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General Umberto Nobile returned a heroto Italy.
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To his Roman triumph,led by Benito Mussolini.
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Nobile's journey over the North Polewith Roald Amundsen...
:00:33
had thrilled the world in the year of 1926.
:00:39
But the laurels won by the handsome herodid not give him rest.
:00:42
He had seen the north,the vast, silent, frozen sea...
:00:46
unendurable, uninhabitable.
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Yet, for more than 2,000 years...
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explorers have been drawn northinto this mysterious whiteness...
:00:54
where man literally walks on water.
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Men with such namesas Makarov, Nansen, Amundsen.
:01:01
At last, in 1909, Robert E. Peary...
:01:05
the great American explorer,made a brilliant dash with dogs.
:01:08
Peary conquered the North Pole.
:01:11
There was a pause in Arctic exploration.
:01:13
The restless men turned to the Antarctic.
:01:16
Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole...
:01:18
December 14, 1911.
:01:21
Then came aircraft,and the excitement stirred again.
:01:24
This was Nobile's moment.
:01:26
Already an internationally known designerand flyer of airships...
:01:30
he planned the most dangerousof all air expeditions...
:01:34
to fly to the fury of the North Poleand to land there.
:01:37
Why? For reasons of science, certainly.
:01:40
But there was also the explorers'age-old reason or vanity...
:01:44
the desire to be first.
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General Nobile, has it been decided yet...
:01:48
which of your crewwill be the first to land...
:01:50
I mean put a foot on the North Pole?
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It has been decided.
:01:53
The first man to land from the airat the North Pole will be myself.
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I will be the first man.
:01:58
The Italian Navy provided Nobilewith a support ship, The City of Milan...
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