Trimotor to provide relief to the downed pilots. Bennett had developed pneumonia following a previous crash. Bennett succumbed to his fever while in flight on 25 April. Balchen flew the remaining eight hours, and he was paid $10,000 for the effort. Balchen donated the money to Bennett's widow.

South Pole flight

A Ford Trimotor once flown by Balchen

On 28–29 November 1929, as the pilot of a modified

Ashley McKinley, the flight's photographer; and Commander Richard E. Byrd, the plane's navigator and leader of his First Antarctic Expedition.[11]
The flight was considered one of the greatest aviation achievements in history.

Amelia Earhart

Due to his reputation as a polar, transatlantic and aviation expert, Balchen was hired in 1931 by Amelia Earhart as a technical adviser for a planned solo transatlantic flight. In an attempt to throw off the press, Earhart turned over her repaired Lockheed Vega to Balchen who was assumed to be planning an Antarctic flight. Balchen flew the Vega to the Fokker Aircraft Company plant at Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. There, he and the mechanics Frank Nagle and Eddie Gorski reconditioned the Vega for the upcoming record flight. Its fuselage was strengthened to carry extra fuel tanks that were added to provide a 420-gallon capacity, and some additional flight instruments were also installed. After modifications had been made, Earhart flew this Lockheed Vega across the Atlantic Ocean on 20 May 1932, landing in Ireland.[12][N 1]

Norway

In the mid-1930s, Balchen returned to Norway to work with the Norwegian Airlines. Later, he was part of a team to create a Nordic Postal Union, and as war seemed inevitable in Europe, Balchen helped negotiate an aviation treaty with the United States.[14] Balchen also worked with the airplane, The Valkyrien.[15]

Image of Balchen's plane

World War II

In 1939, Balchen was in Helsinki, working on a contract to provide U.S. fighter aircraft to Finland, when the Soviet attack on Finland took place. Enlisting with the Norwegian Air Force, he made his way to the United States on a crucial mission to negotiate "matters pertaining to aircraft ordnance and ammunition with the question of the Norwegian Government's possible purchase of such materials in the United States of America."[16]

With his status of holding dual Norwegian and American citizenship and his extensive contacts in the aviation industry, his instruction from the Norwegian Government-in-exile in London changed to a new directive: to set up a training camp and school for expatriate Norwegian airmen and soldiers in Canada.[14] Balchen negotiated directly with Canadian government officials to obtain an agreement to use available airport facilities at the Toronto Island airport on Lake Ontario known as "Little Norway".[16] During the war, over 2,500 Norwegian aviators of all categories: pilots, navigators and mechanics, were trained in the various bases of "Little Norway".[17]

During 1940, with the "Little Norway" facilities under construction and his administrative duties taken over by others, Balchen requested permission from the Norwegian Air Force to fly ferrying missions for the British, teaming with

North Atlantic Ocean in search of the German Kriegsmarine U-boats that were menacing American, British, and Canadian ships taking war supplies and troops across the ocean in preparation for the then undecided location of the cross-channel invasion of Europe. This latter air base had the code name "Bluie West Eight"
during its operational life.

Balchen's Consolidated OA-10 Catalina on the ice in Greenland after a rescue

Between September 1941 and November 1943, Balchen trained his personnel in cold weather survival skills and rescue techniques which enabled them to carry out many rescues of downed airmen on the Greenland icecap.[20] On 25 May 1943, flying in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Balchen led a bombing raid that destroyed the only German outpost remaining on Greenland, a forward station at Sabine Island on the eastern coast of that island.[21] This destruction hindered the ability of the German armed forces to maintain a presence on Greenland that not only had been used to send deceptive radio messages to Allied aircraft as well as establishing a weather station required to provide accurate weather reports for the German forces operating in the North Atlantic.[22]

Balchen then was posted to the European Theatre to run "Operation Where and When", based at

internees and 150 internees of other nationalities from Sweden. Norwegian police troops
were also airlifted from Sweden to Finnmark.

The air operation also shipped strategic freight; from July to October 1944, 64 tons of operational supplies such as ammunition were transported from Scotland to the underground in occupied Norway. Life necessities like bales of hay and fodder for livestock were brought to areas in the north of Sweden and Norway, once even paradropping a hospital complete with a doctor and nurse. Between November 1944 and April 1945, Balchen also transported 200 tons of Arctic equipment and operational supplies from England to Sweden that were used to make secret overland transport from Sweden to Norway possible. During winter 1945, Balchen shipped communications equipment into northern Norway that was of inestimable value to the Allied Expeditionary Force's intelligence operations. The leading Norwegian wartime ace Sven Heglund was acting military attaché and served with Balchen, later writing about his time at Kallax.

Kon-Tiki
 fame.

Postwar activities

1954 interview

From November 1948 to January 1951, Balchen commanded the 10th Rescue Squadron of the U.S. Air Force, which was located in southern Alaska but which operated across all of Alaska and northern Canada rescuing crashed airmen. Balchen led this squadron in the development of the techniques that became widely used in cold weather search and rescues. He was also directly responsible for persuading the U.S. Air Force to purchase the

Thule Air Base, Greenland.[26]

Balchen was primarily responsible for the pioneering and development of the strategic air base at Thule, Greenland, built secretly on his recommendation, in 1951 under severe weather conditions which, by extending the range of the Strategic Air Command, increased the capabilities that made the SAC a significant deterrent to Soviet aggression during the Cold War.[27]

Post-retirement

After retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 1956, Colonel Balchen continued to serve the Air Force on special assignments and aviation and energy industries as a consultant. He joined General Precision Laboratories as a consultant in 1959, as well as working with a host of other companies including

Electric Boat Company. Working for Canadair in 1966, then the parent company, General Dynamics, from 1966 to 1971, Balchen had authority over projects as diverse as ice-breakers, tankers, new epoxy materials for submarine construction, seagoing electronic weather systems and over-snow vehicles. In 1962, he also worked with the USAF presenting a proposal on the Apogee Intercept Defense System (AIDS) in 1962 and later, was the leading advocate for "Project Iceman", a proposed system of intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) stationed in Greenland.[28]

Colonel Balchen was among 27 passengers on board the first circumnavigation of the Earth over both poles. The aircraft was a brand-new, chartered Flying Tiger Line

Christchurch
before returning to Honolulu. Balchen was the only passenger allowed into the cockpit when the four pilots, who were all qualified Boeing 707 captains, performed four 360-degree loops over the South Geographic Pole. As well as being the first such flight, this would remain the fastest until succeeded by Pan Am Flight 50, a Boeing 747SP with U.S. registration N533PA, on October 28–30, 1977. (October 28, 1977 was the 50th anniversary of Pan Am's first (airmail) flight, from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba: about 90 miles.) [29][30][31]

As one of the world's foremost Arctic experts, Balchen was sought out by numerous companies and government agencies including Canada and Norway. Balchen was hired as a consultant by Hercules Oil, then

Phillips Petroleum and Moran Towing on plans to extract oil from Alaska using pipelines.[32] According to a 1972 article in The Christian Science Monitor, Balchen asserted that "a general warming trend over the North Pole is melting the polar ice cap and may produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2000."[33]

In his native Norway, Balchen was a driving force in the establishment of

Scandinavian Airlines
.

Death and burial

Memorial plaque to Bernt Balchen in Kristiansand

Balchen continued to work in consultancy until his death. In his final year, he was diagnosed with

bone cancer, and he died at Mount Kisco, New York in 1973.[34] Balchen was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.[35] He is buried in Section 2, Grave 4969, next to Admiral Richard E. Byrd
.

Honors and tributes

Balchen was a winner of the

Mount Balchen in Antarctica also named in his honor. In 1976, Balchen was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.[39]
Balchen was also a recipient of the following military decorations:

United States decorations and medals

International orders and medals

Civil awards

  • New York City Medal of Valor - 2 awards
  • City of Paris Gold Medal

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Quote: "Please tell Bernt Balchen how deeply I appreciate all that he did to make this flight possible. Of course he is about the finest flyer and technical expert in the world but beyond that it was his confidence in my ability which helped so much." Amelia Earhart, 22 May 1932.[13]

Citations

  1. ^ Glines 1999, pp. 268–273.
  2. Store Norske Leksikon
    . Retrieved: 28 January 2013.
  3. ^ Glines 1999, p. 21.
  4. ^ a b "Bernt Balchen Bio." Archived 1 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine snowsymposium.org. Retrieved: 8 September 2010.
  5. ^ Simmons 1965, p. 27.
  6. ^ Simmons 1965, p. 31.
  7. ^ Simmons 1965, p. 56.
  8. ^ Glines 199, p. 19.
  9. ^ Simmons 1965, p. 87.
  10. ^ Simmons 1965, pp. 107–108.
  11. ISBN 9780826266439
    .
  12. ^ Butler 1997, p. 263.
  13. ^ "Letter to G.P. Putnam to be directed to Bernt Balchen" Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine e-archives.lib.purdue.edu.
  14. ^ a b "Bernt Balchen". National Aviation Hall of Fame. Retrieved: 9 September 2010.
  15. ^ "The history of a Norwegian Sikorsky S.43 | European Airlines". www.europeanairlines.no. 16 June 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  16. ^ a b Glines 1999, p. 127.
  17. ^ Wiig 2009, p. 57.
  18. ^ Glines 1999, pp. 128–129.
  19. ^ Glines 1999, p. 129.
  20. ^ a b Balchen 1944, pp. 4–5.
  21. ^ Glines 1999, p. 163
  22. ^ Balchen 1944, p. 21.
  23. ^ Balchen 1944, p. 4.
  24. ^ " 'Høk over høk'." (in Norwegian) nb.no. Retrieved: 9 September 2010.
  25. ^ Rossiter 1999, pp. 86–87.
  26. ISBN 978-1-55365-618-0
    .
  27. ^ Glines 1999, p. 212.
  28. ^ Glines 1999, pp. 268–270.
  29. hdl:1811/6042
    .
  30. ^ Patterson, Thom (6 July 2018). "How Pan Am Flight 50 flew from pole to pole". CNN Travel. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  31. ^ "Round the World Flights". www.wingnet.org. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  32. ^ Glines 1999, p. 271.
  33. ^ "Ice-free Arctic Ocean near?" The Christian Science Monitor, 8 June 1972. Retrieved: 31 December 2010.
  34. ^ Glines 1999, p. 275.
  35. Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  36. ^ "Balchen/Post Award". Northeast Chapter, American Association of Airport Executives. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  37. ^ "Enshrinee Brent Balchen". nationalaviation.org. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  38. ^ "Mount Balchen". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  39. ISBN 978-1-57864-397-4
    .

Bibliography

External links
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