UMBERTO NOBILE AND THE ARCTIC SEARCH FOR THE AIRSHIP ITALIA

摘要

Fonthill Media Limited, Millview House, Toadsmoor Road, Stroud GL5 2TB, UK. 2017. 240pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-1-78155-629-0.Running to over 200 pages this ambitious book follows the life and times of Umberto Nobile - the Italian airship designer and pioneer- who undertook expeditions to the frozen Arctic.Italian influence and expansionism was on the rise under Mussolini and the National Fascist Party from 1922 and Nobile's two famous expeditions to the North Pole in 1926 and 1928 made significant contributions to polar knowledge and were seen as politically important in confirming the technological and academic prestige of the nation.The 1926 expedition involved three greats of Arctic exploration; Nobile, Lincoln Ellsworth and Roald Amundsen. Already well known in the field, Norwegian national hero Amundsen provided credibility and survival knowledge while Nobile and his airship Norge added an opportunity to reach and explore the region over a considerably shorter timescale than a surface expedition. Sadly, the second expedition by Nobile in the Italia in 1928 ended in tragedy. This book describes in considerable detail the circumstances, the rescue attempts and those lost in the process, including Amundsen and his party who dutifully joined the airborne rescue effort.