Arctic Operational Histories 

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Adam Lajeunesse with Lieutenant(N) Jason Delaney 

The HMCS Labrador was Canada’s first heavy icebreaker and the Royal Canadian Navy’s first vessel capable of reliably operating in the waters of the Arctic. For three seasons in the mid-1950s, the ship served as Canada’s workhorse in the Far North –charting sea lanes, conducting research, and aiding in the construction and supply of joint defence projects. As the Canadian Navy builds the capacity to sustain its modern Arctic presence, the early operations of HMCS Labrador offer an instructive history and a fascinating glimpse back into the RCN’s early forays into the frozen waters of the Canadian North.

By Edward P. Wood

​Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Adam Lajeunesse

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Edward P. Wood’s pioneering history, published here for the first time, offers valuable insights into the pivotal role that the Royal Canadian Air Force played in the opening of the Canadian North from the 1920s to the late 1940s. Filled with interesting first-person accounts of Arctic operations and rich descriptions of Arctic landscapes, Per Ardua Ad Arcticum is a valuable resource for scholars, military personnel, aviation enthusiasts, and general readers who want to learn more about the early history of the RCAF and aviation in the Canadian North.

Edited and Introduced by Ryan Dean and
P. Whitney Lackenbauer

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Cosmos 954, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite launched in Kazakhstan in September 1977, re-entered the earth’s atmosphere in the early morning hours of 24 January 1978. e United States, which had mobilized its nuclear emergency response team (NEST) in early January, and Canada, which activated its Nuclear Accident Support Team (NAST) on 20 January, responded. Their search activities, under the designation “Operation Morning Light,” determined that radioactive satellite debris had survived re-entry and reached the ground. Their subsequent clean-up operations sought to safeguard the welfare of Northern Canadians living in the affected area. By critically evaluating the methods, equipment, and personnel employed during Morning Light, this recently declassified military report – published for the first time – explains how the combination of civilian scientific expertise with military capabilities succeeded in overcoming large distances across a frigid, subarctic environment to effectively locate and recover the radioactive remnants of Cosmos 954.

By Don MacNeil

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From 1955 to 1957 HMCS Labrador was the Canadian government’s most visible presence in the Arctic. Commissioned at a time when the region was at the forefront of continental defence, the naval icebreaker worked with American partners to establish defence facilities, survey shipping routes, and show the flag in an area of growing strategic importance. A critical and often unsung element in Labrador’s success was the embarked helicopters. By spotting leads, moving people and cargo, and surveying routes, these aircraft enhanced the ship’s effectiveness, range, and impact. This volume is a collection of those flight logs. It provides a documentary snapshot of early icebreaking and helicopter operations in the Far North and provides researchers with new tools to study Arctic defence and navigation at a critical juncture of the early Cold War.

By John Lauder

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert

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Between February and May 1946, the Canadian military tested its ability to move a small force across the Arctic in Exercise Musk Ox–an epic 3200-mile journey from Churchill, north to Cambridge Bay, and then back south to Edmonton, through unmapped territory, blizzards, spring floods, mud and dust storms. The exercise represented the first attempt to use motorized land vehicles to traverse Canada’s High Arctic and it required the largest aerial resupply effort ever attempted in the country up to that point. In Tracks North: The Story of Exercise Musk Ox, John Lauder –who served as a meteorologist at Churchill and Norman Wells during the exercise –narrates the endeavour from the extensive planning and preparation it required, to the preliminary winter training undertaken by the expedition members, their long journey through the North, and the massive amount of logistical support required by the small moving force. In telling the story of Musk Ox, Lauder captures the challenges experienced at every stage of the exercise –and the improvisation and innovation required to overcome them.

By A.G. Lester
Edited and Introduced by Jeff Noakes and P. Whitney Lackenbauer

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Special Contract tells the story of Bell Canada’s involvement in the construction of the Mid-Canada Line (also known as the McGill Fence), a series of radar stations running along the 55thparallelto provide early warning of a Soviet bomber attack on North America. Written by Alex Lester, a self-made engineer who headed Bell’s Special Contract Division that oversaw the building of the line during the mid-1950s, it details the project from the tropospheric scatter system that linked the sites to the completion of the microwave towers and stations dotting the mid-Canadian landscape. This important account provides unique insights into the political, logistical, and construction challenges involved in building a radar and communication systemin remote Northern locations.

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Shelaga Grant​

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“The Adventurous Voyage” tells the story of the RCMP schooner’s famous transits through the Northwest Passages during the Second World War. This volume reproduces three important documents offering diverse perspectives on the wartime voyages. Skipper Henry Asbjørn Larsen Larsen’s official report provides a succinct overview of the routes taken by the ship as well as valuable descriptions of the experiences of the crews, their activities while over-wintering in the Arctic, and relationships with Inuit. Geographer J. Lewis Robinson of the Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs situates the ship’s “conquest of the Northwest Passage” in the history of exploration of the fabled waterway. Finally, Joe Panipakuttuk recounts his story as an Inuk who embarked on St. Rochwith his family at Pond Inlet for its 1944 voyage to Herschel Island and returned to his community by schooner and sled over the next two years. An introduction, written by two of Canada’s leading historians of the Arctic, situates these narratives in historical context.

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Adam Lajeunesse

Fifty years ago, the American icebreaking supertanker Manhattan tested the waters of Canada’s Northwest Passage. During its epic 1969 transit, Manhattan’s task was to determine the feasibility of shipping oil from newly-discovered fields of the North Slope of Alaska to North America’s Eastern Seaboard. In so doing, the massive vessel raised pivotal questions about safe navigation, sovereignty, and environmental protection, prompting new discussions about Arctic political and economic development. 

Often told from the vantage point of the politicians and diplomats involved, the Manhattan’s story was also one of an integrated Canadian-American expedition dedicated to cooperative exploration and in-novation. This volume publishes the reports of Lieutenant Commander Erling Stolee, the Royal Canadian Navy’s observer aboard Manhattan’s two Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker escorts – CCGS John A. MacDonald and Louis St. Laurent – which offer detailed, first-hand accounts of Canadian contributions to the test voyages.

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Grace Chapnik

To assert sovereignty over Canada’s northern territories, the federal government initiated an annual patrol to the eastern Arctic to establish and maintain police posts. The first patrol in 1922, led by civil servant J.D. Craig with master mariner Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier at the helm of CGS Arctic, carried Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables and various technical staff into the Arctic Archipelago. The firsthand accounts in this volume offer poignant insights into the expedition, narrating what happened from various perspectives as well as revealing the values, ideas, and goals of these men in their own words.

By Julian Tomlinson and P. Whitney Lackenbauer

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In 2002, Canadian Rangers undertook one of the most ambitious patrols in their proud history. Often lauded as the “eyes and ears” of the Canadian Armed Forces in the Canadian North, the Rangers set their sights on the Magnetic North Pole. Operation Kigiliqaqvik Ranger, named after the Inuktitut word for “the place at the edge of known land,” covered more than 1,600 kilometres of rough sea ice, pressure ridges, rocky river valleys, and breathtaking expanses of tundra. Each Ranger on the patrol drove a snowmachine that pulled a sixteen-foot komatik(sled) laden with up to 675 kilograms of supplies. As this volume reveals in stories, photographs, diary excerpts, and newspaper articles, the Rangers endured wind chill temperatures below minus fifty degrees Celsius, near whiteout conditions, and twenty-four-hour sunlight. This volume celebrates their collective achievements and highlights the mental and physical toughness, perseverance, and esprit de corps required of participants in Arctic military operations.

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer

In the fall of 1947, Canadian Armed Forces personnel completed a heroic mercy mission in the Canadian High Arctic. Operation CANON involved Anglican missionary John Hudspith (Jack) Turner, who had been seriously injured in a firearms accident at his remote outpost at Moffet Inlet, Baffin Island. The documents in this volume provide detailed insights into this remarkable story of perseverance and courage, revealing logistical and environmental challenges of deploying and sustaining personnel to and in the High Arctic.

Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Adam Lajeunesse

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This volume publishes Captain Paul Fournier’s observations from the deck of Canadian Coast Guardship John A. MacDonald on its historic September-November 1969 voyage accompanying SS Manhattan through the Northwest Passage.

Forthcoming

Forthcoming