TRACKS NORTH the Story of Exercise Muskox
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TRACKS NORTH The Story of Exercise Muskox John Lauder Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert Arctic Operational Histories, no.5 TRACKS NORTH The Story of Exercise Muskox © The author/editors 2018 Mulroney Institute St. Francis Xavier University 5005 Chapel Square Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada B2G 2W5 LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Tracks North: The Story of Exercise Muskox / John Lauder, author / P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert, editors (Arctic Operational History Series, no. 5) Issued in electronic and print formats ISBN (pdf): 978-1-7753409-7-3 ISBN (paper): 978-1-7753409-7-3 1. Canada. Canadian Armed Forces—History--20th century. 2. Operations-- Canada, Northern--History. 3. Canadian Army--History. 4. Royal Canadian Air Force--History. 5. Canada, Northern--Strategic aspects. 6. Arctic regions-- Strategic aspects. 7. Canada, Northern—History—20th century. I. Lauder, John, author II. P. Whitney Lackenbauer, editor III. Peter Kikkert, editor IV. Mulroney Institute of Government, issuing body V. Tracks North: The Story of Exercise Muskox. V. Series: Arctic Operational Histories no.5 Page design and typesetting by P. Whitney Lackenbauer Cover design by Jennifer Arthur-Lackenbauer TRACKS NORTH The Story of Exercise Muskox John Lauder Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert Arctic Operational History Series, no.5 2018 The Arctic Operational History Series The Arctic Operational History Series seeks to provide context and background to Canada’s defence operations and responsibilities in the North by resuscitating important, but forgotten, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) reports, histories, and defence material from previous generations of Arctic operations. Since the CAF’s reengagement with the Arctic in the early 2000s, experience has demonstrated the continuity of many of the challenges and frictions which dominated operations in decades past. While the platforms and technologies used in previous eras of Arctic operations are very different, the underlying challenges – such as logistics, communications, movement, and sustainment – remain largely the same. Unfortunately, few of the lessons learned by previous generations are available to today’s operators. To preserve these lessons and strengthen the CAF’s ties to its northern history, this series is reproducing key reports and histories with direct relevance to CAF operations today. Adam Lajeunesse Series Editor Exercise Muskox, in 1946, was the first attempt by anyone to use motorized land vehicles in the high Arctic. Aircraft had done some freight hauling, but as there were no accurate maps of the North, flying was limited. Bombardier had designed an over-snow machine for the planned wartime invasion of Norway, which had never happened, so the military was anxious to run tests. Washington and London were getting suspicious of their former ally, Russia, so backed the plan and offered support. 47 men in snowmobiles (these resembled tanks, and were not like the present-day machines) set out from Churchill to go north to the Arctic Islands, and then move south down the [Mackenzie] Valley to Edmonton. To support the force some 500 Army and Air Force troops were stationed at various bases across the North. Fighting blizzards, then spring floods and dust storms, the group made the 3,200 mile trek in 81 days, fudging at the end to ride the last 407 miles on the train. It might be considered as a Canadian “Charge of the Light Brigade”, except that cannons did not do them in, but the mechanical failures of their own machines. John Lauder to Directorate of History, Department of National Defence, 19911 1 John Lauder, letter, no date (spring 1991), DHH 96-52. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its financial support through Insight Grant 435-2015- 1140. A special thanks as well to Dr. Adam Lajeunesse, the Irving Shipbuilding Chair in Canadian Arctic Marine Security Policy with the Mulroney Institute of Government at St. Francis Xavier University, for inviting us to publish this work through the Arctic Operational History Series. P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert December 2018 Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ i Editors’ Note ................................................................................... xiv List of Acronyms .................................................................................. xix 1. SEARCH FOR SOVEREIGNTY ....................................................... 1 2. BASICS AND BASES ........................................................................ 8 3. LEADERS, VIPS AND OTHERS.................................................... 14 4. BAKER LAKE OR BUST ................................................................ 21 5. RUMINATIONS ............................................................................. 28 6. THE FORCE MOVES .................................................................... 34 7. BAKER LAKE TO PERRY RIVER .................................................. 42 8. MAGNETIC MISSION .................................................................. 48 9. CAMBRIDGE BAY TO FORT NORMAN .................................... 52 10. SIC ITUR AD ASTRA ETC .......................................................... 58 11. FORT NORMAN TO EDMONTON .......................................... 62 12. LESSONS LEARNED AND LOST ............................................... 72 Further Readings................................................................................... 78 Introduction – Lackenbauer and Kikkert INTRODUCTION P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert On 12 October 1945, Minister of National Defence Douglas Abbott approved a non-tactical winter exercise set to take place in the Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic between February and May of the following year. Exercise Musk Ox called for a small force travelling in snowmobiles to move overland from Churchill to Edmonton via Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk (Coppermine), and Tulita (Fort Norman), while being supported and supplied by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) primarily flying out of Churchill, Yellowknife, Fort Nelson, Norman Wells and Edmonton, and an additional force deployed to Baker Lake. Canadian planners designed Musk Ox to study movement and maintenance in a wide spectrum of cold weather conditions and terrain, while testing out Army-Air Force cooperation, the mobility of over-snow vehicles, methods of air supply and “certain technical research projects related to Arctic warfare” (including the collection of snow and ice data, meteorology, navigation, magnetic observations and ground topography). After months of planning and training, the Moving Force set off from Churchill on 15 February 1946. Watching the force depart was John Lauder, a Government of Canada meteorologist who had been temporarily stationed at Churchill Base in support of the exercise.1 Decades later, Lauder summarized the expedition: The trek was completed in 81 days, with only a slight bit of fudging when the railway was used as the means of travel for the final leg. For various reasons no movement was possible on 29 of these days, so only 52 travel days were used for the 3,279 mile (5,279 km) trip. The path was made of snow, ice, tundra, bush, corduroy road, mud, gravel, and even water. Weather conditions ranged from blizzards to dust storms, and temperatures went to extremes at both ends of the scale. Mechanical emergencies, 1 John Lauder “spent his entire working career as a meteorologist with the government of Canada. He began as a meteorological briefing officer for pilots being trained at various air bases in Manitoba at the outset of WWII and later worked for long periods in the met offices in Edmonton and Winnipeg. In the early 1960's he served in the Canadian Air Force as met officer at 2 Wing in north-eastern France.” “John Lauder Obituary,” National Post, 16 January 2006. i Tracks North inexperienced personnel, inaccurate maps and limited communications all offered problems. These were exacerbated by bureaucratic bungling by higher headquarters, so it is amazing that the troops completed their journey at all, let alone made it to Edmonton only one day late. Lauder believed that Musk Ox represented a significant achievement in Canada’s military history and an important moment in the development of the North – as such, he thought it deserved a proper recounting. This feeling was reinforced when he heard of a radio interview involving Dr. J. Tuzo Wilson, in which the director of Musk Ox suggested that someone should write a book about the exercise.2 In the late 1980s, Lauder took this suggestion as his new marching orders. Lauder sent letters to many of the principal participants in the exercise, including Tuzo Wilson and the leader of the Baker Lake Force, Graham Rowley, informing them of his book project and asking them to share historical materials or personal accounts.3 Tuzo Wilson responded that Musk Ox and other interwar and postwar “Arctic trips as preceded the D.E.W. Line should be written up.”4 Encouraged, Lauder collected an array of primary sources: official Canadian Army, RCAF, and U.S. Army reports (most of which had been classified as “secret” or “confidential” when they were written in 1946 and were not declassified until the 1980s); newspaper coverage of the exercise; and three participants’ personal diaries. He also knew five of the six meteorologists