“Operation Muskox was the largest military exercise ever held in the Canadian Arctic and the fourth of four military expeditions held in the region in the 1940s. The previous three, Eskimo, Polar Bear and Lemming, had been on a far smaller scale in terms of personnel, equipment, and the sheer distance travelled.”
From the description of the Operation on the Arctic Institute of North America website at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/arcticexpedition/muskox
A pre-cursor to Musk Ox was Operation Lemming – details at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/arcticexpedition/lemming
A thesis, critical of Musk Ox, was prepared by Kevin Mendel Thrasher at Carleton University in 1998 – it is available at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0003/MQ32383.pdf
Abstract: This thesis examines, in detail, the Canadian Army Winter Exercise Musk Ox which travelled across nearly the entire Canadian Arctic in 1946. Musk Ox marked the first attempt at crossing the northern latitudes by vehicle, and was designed as a non-tactical exercise to test the soundness of military equipment and its application to peace time pursuits. While the peaceful exploration of the Arctic was an admirable goal, Musk Ox was not the proper vehicle to promote it. The scientific and Military (and indeed political) potential of the exercise was not fully exploited and in the end, Musk Ox yielded only limited results.