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Talk:Bernt Balchen

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bzuk (talk | contribs) at 21:01, 14 September 2010 (→Lead: cm). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

POV?

Removed the following:

(Balchen never brought the North Pole fraud up in public before his autobiography was published in 1958, upon which the Byrd family promptly had the pertinent part of the book censored.†)
    († Ever since the days of the expedition, The Byrds sabotaged any attempt by Balchen and others to make known these findings, which they stated were groundless allegations. Byrd intimidated Balchen on several occasions, and stopped his promotion to General of the U.S. Air Force.)

Without substantiation, this sounds like conspiracy theory. I've tried to make the remaining language more neutral. JHCC (talk) 17:55, 14 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Photo

Even here at 150 pixels it is showing aliasing on the sleeve. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 17:24, 11 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a reason you keep switching to the lowest resolution image, with the aliasing effect? --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 19:27, 20 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some editor bent on removing the other image has left no recourse, and since the original image had no copyright issues, it was substituted for the time being. See if you can get the better image documented, it certainly is a better looking photograph. FWIW Bzuk (talk) 19:35, 20 January 2008 (UTC).[reply]

Balchen served as a cavalryman in the Finnish Army against the Russians in World War I

Finland was a Russian grand duchy. There was no Finnish Army. Did Balchen fight on the White side in the Finnish Civil War? Luke 193.11.50.23 (talk) 15:21, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Luleå-Kallax Air Base in northern Sweden (set up for harassing and denying air superiority to Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe over Finland and occupied Norway)

somebody fix these:

Col. Balchen commanded Sondrestrom Air Base, code name Bluie West 8, now known as Kangerlussuaq. Qaanaaq is a village created in 1953 north of Thule, 600 miles north of BW-8. The German meteorological observatory bombed by Balchen in 1943 continued in operation from another site and was then repatriated for the season. It is not likely that the raid had any significant effect on German met data. Another German met station was set up in the fall as planned. It does not make sense to say that Kallax was set up to deny Luftwaffe air superiority. Sweden was neutral. Balchen's missions were transport and clandestine ops. It stretches credulity to assert that Balchen was prime mover in the establishment of Thule AB, although his help was appreciated. The section on DNL (Det Norske Luftfartselskab) is misleading. This company merged with the Danish and Swedish counterparts right after the war to form SAS. The best source for Balchen is Carroll Glines' biography of him. The list of books should also mention "War below Zero" written with La Farge. 75.164.40.206 (talk) 03:45, 15 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

somebody fix these:

Col. Balchen commanded Sondrestrom Air Base, code name Bluie West 8, now known as Kangerlussuaq. Qaanaaq is a village created in 1953 north of Thule, 600 miles north of BW-8. The German meteorological observatory bombed by Balchen in 1943 continued in operation from another site and was then repatriated for the season. It is not likely that the raid had any significant effect on German met data. Another German met station was set up in the fall as planned. It does not make sense to say that Kallax was set up to deny Luftwaffe air superiority. Sweden was neutral. Balchen's missions were transport and clandestine ops. It stretches credulity to assert that Balchen was prime mover in the establishment of Thule AB, although his help was appreciated. The section on DNL (Det Norske Luftfartselskab) is misleading. This company merged with the Danish and Swedish counterparts right after the war to form SAS. The best source for Balchen is Carroll Glines' biography of him. The list of books should also mention "War below Zero" written with La Farge. 75.164.40.206 (talk) 03:47, 15 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Little Norway, and more...lots to do here

  • Balchen was not responsible for setting up Little Norway. He may have been helpful with contacts, seems like he had lots of those, but not responsible. The reference leads to a web page with no mention of him being responsible for that, in fact no mention of Balchen at all. Right now I can't find anything at all suggesting he was at all instrumental in starting up Little Norway.
  • He didn't run the Kallax base (a colonel named von Porat did that). He was put in charge of Operation Where and When, based at Kallax. Using ten C-47s, the operation ferried police troops (Norwegian refugees trained in Sweden) from Sweden to Finnmark, as well as ammo and life necessities like balls of hay and fodder for live stock to areas in the north of Sweden and Norway, once even paradropping a hospital complete with a doc and a nurse. The leading Norwegian WWII ace Sven Heglund was acting military attaché and served with Balchen and talks about this in his book Høk over høk.
  • Operation Balder was the operation using six B-24s manned with OSS crews, ferrying some 2000 Norwegians, a number of downed US airmen and other refugees out of Sweden, as well as dropping equipment to the resistance. Same source.
  • The Norwegian/British programme, Stockholmsruten (The Stockholm Route), using Lodestars posing as BOAC machines, couldn't get enough refugees moved, so Balder (or "Ve do it", as it was sometimes called, as a friendly rib of Balchen's English prononciation) was put into effect in 1943. Same source.
  • Heyerdahl didn't serve under Balchen. Heyerdahl was a radio officer with the police troops being transported by Where and When. Paaln (talk) 23:55, 9 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Good points, please feel free to change the article. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 01:25, 10 September 2010 (UTC) However, even a cursory check of sources reveals that Balchen was involved in the set-up of Little Norway, see National Aviation Hall of Fame citation. Bzuk (talk) 01:34, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yet, while reading books that deals with the conception and opening of the camp in great detail, one is hard pushed to find details about what he actually did. "Responsible for" is taking a lot away from people like Øen, Riiser-Larsen, Bull, Motzfeldt, Hertzberg and others (Reistad of course was important too, but not mentioned because he came later, when it was somewhat up and running...). “Involved with”, ok, "helping with", fine, but "responsible" is such a big word. So I stick to my belief that he helped alot just being Balchen, with all his contacts in high places to get things done when they needed be done. Heck, I'm Norwegian, I'm as proud of the guy as the next Olav, but sometimes I wonder if some Chuck Norris-jokes would have been Bernt Balchen-jokes if he had been around now (Bernt Balchen can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.)... Paaln (talk) 16:24, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Perfectly reasonable points, and the statement is altered to reflect his involvement rather than an embellishment of his role. However, I am puzzled by the last comments above. As far as I can make out, Balchen was an exemplary leader, expert flyer and well-respected in his lifetime and beyond. Am I wrong? FWiW, his book on the Greenland mission does not come across as self-serving. Bzuk (talk) 17:30, 10 September 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Sorry, I guess you are right, it was just me being silly, and I may have misunderstood those "Chuck Norris facts" jokes. I just got this feeling from reading through the article a couple of times, Was there anything this guy couldn't do?... Paaln (talk) 19:52, 10 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
After reading Glines' very authoritative biography on Balchen, I have revised the section on "Little Norway" as his unique combination of dual citizenship and military background led to a specific mission to set up the training base. Balchen negotiated directly with Canadian officials to obtain permission to build the training base. After work had started, other Norwegian military staff took over with Col. Oscar Klingenberg chosen to head the training schools and Georg Unger Vetlesen and Thor Solberg able to deal with US aircraft manufacturers handling the procurement orders for military equipment. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 13:20, 14 September 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Lead

After the war, Balchen continued to be an influential leader with the U.S. Air Force, as well as a highly-regarded private consultant in aviation. does not seem to be supported by text in the main body of the article, looks like opinion. MilborneOne (talk) 19:10, 14 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What about this statement(s): "After retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 1956, Col. Balchen continued to serve the (U.S.) Air Force on special assignments and aviation and energy industries as a consultant. In his native Norway, Balchen was a driving force in the establishment of Det Norske Luftfartselskap (D.N.L.) ("The Norwegian Airline Company"), with which he pioneered commercial Europe↔US airline flights across the North Pole. D.N.L. later merged with Danish and Swedish airlines into the major carrier Scandinavian Airlines.

Balchen continued to work in consultancy until his death in 1973 at Mount Kisco, New York."

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