The outlines of a peaceful Soviet tractor emerged from the shimmering snow. Half wrapped in snow, the tracked vehicle was forever stuck in a deep crevasse. The next find was a hydrological winch, rusted and frozen into the ice. The calculations were fully confirmed - the personnel left the station in a great hurry, empty barrels, boards and pieces of equipment were scattered everywhere. Crawling hummocks nearly swallowed up the diesel power plant and destroyed a makeshift runway on the cleared ice. It became clear why the polar explorers did not manage to evacuate the equipment.
Crunching with snow, Leonard Le'Shak cautiously approached the radio tower. There could be no doubt - they managed to find SP-8! The legendary Soviet scientific station now met new inhabitants: a smiling James Smith appeared between the buildings. The second member of the secret expedition was examining the abandoned base with no less interest.
- Leo, are you okay?
- Everything is OK
- It looks like we have a lot of work to do
“Yeah,” Le'Shak barely squeezed his teeth, shivering in the cold wind.
The lights of the Flying Fortress swayed in the gloomy sky - dropping the last bale of equipment, the plane went back to Point Barrow. Below, on an ice floe, in the midst of the deadly Arctic cold, two living people remained. Coordinates 83 ° north latitude, 130 ° west longitude. Operation Coldfeet has begun.
Prying open the sunken front door with a crowbar, US Navy Lieutenant Le'Shak and polar explorer James Smith entered one of the shield houses on the territory of "North Pole-8". The flashlight beam hit the tear-off calendar hanging on the wall - March 19, 1962. The interior of the Soviet station did not cause much surprise: a chessboard, a stationery set, a pile of books on a rickety shelf, nothing interesting - fiction. Smoked potbelly stove, washbasin, soft carpet. Cosy. In some places on the walls there were posters depicting Lenin and strong, smart Komsomol members. But the main thing is that the prefabricated house was installed on runners, which made it possible to quickly move it over the ice, when dangerous cracks appeared nearby.
- This will be our den, James.
- Yeah. Look, the Russians were growing something here, - both polar explorers went to the window. There was a box of earth on the windowsill, dry onion stalks sticking out among the frozen clods of soil. The Arctic has mercilessly killed and sucked life from the unfortunate plants.
“It's a sad sight,” Le'Shak concluded.
Having dragged their equipment into the house, and barricading the door just in case, the Americans fell into deep sleep, experiencing all the events of a difficult day. Landing on the ice, an abandoned Soviet station and the endless Arctic desert - impressions will last for a lifetime!
On the morning of May 29, 1962, having had a quick bite, the polar explorers began to carry out their tasks. While Le'Shak was fiddling with the radio station, Smith ransacked the weather booth. He got rich trophies: a whole set of thermometers (mercury, alcohol, "dry", "wet", maximum and minimum), a hygrometer, a thermograph and a hydrograph with a clockwork. Already leaving the meteorological site, the American grabbed an anemometer (a device for measuring wind speed) and Wild's weather vane.
Having packed the first wardrobe trunk with the captured equipment, Smith headed towards the radio room …
- Made in USSR, - Le'Shak repeated enthusiastically, - as soon as the power source was replaced, she came to life and started working on the reception.
The sound of music came from black headphones as the station was tuned to Soviet radio stations in the HF band.
- Okay, now let's get in touch with Barrow. We need to report on the situation.
… The life of the polar explorers went on as usual. Le'Shak and Smith methodically surveyed the station, dismantled and packed the most interesting equipment into trunks, looked for any written evidence - specialized literature, letters, notebooks. A wall newspaper was found in the wardroom, on which the last head of the SP-8 station, Romanov, just in case, noted the date and reasons for the evacuation of the station, as well as an appeal to the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in Leningrad. In another dwelling, the Americans found a notebook with secret codes - as it turned out later, it was just a recording of a correspondence chess game between employees of SP-8 and the Moscow River Shipping Company Administration.
A considerable surprise was delivered by one of the panel houses - inside there was a real Russian bathhouse with an impromptu "snow melter" and a pump for pumping water!
Nevertheless, in their reports, Le'Shack and Smith noted a huge contrast between the ascetic interior of the station's living quarters and an amazing set of high-class scientific equipment: atmospheric weather balloons, astronomical instruments, radio communications, navigation, oceanographic instruments: an automated current recorder, deep-sea scientific complexes …
Then, when these things get to the United States, experts of the naval intelligence (Office of Naval Intelligence) will draw an unexpected conclusion: Soviet scientific instruments have an exceptionally high level of technological performance, and, moreover, are serial samples.
But the main find was made in the evening on the first day of their presence at the abandoned base - the Americans discovered that the SP-8 electric generators were installed on special damping devices. Why such measures to ensure low noise and vibration levels? There could be only one explanation - an underwater sonar beacon or a submarine tracking system was installed somewhere nearby. The official history does not give a clear answer - Le'Shak and Smith were able to find something similar on SP-8 or the top-secret equipment was removed in advance by Soviet polar explorers.
The third and last day came, spent at the abandoned polar station. Having hastily destroyed the traces of their stay, and having collected voluminous bales of trophies (more than 300 photographs, 83 documents, 21 samples of instruments and instruments!), Leonard Le'Shack and James Smith prepared for the evacuation. The Point Barrow radio operator confirmed the search and rescue mission. Now all that remains is to wait …
The Arctic made its own adjustments to the plans of the people - it was not possible to evacuate the reconnaissance group that day. For two days in a row, the Americans pulled their trunks onto the ice and waited for the "Flying Fortress", sometimes they even heard the hum of engines - alas, a sharp deterioration in the weather every time frustrated the operation. It was starting to get annoying.
Finally, on the evening of July 2, the cargo was safely delivered to the plane. It's Leonard Le'Shak's turn …
The Americans were faced with a non-trivial task: to deliver cargo and people from the surface of the ice to a plane rushing in the clouds. Landing on the ice is out of the question: the Flying Fortress will crash against the many-meter heaps of hummocks. Clearing the runway by two people, without the use of special equipment, is an absolutely unrealistic task. Helicopters capable of refueling in the air and covering 1000 km over the icy desert did not exist in those years. There was only the "Flying Fortress" and the same ancient naval patrol aircraft P-2 "Neptune". What should I do?
Leonard Le'Shak looked at the proposed solution with apprehension and disbelief. Was - was not! He still has no choice. Le'Shak hooked a hook to his belt and prepared to inflate a balloon with helium.
The growing roar of engines was heard from above - the "Flying Fortress" broke through the lower edge of the clouds and prepared for the rise of the polar explorers. The navigator and radio operator, leaning out into a transparent blister, watched with interest the two eccentrics below.
- Eh, you are there! Get it moving! - the crew of the "fortress" happily greeted Le'Shak and Smith.
Le'Shak sighed heavily and inflated a balloon, which immediately escaped from his hands, disobedient from the cold, and disappeared into the gray sky. Following the ball, a thin nylon rope flew into the air, the other end of which was fastened to Le'Shak's belt. Finally, the 150-meter cable twitched and pulled like a string. A sharp gust of wind knocked the support out from under his feet - the man helplessly slid on the ice, hitting his knees and hands on the sharp edges of the hummocks. And then it exploded so that Le'Shak's eyes darkened for a moment …
A living person was flying over the Arctic at sunset of the polar day. Without the help of parachutes and wings, at a speed of 130 knots per hour, Leonard Le'Shak tumbled in the cold Arctic air, opposing gravity to levitation.
The icy cold covered his face with hoarfrost, the scorching wind penetrated into the lungs, threatening to freeze from the inside. The air attraction lasted for six and a half minutes, while Le'Shak, who was powerlessly hanging on the cable, gasping for breath, was lifted by a winch onto the plane.
The rise of Smith was easier - seeing how the wind dragged his comrade across the ice, he held on to a peaceful Soviet tractor until the last moment - finally, the plane hooked up the cable and pulled it aboard through the cargo ramp.
In August 1962, the next issue of the US naval intelligence magazine ONI Review was published under the title "Operation Coldfeet: An Investigation of the Abandoned Soviet Arctic Drift Station NP 8" (for internal use). The article described in detail all the twists and turns of the expedition to the abandoned polar station SP-8, the cost of the special operation and the results achieved. The Americans were surprised by the scale of Soviet Arctic research, the US Navy was able to get acquainted with the products of Soviet instrumentation; confirmed the use of the drifting scientific station "North Pole" for military purposes, and the CIA made unambiguous conclusions about the state of Soviet science and industry. It was recommended to continue work related to the "visit" to Soviet facilities in the Arctic.
The Americans did not care about the ethical moment - by the time of the "visit", the red flag of the USSR had already been lowered over the abandoned station. According to international maritime law, any "no-man's" object is considered a "prize" and becomes the property of the finder.
As for the strange "evacuation" of polar explorers James Smith and Leonard Le'Shak using a nylon rope and a balloon - this is just the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system, adopted by the CIA and the US Air Force back in 1958 … The idea is simple: a person fixes a special harness on himself, clings to a belt a cable, the other end of which is attached to a balloon. The ball does not play any role in the direct lifting of a person - its task is only to stretch the cable in an upright position.
The second element of the system is a low-speed transport aircraft (based on the "Flying Fortress", P-2 "Neptune", S-2 "Tracker" or C-130 "Hercules") with folding "mustaches" mounted on the nose. The aircraft approaches the target at a speed of 200-250 km / h in such a way that the cable is exactly in the solution of the "whiskers": when the rescue aircraft "hooks" the cable, the crew selects the payload using a winch. Five minutes of a nightmare - and you're on board. Witty and simple.
Experiments have shown that the overload in this case is not so great as to seriously injure a person, in addition, the "jerk" is partially compensated by the elastic properties of the nylon rope.
Currently, with the development of rotary-wing aircraft, the system has lost its former relevance. However, it is still used by the US Air Force for emergency evacuation of downed pilots and special forces teams. According to the Americans, Fulton's "air hook" is no more dangerous than a regular parachute jump. Not a bad solution to get a person out of any trouble, including from the Arctic ice floe.
Epilogue
The uninhabited "country of ice horror" became an arena for intrigue and serious confrontation between the USSR and the USA during the Cold War. Despite the unsuitable conditions for life, there were many military installations and polar stations of "dual use" in the Arctic.
Russian polar explorer Arthur Chilingarov recalled how surprised he was during a "friendly visit" to an abandoned American station in 1986 - despite the "research status" of the facility, all equipment and machinery were marked with the U. S. Navy (United States Navy).
The former head of the SP-6 station Nikolai Bryazgin told how their improvised runway on the cleared ice was used to practice the landings of Tu-16 strategic bombers as a "jump airfield".
At the polar station SP-8, investigated by Leonard Le'Shak and James Smith, there was indeed special equipment of the USSR Navy. A group of the Kiev Institute of Hydraulic Instruments also worked here - the Navy needed a network of hydroacoustic beacons to orient nuclear submarines under the ice.
According to the stories of the employees of the "North Pole-15", nuclear submarines have surfaced more than once in the hole near their station - the sailors continued to test the underwater sonar orientation system.
At first, military specialists got along peacefully at the same station with scientists, however, misunderstandings soon arose - regular oceanographic studies, accompanied by ice drilling and immersion of deep-sea instruments, interfered with the operation of special military equipment. We had to urgently organize a new station 40 kilometers from the main one. The secret object received the code SP-15F (branch) - here the equipment for detecting enemy submarines was tested.
But the main gift to submariners from polar explorers is a map of the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Long years of painstaking work, countless measurements in all regions of the Arctic. Twenty years ago, the map was declassified and presented to the whole world as the property of Russia - a convincing argument that eloquently testifies to Russia's right to develop deposits at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
