Loose Cannon is proud to preserve the USA's military history via its unique DVD film collections. Using a combination of U.S. Dept. of Defense archive films, combat footage, and period newsreels of the time, each film features actual wartime footage and or first-person accounts from those that were there.

This disc features several films about U.S. Military operations in Antarctica after WWII. Of special interest are two extremely rare films documenting Operation HIGHJUMP in 1947. This was one of the largest post-war military operations ever sent to this region of the globe. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and 33 aircraft. Its objectives were:

1. Training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions;

2. Consolidating and extending the United States' sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent (publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended)

3. Determining the feasibility of establishing, maintaining, and utilizing bases in the Antarctic and investigating possible base sites;

4. Developing techniques for establishing, maintaining, and utilizing air bases on ice, with particular attention to later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland, where conditions are comparable to those in the Antarctic

5. Amplifying existing stores of knowledge of electromagnetic, geological, geographic, hydrographic, and meteorological propagation conditions in the area.

*** ALSO on this disc (as a digitized document) is the declassified 1947 U.S. Navy 'Operation HIGHJUMP Official Report', containing over 530 pages of details, maps, charts and in-depth details of all aspects of this historic expedition. These materials have only become publiclly available a few years ago thanks to Freedom-of-Information requests.

The disc contains the following four movies:

- The Secret Land
The very-hard-to-find full-length documentary, which won the 1948 Academy Award for 'Best Documentary Feature'. It documents a large Antarctic expedition, "Operation Highjump". This movie was filmed almost entirely by military photographers, recounts the U.S. Navy's 1946-47 expedition to Antarctica, known as Operation High Jump. The expedition was under the overall command of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, no stranger to the Antarctic. This was a large undertaking involving 13 ships and over 4000 thousand men. The film is narrated by three Hollywood stars, all of whom served in the US Navy: Robert Taylor, Robert Montgomery and Van Heflin. (1 hr. 9 min) Color

- Army-Navy Screen Magazine series (No. 85)
In this film viewers are treated to a short documentary on the U.S. Navy’s previous explorations and the Antarctic expedition Operation Highjump, a 1946-1947 mission to Antarctica to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV, assess the feasibility of maintaining a permanent base, and further American understanding of the continent. Has some great footage not seen in "The Secret Land" film. (16 min) B&W

- OPERATION DEEP FREEZE I
Operation Deep Freeze is the codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", etc. Given the continuing and constant US presence in Antarctica since that date, "Operation Deep Freeze" has come to be used as a general term for US operations in that continent, and in particular for the regular missions to resupply US Antarctic bases, coordinated by the United States military. The impetus behind Operation Deep Freeze I was the International Geophysical Year 1957–58. IGY as it was known was a collaborative effort among forty nations to carry out earth science studies from the North Pole to the South Pole and at points in between. It paved the way for all future U.S. Antarctic research and explorations efforts that continue to this day. (22 min)

- SEABEES IN THE ANTARCTIC (1959)
Beginning in 1955, Seabees began deploying yearly to the continent of Antarctica. As participants in Operation Deep Freeze, their mission was to build and expand scientific bases located on the frozen continent. The first "wintering over" party included 200 Seabees who distinguished themselves by constructing a 6,000-foot ice runway on McMurdo Sound. Despite a blizzard that once destroyed the entire project, the airstrip was completed in time for the advance party of Deep Freeze II to become the first to arrive at the South Pole by plane. Over the following years and under adverse conditions, Seabees added to their list of accomplishments such things as snow-compacted roads, underground storage, laboratories, and living areas. (19 min)