Bluie East Two
Ikateq | |
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Summary | |
Location | Ikateq Fjord, Greenland |
In use | 1942–1947 |
Coordinates | 65°56′29″N 36°40′30″W / 65.9415°N 36.6751°W |
Map | |
Bluie East Two was a minor
Founding and construction
After the United States assumed responsibility for the defense of
As a result, the BE-2 expedition in September 1941 was limited to establishing a radio and weather reporting station at the village of
Lt. Crockett used dog teams to reconnoitre the area around Angmagssalik. In November 1941, he found an alluvial shelf at the base of high mountains which faced a narrow strait near Eskimo huts named
Operations
Bluie East Two never attained the prominence in trans-Atlantic air traffic originally intended, but it served very well in the alternate airfield, meteorology and navigation, and search-and-rescue support capacities. In 1943, Colonel Bernt Balchen used the field for a bombing raid against a German weather station at Sabine Island, 600 miles north. The raid failed due to weather, and Balchen completed the raid later from Reykjavík. Balchen and Crockett also used BE-2 for support of the epic rescue operations on the ice cap during 1942 and 1943.
The weather and the airways radio detachments regularly exchanged personnel with the station at Cape Dan,
The field was resupplied seasonally by the
In July 1945, the
Legacy
The Danish government had no interest in the facility, and the equipment, fuel, and any usable items were appropriated by visiting locals. The strip remained useful for ad hoc air operations, and served in a supply role for the construction of the early warning radar station DYE-4 at Kulusuk farther south in 1958. Kulusuk is now Angmagssalik's main airport, although its distance requires further helicopter flights to the village and other nearby settlements. In 2017 the VintageAirRally started using the base to raise awareness of the historical significance of the location, and also to highlight the environmental issues.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/10000_gas_drums.jpg/220px-10000_gas_drums.jpg)
Reports and photographs show Ikateq with considerable rusted fuel drums, vehicles, and ruins. The need for a clean-up has been an occasional political issue - resolved (at least financially) by an agreement mid-2017 between the Danish and Greenland governments. The clean-up was started in summer 2019, and is done by the company 60 North Greenland. It is estimated around 200,000 oil drums are at the site,[1] so cleanup is expected to take significant amount of time, since it can only be done during summer months.
Name
Ikateq means "shallow water". "Bluie West" and "Bluie East" were wartime code-names adopted for the two strings of planned radio stations in Greenland by the USAAC in 1941. BE-2 was frequently referred to as Optimist, perhaps due to the urgent anticipation preceding its discovery.
Care must be exercised in affirming the station's location, since BE-2 originally reported from Angmagssalik, and another nearby coastal station at
Further reading
- Carlson, William: Lifelines through the Arctic. Duell Sloan Pierce, New York, 1962.
- Hansen, Chris: Enfant Terrible: The Times and Schemes of General Elliott Roosevelt. Able Baker Press, Tucson, 2012.
- C.J. Hubbard: Report on Crystal Force Expedition with preliminary mention of Bluie East Two and Bluie West Eight. at Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
- History of the North Atlantic Division, Air Transport Command. AFHRA.
- Monthly Histories, Ikateq, 8th Weather Squadron. AFHRA
References
- ^ Kromann, Virna (4 September 2019). "Oprydning efter amerikanerne: 10.000 rustne olietønder er samlet sammen" [Cleanup after the Americans: 10,000 rusty oil barrels are collected together]. Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (in Danish).