and killed a polar bear. Blankenburg, who was also the station's cook, prepared a serving of steak tartare from the animal, which was consumed by all but one member of the station's crew. As Blankenburg had also been the one who had consumed the greatest amount of raw polar bear meat, he was the first to report pain in his legs and a high fever after a few days. Within a month, nine more members of the weather troupe fell ill, with the vegetarian paramedic Gerhard Hoffmann as the only exception. The Kriegsmarine's medical corps remotely attested trichinosis, and the evacuation of the operation was ordered immediately. Removal of the Schatzgräber weather troupe To adequately care for the sick troupe, staff surgeon Dr. Wendt of the Tromsø marine hospital was chosen. He was to fly in to the station and parachute from a Condor (registration: F8+RL), commanded by naval pilot Oberleutnant Stahnke, who had repeatedly flown parachute resupply missions for the station. The station's commander, Dr. Drees, however, gave conflicting feedback by radio, indicating that an evacuation was unnecessary. In spite of the order for immediate evacuation that was given very early in July, the mission started only on 7 July. On board the plane flown by Stahnke was Dr. Wendt, who had gone through a snap parachuting training; however, he was still looking forward to his first jump. Stahnke spared him this experience by bringing the Condor down on Alexandra Land, while damaging the landing gear. The Condor damaged, immediate evacuation was not an option and delusions of those fallen sick added to the difficulty of the situation. A BV 222 seaplane (registration: X4+BH) was sent from Biscarosse to Banak to aid in resupplying spare parts to repair the stranded aircraft. On 11 July the Condor landed with haphazardly-repaired landing gear in Trondheim, carrying all members of the Schatzgräber weather troupe. Removal of the leftover minefield To protect the weather station, a minefield had been laid out. However, it could not be removed during the evacuation procedure. When veterans learned in the 1950s that the Soviet Union had established a weather station on Alexandra Land of their own accord, they attempted to contact the Soviet leadership to submit the mines' positions, but their attempts were altogether ignored. Only in 1990, an expedition conducted by the Norwegian Polar Institute could secure and disarm the mines, building on the original maps