It seems a misnomer to speak of Antarctica’s military history. It is the one continent on Earth on which a war has never been fought. Indeed, finding a battle that rises above a minor skirmish is impossible. Still, the projection of military power, either overtly or sub rosa, to achieve broader policy goals is a theme that weaves in and out of Antarctica’s history and remains relevant even today.
The 1982 Falklands War between Great Britain and Argentina briefly touched the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia in the South Sandwich Islands, although at 54° S latitude, the island was well above the “Antarctic region,” which geographers define as below 60° S. Likewise, naval operations in the South Atlantic both during World War I and World War II on occasion brushed the Antarctic region. Still, the area had little consequences in the overall prosecution of either war.
The competition for the region’s resources, both real and theoretical, has often had a military dimension over the last two centuries, even if that military competition was usually subdued. Moreover, the absence of a consensus for the legal basis of Antarctic claims meant demonstrations of military power were often used as a substitute or a basis for enhancing the legitimacy of claims.
Who discovered Antarctica and what is the mainland?
The question of who first discovered Antarctica and what constitutes its discovery remains debated among historians. Does a fleeting glimpse of a fog-shrouded coast warrant discovery? Is landing on a sub-Antarctic island sufficient to earn the plaudit of discoverer? Or is that distinction reserved for the first person to see or set foot on the Antarctic mainland?
What exactly is the mainland anyway? Is it the ice shelf that can extend hundreds of miles into the Antarctic ocean, or is it the continental margin, even though it is buried under thousands of feet of ice in most places? The nature of discovery in Antarctica and the claiming rights associated with it have never been entirely clear, a factor that had a bearing on the role that military power has played on the continent.
Regardless of who is credited with the discovery of the Antarctic continent, it’s clear that by the early 19th century, the economic potential of the sub-Antarctic islands as a source of seal skin furs and animal fats was widely recognized. The region was particularly attractive to American whaling boats since access to much of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions were controlled by Great Britain and Russia and denied to Americans. That experience would later be essential in shaping U.S. policy towards the continent.
The sub-Antarctic islands lacked the sea otter that was the foundation of the North Pacific coastal fur trade. Still, a sealing boat could kill enough fur seals in a week to make a small fortune for its crew, although it took many months to complete the dangerous journey to the region.
Who could hunt or fish long in dispute
By the 1820s, hundreds of American boats were operating in sub-Antarctic waters, raising the ire of Argentina and Great Britain, then the principal military powers in the area. Military operations, however, were limited to an occasional showing of the flag by a frigate, typically British, to warn off foreign interlopers and to announce that its nationals were under its protection.
In 1831, the USS Lexington staged a raid on the then Argentine-controlled Falkland Islands over ongoing disputes regarding Argentinian interference with American sealing and whaling ships. The commander of the Lexington, Silas Duncan, refused to recognize Argentinian authority, dissolved the island’s government, and imprisoned several of its officials for piracy before returning to the U.S.
As in the polar region, the mass extermination of fur-bearing animals quickly depopulated the sub-Antarctic islands. More seals were available further South, but access to the Antarctic mainland was difficult and often treacherous. Likewise, although Antarctic waters teemed with whales, only the slower-moving bowhead whales, principally the southern right whale, were within reach of mid-19th century whalers.
Not only did bowheads move slowly, but their large amount of blubber enabled them to float once killed, allowing whaling boats to pull alongside and strip off (flense) the blubber and boil it down to extract the whale oil. Other whales, less endowed with blubber, would sink when killed. The abundant but faster-moving rorqual whales, like the blue, fin, and sei whales, were usually beyond the reach of harpooners.
By the mid-19th century, the paucity of stocks and the growing use of kerosene and gas for illumination and petroleum oils for lubricating machinery led to a steady decline in whaling activity in the Antarctic. Exploration and military activity in the region declined accordingly.
Technology revived whale hunting
The late 19th century saw a revival of the Antarctic whaling industry and the recognition that industrial-scale whaling could be a large, profitable industry. Several factors were responsible.
In the late 1860s, a Norwegian, Svend Foyn, developed a grenade-tipped harpoon gun. Mounted on the bow of a steamship and connected to a steam-powered winch, it allowed whalers to hunt and secure faster-moving rorqual whales. The invention of a mechanical air compressor, also steam-powered, allowed whalers to pump air into the whales to keep them afloat until the blubber could be extracted.
Concurrently, the demand for animal fats, in general, and whale oil, in particular, was skyrocketing. Whale oil could be used to manufacture soaps and candles. The newly developed hydrogenation process allowed whale oil to be converted into margarine, making it a foodstuff while removing its unpalatable aroma and taste. Whale oil could also be used as a base to make nitroglycerin, which was then in high demand for explosives and munitions.
At this point, a little more than a century ago, the nature of the Antarctic continent was still shrouded in mystery. Only a handful of individuals had landed on the continent’s shore. Its interior was unexplored, and much of the coastline was still unmapped. Indeed, it wasn’t even certain that Antarctica was a continent. It was widely believed that it was two or more large islands divided by a strait that connected the Ross Sea with the Weddell Sea.
Although individual explorers had made claims on behalf of their respective countries, no government had yet sought formal recognition of its sovereignty over any part of the continent.
The demonstrations of military power were principally in the form of naval forces. This factor worked to Great Britain’s advantage as the principal naval power of that era, but even then, there was little use for it.
Scientific interest in Antarctica grows
The revival of Antarctic whaling and the widely held belief that technological advances might allow for the economic exploitation of the continent’s resources brought a sizeable increase in scientific expeditions to the region.
Officially, these expeditions were organized by scientific organizations like Britain’s Royal Geographical Society or the American Geographical Society. Their mandate was scientific research, cartography, and exploration. It was recognized, however, that such activities, especially developing more accurate maps of the continent, could be the basis of future land claims.
This was particularly true for the mapping of the coasts. Under the sector principal, a concept in international law where international boundaries are extended over land areas in the Antarctic towards the South Pole following lines of longitude, claims to the coastal margin would largely dictate claims on the unexplored interior. Producing the most accurate coastal maps was essential to asserting a legal declaration of sovereignty on the coastal region and its corresponding portion of Antarctica’s interior.
Although competition for control of the Antarctic continent was heating up, the military role was still sub rosa. On occasion, leadership roles in an expedition were held by serving or reserve military officers. A country’s navy sometimes provided supplies and assistance, but for the most part, the military had no obvious role to play.
The turn of the century brought scientific expeditions from several new participants, including Germany, and Japan, among others, and a renewed American interest in exploring the continent. The Norwegians also appeared in force due to the sizeable Norwegian whaling fleet in Antarctic waters.
It was obvious that various countries were eyeing the possible division of the continent, the last unclaimed chunk of real estate on the planet, but no one was willing to risk a war over it. The projection of military power in the region was still difficult, and no military assets were deployed there beyond an occasional visiting navy ship. A military conflict might still determine the future of Antarctica, but it would be a consequence of a war fought elsewhere.
Antarctica and World War I
World War I largely sidestepped the Antarctic region. The Falkland Islands was the scene of a naval battle where a British squadron destroyed a flotilla of German heavy cruisers. Beyond that event, however, little else happened. Trade routes through the South Atlantic ran far north of 60.00°. There was little reason for German submarines to venture that far south, hence little reason for the naval forces hunting them to do likewise.
The most significant outcome of World War I was that Germany renounced any claims to the Antarctic continent under the Treaty of Versailles. However, Berlin had never declared its sovereignty over any part of Antarctica.
Two German expeditions, the Gauss Expedition (1901-1903) and the Second German Antarctic Expedition (1911-1913), explored the continent and named a hitherto unexplored region Kaiser Wilhelm II Land. The name is still used for a wedge of Antarctica on the Indian Ocean between Queen Mary Land and Princess Elizabeth Land. The area is currently in the Australian Antarctic Territory (160° E to 45° E), claimed by Australia.
World War I delayed, but it did not stop, the trend moving inexorably towards the division of the Antarctic continent. Following the end of World War I, Leo Amery, a conservative British politician who was a junior minister in the Colonial Office, began advocating that Great Britain should annex the whole of the Antarctic continent.
Starting with the organization of the Falklands Island Dependencies under the original 1843 Letters Patent and subsequent revisions through 1962, the British government had progressively declared its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as well as the sub-Antarctic islands of South Georgia, South Sandwich, South Orkney, and South Shetland, as well as Graham Land and the rest of the Antarctic peninsula.
In coordination with Australia and New Zealand, Amery proposed expanding British control to include the entire continent eventually. If successful, that would have added roughly 5.5 million square miles to the British empire, expanding it by 40%.
The proposal did not have uniform support within the British government. There was widespread concern that an aggressive British plan would precipitate a counter response from France and the United States, two British allies that the Foreign Office was unwilling to provoke. It was also believed it would trigger a countervailing claim from Chile and Argentina.
Claims of sovereignty rested on a combination of different factors: the right of discovery, subsequent exploration, the exercise of administrative authority, and habitation. The latter was critical. Until the beginning of the 20th century, none of the potential claimants had maintained continuous habitation on the Antarctic continent.
The British were the first to set up a settlement in Antarctica, doing so as part of the Southern Cross Expedition in 1899. Some expedition members had also overwintered, the first time anyone had done so on the continent. However, the settlement was soon abandoned.
Mapping Antarctica no easy task
After World War I, airplanes began to be used for exploring the Antarctic interior, little of which had ever been mapped. Airplane-mounted cameras were used to produce a continuous record of the ground being traversed, although, without terrestrial reference points, these cameras generally proved useless in map-making. However, motion picture accounts of the Antarctic wilderness proved extremely popular with audiences and were used to encourage public support of Antarctic exploration.
Australian aviator Hubert Wilkins carried out the first flight over Antarctica on November 6, 1928, in a Lockheed Vega 1 monoplane from Graham Land in the Antarctic peninsula. This was the first attempt to map uncharted land in Antarctica from an airplane.
Roughly a year later, on Nov. 28, 1929, Richard Byrd, an American naval officer and explorer, made a 1,300-kilometer flight from the American expedition’s base Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf to the South Pole. This was the first of five expeditions that Byrd would undertake in Antarctica. As he flew over what he believed to be the South Pole, Byrd dropped a small American flag. The flight took 18 hours and 41 minutes, a fraction of the time it had taken Norwegian Polar explorer Roald Amundson to trek to the south pole in 1911.
Using airplanes for exploration added a new element to the question of sovereignty over Antarctic territory. Would dropping flags from the air and a “Declaration of Claiming” prove sufficient to establish sovereignty? Wilkins had been the first to drop flags from the air. But others soon adopted the practice, most notably Byrd a year later when he flew to the South Pole.
There were two additional developments over the course of the 1930s that would significantly transform the geopolitics of the Antarctic continent. The first was the growing U.S. interest in possibly annexing all or part of the continent. Initially, the U.S. had not extended any claims to Antarctica, although it reserved the right to do so. Moreover, the U.S. did not recognize the British or any other claims because no government could demonstrate continuous occupation of the claimed areas.
U.S. planed for Antarctic bases
Byrd had a long-standing relationship with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and found him supportive of American annexation of the continent. In 1939, the U.S. government began organizing the U.S. Antarctic Service (USAS) at the behest of FDR. The objective of the USAS was to be the first to establish and maintain three permanent U.S. bases on the Antarctic continent.
The bases would be west of the 180th meridian in the “Western Hemisphere” portion of the Antarctic continent between 72° W and 148° W. They were partially justified under the Monroe Doctrine to keep European powers, especially Nazi Germany, out of the Western Hemisphere.
East Base would be located either on Charcot Island or Marguerite Bay. Both were located within the zone the British had designated as the British Falkland Island Dependencies. The proposed site also fell within the area claimed by both Argentina and Chile. West Base would be established on the eastern side of the Ross Sea, just outside of the area claimed by New Zealand.
Under Roosevelt’s direction, the U.S. government was mobilized to organize and support the USAS. From the beginning, the USAS had a pronounced military character. The agency was administered by an interdepartmental committee consisting of Coast Guard Commandant Rear Admiral Russell Waesche, U.S. Navy Captain Charles Hartigan, Hugh Cumming, the State Department’s Antarctica specialist, and Ernest Gruening, a Democrat politician who was the governor of the Alaska territory. Gruening had formerly been the head of the State Department Division of Territories and Island Possessions, where he was responsible for administering territories the U.S. had annexed.
At the same time, the U.S. government encouraged the Library of Congress to conduct archival research to locate and preserve the logbooks of 19th-century American whalers and sealers who had operated in Antarctica. The logbooks were used to underscore the predominant role of American mariners rather than British or other foreign expeditions in first sighting Antarctica and exploring its seas. This was an essential element in the case for American sovereignty in Antarctica.
One of the catalysts that drove American interest in the Antarctic was the growing role of Nazi Germany and Japan in the region. During the 1930s, both Japan and Germany had looked to the Antarctic whaling industry as a source of animal fats for their food and munitions industry and, in Japan’s case, animal protein. By 1936, Germany was already operating five factory ships accompanied by 50 whalers in the Antarctic seas.
Germany took a turn making a claim in Antarctica
In 1938, German Air Marshall Herman Goering organized a German expedition to Antarctica. This was the first step toward an eventual German claim on the Antarctic territory. Germany wanted to reduce its dependence on Norway for whale oil, much of which was used by the chemical industry to manufacture munitions, as well as potentially create a base for military operations in the South Atlantic. Germany imported over 200,000 tons of whale oil from Norway and was its second largest customer.
The expedition left Germany in December 1938 on the MS Schwabenland, a freighter equipped with a catapult to launch a Dornier Do J Wal, a twin-engine German flying boat. The ship arrived in Antarctica on Jan. 19, 1939, and departed on Feb. 6, 1939.
During that roughly three-week period, the German expedition mapped a portion of the coast of the Norwegian-claimed Queen Maude Land and conducted 15 aerial surveys. It took over 16,000 pictures covering hundreds of thousands of square miles of Antarctica.
The planes dropped around a dozen 1.2-meter aluminum markers embossed with the Nazi swastika on the ice. None of the markers have ever been recovered. The delineated territory was called Neuschwabenland after the ship that carried the expedition to Antarctica.
The onset of World War II led to the suspension of the U.S. Antarctic Service. Nothing more ever came from the Nazi expedition to Antarctica. Rumors of a secret Nazi base in Antarctica persisted until well after the war’s end, but no evidence of such a facility has ever been found.
However, Washington’s growing interest in Antarctica had precipitated counter-moves by Chile and Argentina to strengthen their positions. Neither country had previously done much to press their Antarctic claims.
Moreover, the expectation that the Polar Exploration Conference scheduled for October 1940 in Bergen might take up the issue of competing land claims in the Antarctic made such moves even more critical. The Conference was, however, canceled due to the German occupation of Norway.
Argentina makes its play, putting Britain in tough spot
In 1939, the Argentine government organized an interdepartmental commission to prepare Argentina’s case for its land claims. Argentina had maintained a meteorological base on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys since 1904. They were the only claimant that could point to a record of continuous occupation of a base in the Antarctic region, even if that base was not on the Antarctic continent.
Taking its cue from the USAS, Buenos Aires began organizing a National Antarctic Committee under the auspices of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with the defense and development of Argentina‘s interests in Antarctica.
Concurrently, Chile issued a formal claim to all Antarctic territories between 53° E and 90° W. This claim overlapped the British claim in the Falkland Islands Dependencies and Argentina’s claim. Subsequently, Chile and Argentina agreed to hold a conference to reconcile their competing land claims.
In July 1941, Buenos Aires announced that it would begin staffing its base on Laurie Island with naval personnel. Several months later, the Argentine government announced it had established a post office on Laurie Island and that the base’s radio operator, a naval officer, had been appointed postmaster.
Operating a post office and accompanying postal service proved that Buenos Aires was conducting administrative functions in the South Orkneys. Since no other country operated a base on the islands, Argentina’s activity on Laurie Island served as a basis for exerting a claim over the entire island group.
London was in a difficult position. War was raging in Europe. Nazi Germany had invaded the Soviet Union a few months before. British troops in the Mediterranean and North Africa were under attack by Axis forces. Britain depended on Argentine food exports and could not risk a rupture with Buenos Aries. Moreover, the Admiralty didn’t have any ships to spare to respond to what it saw as Argentinian provocations.
Emboldened by the lack of a British response, Buenos Aires turned its attention to the South Shetland Islands. In January 1942, the Argentine navy ship Primero de Mayo arrived at the abandoned British facility on Deception Island. An Argentine naval officer raised the Argentine flag and deposited a chest containing the Argentine Act of Possession. Sailors from the ship also painted the Argentine flag on the seaward-facing walls of a building.
Having asserted Argentinian authority, the ship proceeded to the nearby Melchior Islands, where it repeated the process — this time painting the Argentine flag on a light beacon. Similar actions were taken at several Palmer Peninsula locations and Winter Island. Following the return of the Primero de Mayo to Buenos Aires, the Argentine government declared that all Antarctic territory south of 60° S and between 25° W and 68.34° W had been annexed.
London protested Argentina’s actions, but at the time, there was little that the British government could do. Singapore was threatened by the advance of Japanese forces down the Malay Peninsula, while in North Africa, Rommel’s Afrika Korps threatened the British defensive line west of Tobruk.
Britain raises its flag across region
In January 1943, Argentina again dispatched the Primero de Mayo to assert Argentine sovereignty and to perform more claiming ceremonies. The Admiralty sent an armed merchant ship, HMS Carnarvon Castle, from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The ship made a call on Deception Island, where British sailors raised the Union Jack and painted over the Argentine flag, replacing it with the British flag.
The ship then proceeded to Signy Island in the South Orkneys, where a flagpole was raised to fly the Union Jack. The Carnarvon Castle then sailed to Laurie Island. Its captain had been instructed to avoid any confrontation with the Argentinians there. He explained to the Argentine commander that the ship was on a routine patrol to determine whether any of the old whaling station anchorages were being used by German ships.
In the meantime, the Primero de Mayo had called on the abandoned East Base that the USAS had established at Marguerite Bay. It then returned to the South Orkneys and the South Shetland Islands, again removing British insignia and replacing them with Argentine ones.
In January 1943, the War Cabinet authorized Operation Tabarin, a plan to establish permanent bases in the Falkland Islands Dependencies. The operation, however, was not launched till December 1943. By then, the war situation, still a long way from a final resolution, had stabilized enough to permit the expedition.
This was a purely military operation designed to strengthen British claims in the Falkland Island Dependencies by establishing permanent, albeit small, bases throughout the region. Officially, the operation was tasked with hunting Nazi commerce raiders in the South Atlantic, even though by late 1943, that threat had largely abated.
An additional reason given was the claim that Japan posed a threat to the Falkland Islands. The loss of the Falklands would have jeopardized Allied shipping in the South Atlantic, but the idea that Japan could have mounted an invasion of the Falklands was ludicrous.
Several scientists were added to the expedition to emphasize its scientific character. The scientists conducted research, but the impetus of the mission had always been to strengthen British Antarctic claims.
By emphasizing the expedition’s objective to hunt down Nazi commerce raiders and conduct scientific research, London hoped to avoid a confrontation with Chile, Argentina, and the U.S. over the status of its Antarctic land claims.
The troopship Highland Monarch left Britain in December 1943. It dropped off four men on Deception Island and ten at Port Lockroy on Wiencke Island. Plans to staff a third base at Hope Bay had to be abandoned because of ice conditions.
America flexes military power in Antarctica
The token force could not have resisted a determined Argentinian assault, but by 1944, the tide of war had turned toward the Allies. More importantly, American Lend-Lease aid to Chile and Brazil, two longstanding regional rivals of Argentina, had given their militaries a decisive advantage over Argentina’s military forces. Buenos Aries would not risk any further escalation and was content for now to maintain the status quo.
With the end of World War II, Byrd again urged the U.S. government to build permanent bases in Antarctica in anticipation that the U.S. would claim a portion of the continent. The prevailing view among the claimants was that continuous occupation was a precondition for validating any claims and that, eventually, an international conference would meet to resolve the competing land claims. Even Great Britain, which had long argued that the exercise of administrative oversight rather than actual occupation was sufficient to establish a claim, had now conceded the necessity of permanent bases.
Byrd lobbied for the revival of the U.S. Antarctic Service and argued that Antarctica was an ideal venue to train for possible Arctic warfare between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. He proposed a massive show of military force to demonstrate that the U.S. was serious about establishing and maintaining a presence in Antarctica.
Byrd’s proposals were the genesis of Operation High Jump. The expedition, designated Task Force 68, included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and 33 aircraft. The Task Force included an aircraft carrier, the USS Philippine Sea, and six helicopters. This was the first time helicopters had been deployed in Antarctica. Two ice breakers, the Northwind and the Burton Island were also part of the flotilla.
This was the largest show of military force ever deployed in Antarctic waters. Byrd, now a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, was put in overall command. Rear Admiral Richard Cruzen, a veteran of Antarctic exploration, was put in operational control as Commanding Officer.
Operation High Jump was also the first major expedition to Antarctica that did not try to disguise its primary mission under the guise of scientific research. The U.S. Navy was clear that its primary mission was to “train members of the navy and to test ships, aircraft, and other military equipment under frigid conditions.”
In addition, it was tasked with establishing the Little America IV base on the site of Byrd’s previous base on the Ross Ice Shelf. The expedition was simply the continuation of the 1939 USAS initiative but on a far grander scale.
Like the original 1939 expedition, its objective was surveying the Antarctic interior to produce more accurate maps. It also intended to use aerial reconnaissance to identify American claims on the continent by drop markers displaying the U.S. flag and containing declarations of sovereignty at the limits of each flight. The operation commenced on Aug. 26, 1946, and ended in late February 1947.
The U.S. Navy returned the following year with Operation Windmill, the second Antarctic Development Project. It was a follow-up to Operation High Jump and was intended as an exploration and training mission. Designated as Task Force 39, this was a smaller flotilla with the icebreaker USS Burton Island as the task force’s flagship. The missions carried out during Operation Windmill included supply activities, helicopter reconnaissance of ice floes, scientific surveys, underwater demolition surveys, and convoy exercises.
In addition, in 1947, the U.S. successfully lobbied for the inclusion of what Washington called the American Quadrant, 24° W to 90° W, as part of the security zone covered by the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance.
The treaty obligated its signatories to defend a treaty member under attack. This Hemispheric Defense doctrine stipulated that “an attack on one party would be considered an attack against all.” Including an Antarctic territory stopped short of outright annexation, but it was a powerful signal of American intentions.
Multiple countries build bases
The American show of force in the Antarctic precipitated counter-responses from other claimants. In 1947, the Chilean Antarctic Expedition was organized by the Chilean government and military to strengthen Chile’s Antarctic claims. On Feb. 18, 1948, the expedition established Base General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme on the Antarctic Peninsula at Cape Legoupil. The Chilean military still operates the base. It has one of the longest records of continuous habitation among Antarctic bases.
In 1948, Argentina dispatched a flotilla of eight warships into Antarctic waters. It also established a manned base at Hope Bay at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The British had maintained a research station at Hope Bay before World War II. During Operation Tamarin, Britain intended to land soldiers there but was prevented by ice conditions. The facility had burned down in 1948, leading Argentina to construct its station a few hundred meters away.
In February 1952, the survey ship John Biscoe arrived with equipment and stores to rebuild the British station and a contingent of troops to man it.
When the landing party from the John Biscoe landed, Argentine soldiers fired machine guns over their heads, forcing the shore party to retreat. The ship subsequently returned to the Falkland Islands.
Contrary to his orders from the British Foreign Office, the governor of the Falkland Islands, Sir Geoffrey Miles Clifford, boarded the frigate HMS Burghead Bay and, along with a detachment of Royal Marines, escorted the John Biscoe back to Hope Bay. The arrival of the Burghead Bay caused the Argentinians to retreat, and the British base was re-established. Argentina subsequently apologized for the incident blaming the Argentine commander for exceeding his authority.
A similar incident occurred in 1953. On Jan. 17, Argentina reopened the Lasala Station on Deception Island, deploying two officers from the Argentine Navy to man the facility. On Feb. 15, thirty-two royal marines from the Frigate HMS Snipe landed on the island and captured the two Argentinians. They were subsequently repatriated.
In 1949, Argentina, Chile, and Great Britain signed the Tripartite Naval Declaration committing the signatories to refrain from deploying warships south of 60° S. The agreement continued until 1961 when the Antarctic Treaty made it redundant. Technically, the dispatch of Burghead Bay to Hope Bay and Snipe to Deception Island violated that agreement by Great Britain.
Subsequent expeditions were launched between 1949-56 by countries that had made claims on Antarctic territory. While all these expeditions were ostensibly to conduct scientific research, the activity and the presence of personnel from those countries, along with the collection of cartographic information, also strengthened each country’s territorial claims should those claims ever be adjudicated.
A French expedition, the fifth French expedition to the continent, led by Michel Barre on the vessel Commandant Charcot, visited Adelie Land, Macquarie Island, and the Belleny Islands between 1949-50. Twelve members of the expedition and 28 dogs were put ashore at Adelie Land, where they spent a year doing weather and astronomical research.
In 1949, a privately financed, joint Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic expedition was dispatched to Antarctica to conduct climate-related research. Scientists on the expedition were the first to confirm that the Antarctic ice sheet controlled global sea levels.
The study also confirmed that the Antarctic continent had been joined to South Africa until at least the late Jurassic period. Early evidence for what would eventually become the theory of plate tectonics. The expedition established the Maudheim base on the Quar Ice Shelf along the coast of Queen Maud Land. It was maintained till 1952. The expedition also conducted extensive cartographic research.
Two years later, Australia established the Mawson Station in Holme Bay in MacRobertson Land in the Australian Antarctic Territory.
International activity in the Antarctic continued to increase sharply in anticipation of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), a collaborative effort among 66 nations to carry out scientific research on earth sciences from July 1, 1957, to Dec. 31, 1958.
Chile and Argentina insisted that participation in the IGY could not give rise to potential claims for Antarctic territory. While the program was not restricted to Antarctica, the region figured prominently in the initiative. It provided the impetus for the U.S. Navy’s Operation Deep Freeze I.
The U.S. Navy organized Task Force 43 to support U.S. scientists working in Antarctica as part of the IGY. Unlike past task forces, this expedition did not include any warships. The task force consisted of three icebreakers, three freighters, and a gasoline tanker. The U.S. landed an R4D Skytrain, a modified Douglas DC-3, on the South Pole during the IGY. This was the beginning of the first permanent U.S. base there.
The Deep Freeze operation would evolve into U.S. Naval Support Antarctica, tasked with the yearly resupply of the U.S. bases there. Successive Deep Freeze operations continued under Navy auspices until 1999, when they were transferred to the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard stationed at the Stratton Air National Guard Base at Schenectady, New York.
USSR made 36 Antarctic expeditions
The First Soviet Antarctic Expedition was carried out from 1955-57. It was the first of what would eventually be 36 Soviet Antarctic expeditions. The first expedition was tasked with establishing a permanent Soviet base in Antarctica and identifying sites for other bases.
Notwithstanding its actions to strengthen its claims on Antarctic territory, the U.S. was also concerned that the continent would become a new arena of Cold War rivalry between the U.S. and the USSR. In 1948, the U.S. proposed that United Nations officials supervise Antarctica. That proposal was rejected, however, by Australia, Chile, Argentina, France, and Norway.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union advised the U.S. that it would not accept any agreement concerning Antarctica unless it were represented in the negotiations. Concerns that a formal U.S. claim of Antarctic territory would precipitate a similar claim by the Soviet Union also played a role in U.S. plans for the continent.
In 1958, the Eisenhower Administration convened an Antarctic Conference of the 12 countries active there. The group met from June 1958-October 1959, over a total of 60 sessions, but could not agree on a preliminary draft.
A second conference was held from Oct. 15-Dec. 1, 1959, which succeeded in producing a treaty. The Antarctic Treaty was the first arms control agreement that occurred during the Cold War. It prevented the militarization of Antarctica or weapons testing there, both nuclear and conventional, although it did permit the use of military forces for logistics functions.
Since then, the signatories to the Antarctic Treaty have abided by its general terms. Although military officers have rotated through the bases in administrative or scientific roles, no military forces are stationed on the continent, save for a token number charged with security and police duties. Likewise, no significant military equipment besides equipment with potential dual use in both civilian and military roles has been deployed.
No battles have been fought, but Antarctica home to political posturing
The People’s Republic of China is a recent entry to Antarctic affairs. China signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1983 and became a Treaty Consultative Party in 1985. Beijing’s first Antarctic research expedition was launched on Nov. 20, 1984. It led to the establishment of China’s first Antarctic research station: the Great Wall Station, on Feb. 20, 1985.
Since then, China has built and operated three more stations, Zhongshan Station (1989) in the Laresmann Hills, East Antarctica; the Kunlun Station (2009), a summer station located on Dome A, the highest point in Antarctica; and the Taishan Camp (2014) situated on Princess Elizabeth Land. It has also conducted 35 additional Antarctic research expeditions. A fifth station, on Inexpressible Island, in Terra Nova Bay, became operational in 2022.
As I pointed out in my opening remarks, to speak of the military history of Antarctica is something of a misnomer. No battles have ever been fought there, much less any wars. What military skirmishes have occurred, a half dozen at most, did not progress beyond military posturing and did not result in any loss of life.
Beyond the occasional demonstration of military power, and even those have been few and far between, the direct deployment of military forces has not played a significant role in Antarctic history. However, the military power of some of the claimants, most notably the U.S. and Great Britain and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union, shaped the shadowboxing around the competing and overlapping claims.
Still, even if the immediate economic potential of the Antarctic continent, outside of its marine fisheries, remains uncertain, it is nonetheless significant that the debate over the disposition of conflicting land claims did not result in a repeat of the bloody colonial wars that marred the history of other continents. This was less a case of enlightenment than a reflection of the absence of an indigenous population and the fact that projecting military force in the harsh Antarctic environment was exceedingly difficult.
Notwithstanding advances in military technology, the Antarctic environment is no less harsh, and the difficulty of projecting military power remains a significant constraint to its use.
The Antarctic Treaty system avoided the potential of a military confrontation on the Antarctic continent. Continued adherence to its principal is the surest way of avoiding such conflicts in the future and the best way to ensure that the military history of Antarctica remains a misnomer.