Noël

1946 · 5703 — N.p. London: British Army Department of the Scientific Adviser to the Army Council 1946. First edition. Acceptable/Exercise Musk Ox was the first big Allied peacetime military maneuver after World War II. It took place in the polar region of Canada around Hudson Bay on the assumption that the arctic would be an important battleground in future wars. The maneuvers were intended to try out equipment and techniques. The Canadian army invited military observers from several nations including Britain. The expedition set out from Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay in February 1946 to travel over 3100 miles on "snowmobiles" that is modified 4-passenger light tanks that had been designed for an invasion of Norway which never happened. The route went north from Churchill to Denmark Bay then west to Norman Wells and south to finish at Edmonton. Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Croft 1906-1998 was the official observer for the British military. Before the war Croft had distinguished himself on the 1934 Lindsay expedition to Greenland covering over 1000 miles. The Wikipedia article on Croft claims that as a result of the Greenland trek Croft held the Guinness-endorsed record for longest self-sustaining journey for more than 60 years. For this and other expeditions he received the Polar Medal and the Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society. His distinguished wartime career included serving with a Special Forces unit behind enemy lines in Tunisia and several other covert missions in Scandinavia Corsica Italy and France for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. After acting observer of Exercise Musk Ox he was seconded to the Canadian Department of National Defense to develop clothing and equipment for Arctic warfare. Crofts report was produced for internal distribution only and very few copies exist OCLC locates one only. This copy belonged to the inveterate French polar explorer Paul-Emile Victor 1907-1995 whose life is as closely associated with Arctic regions as his friend Jacques Cousteau's is with the ocean. This copy of the Musk Ox report not only shows Victor's bookplate but includes an autograph signed declaration in French "The author Lt. Col. Andrew Croft is one of my friends. In 1934 with the Lindsay expedition he crossed the empty ice from Disko Bay to Uummannaq. Upon arriving Lindsay and Croft gave me their dogs and they became my top dogs…" The text is illustrated with Croft's excellent photography. 34 cm; 59 1 24 2 pages and folding map. Appendices include 42 half-tone plates after photographs and table of recorded wind velocities. Distribution list at end. Bound in original green printed wraps stamped with accession stamps of the French Centre inter-armées de documentation militaire on upper wrap and on title page. Preserved in contemporary bristol board cover paper title label typed on upper board and spine. Veteran condition with old cello tape repairs to gutter of title page and several leaves of the appendices. Last appendix leaf guarded in cello tape on all edges with cello tape repair across central part of the leaf affecting two half-tone plates. Map folds repaired with cello tape. PAUL-EMILE VICTOR'S copy with his bookplate and an autograph note signed by Victor remarking that the author Croft is a personal friend and that Croft had given some favorite dogs to Victor in 1934. [British Army] Department of the Scientific Adviser to the Army Council hardcover books