German Arctic weather stations during World War II. The last soldiers of the Wehrmacht.
In addition to manned stations, the Kriegsmarine's meteorological service used automatic land-based and floating weather stations, primarily deployed by submarines and, less frequently, by weather ships (WBS). In total, from 1942 to 1944, at least 13 WFL (Wetterfunkgerät Land) stations were used in the North Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Åland Islands.
Wetterfunkgerät Land device: M (right) - wind sensor and nickel-cadmium batteries; M (left) - 10-meter antenna, temperature and atmospheric pressure sensors; F - 150-watt transmitter; B - lead-acid batteries
The station was designed by Drs. Ernst Ploetze and Edwin Stoebe and manufactured by Siemens. It consisted of ten cylindrical containers, each 1 meter high, 47,5 cm in diameter, and weighing 100 kg. A 10-meter-tall antenna was used for data transmission. The station had temperature, wind speed, and wind direction sensors. Nickel-cadmium batteries powered the station, allowing it to operate for at least six months. Information was transmitted every three hours in two-minute bursts using a Lorenz 150 FK transmitter with a power output of 150 watts. Only 26 of these stations were produced.
Stations were installed on Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, the islands of Magerøya (northern Norway), Jan Mayen, Bear Island, the Labrador Peninsula, and the Åland Islands.
Automatic weather stations of the WFL Kriegsmarine:
• Gustav, WFL 21 was installed on September 7, 1942 on Spitsbergen to replace the evacuated Knospe weather station.
• Edwin, WFL 22 was installed on December 2, 1942 on Bear Island, and on April 18, 1943, it was replaced by station Edwin II (WFL 23), delivered by weather ship WBS 2.
• Robert, WFL 24 was delivered to Bear Island on July 9, 1943 by submarine U-629 to replace Edwin II.
• Gerhard, WFL 25 was delivered by the submarine U-703 and installed on August 22, 1943 at Mys Pinegina, the southern entrance cape to Inostrantsev Bay, located on the west coast of Severny Island of Novaya Zemlya.
• Kurt, WFL 26 located by U-537 on the Labrador Peninsula on 23 October 1943.
• Dietrich, WFL 27 was installed by U-355 on September 7, 1943 on Bear Island.
• Christian, WFL 29 was located by U-713 on Bear Island on December 6, 1943.
• Hermann, WFL 34 was installed on June 17, 1944 on Bear Island by boat U-737.
• Edwin III, WFL 33 was installed on June 30, 1944 in Spitsbergen.
• Herbert, WFL 30 was supposed to be assigned to U-867 in Labrador, but the boat was sunk on the way.
• Walter, WFL 31 was installed on September 25, 1944 by U-992 on Jan Mayen Island.
• Erich, WFL 32 was planned to be installed on Franz Josef Land, but due to difficult ice conditions in this area, the crew of U-387 installed the station on October 15, 1944, at Cape Medvezhiy, located north of the entrance to Inostrantsev Bay (Northern Island of Novaya Zemlya).
• Wilhelm, WFL 36 was installed on November 11, 1944 by the crew of U-1163 on the island of Magerøya (northern Norway).
• Landjäger, WFL 35 was installed on 22 November 1944 in the Åland Islands.
The remains of the WFL 25 “Gerhardt” weather station on Novaya Zemlya
The floating automatic weather stations WFS (Wetterfunkgerät-See) were developed by Siemens und Schukert in 1940 and began to be delivered to fleet In 1942, the station was a 7-meter-long, 0,52-meter-diameter cylinder weighing 1500 kg. It could be anchored at sea depths of up to 300 meters (according to other sources, up to 1800 m). Weather data (air and water temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity) were transmitted four times daily via a 12-meter-tall radio antenna using an Lo150FK41a (3-12 MHz) transmitter with a power of 150 watts. The station's estimated operational life was 10 weeks; after depleting its batteries, it self-destructed. A total of 13 WFSs were installed.
Wetterfunkgerät-See device
Radio transmitter of the Wetterfunkgerät-See station
Loading the weather station WFS 106 on board the U-703
The station's cylindrical section was housed in a deck container for spare torpedoes for transportation, the anchor was on the upper deck, and the antenna section was in the forward torpedo compartment. The WFS could be installed in sea state conditions up to two, and the submarine could not submerge.
Automatic floating weather stations WFS of the Kriegsmarine
1. WFS 2 - 29.09.40 - U-103*
2. WFS 33 - 07/27/43 - U-156
3. WFS 22 - 07/27/43 - U-156
4. WFS B - 28.04.42 - U-159
5. WFS A - 29.04.42 - U-159
6. WFS - 24.08.42 - U-516
7. WFS - 30.08.42 - U-516
8. WFS - 31.10.42 - U-519
9. WFS 104 - 07/27/43 - U-519
10. WFS 112 - 07/27/43 - U-531
11. WFS - 26.06.43 - U-194**
12. WFS 106 - 07/27/43 - U-703
13. WFS 107 - 07/27/43 - U-703
14. WFS 133 - 09/10/44 - U-703**
15. WFS - 18.11.44 - U-1165
* - station testing
** - boats were sunk before the weather station was installed.
Locations for the installation of floating weather stations
Of particular interest is the WFL 26 Kurt station, the only German weather station installed on the American continent.
On September 18, 1943, the Type IXC submarine U-537 (commanded by Kapitänleutnant Peter Schrewe) departed Kiel with WFL 26 Kurt and two meteorologists on board, heading for the coast of Labrador. While crossing the Atlantic, the submarine encountered a severe storm and suffered serious damage, rendering it unable to submerge. Its quadruple 20mm anti-aircraft mount was torn from its foundations and washed overboard.
Nevertheless, on October 22, U-537 entered Martin Bay off the northern coast of Labrador and dropped anchor. Meteorologists, assisted by 10 of the submarine's crew, began setting up a weather station and posted sentries on nearby hills. The remaining submariners began repairing the submarine.
U-537 in Martin Bay, Labrador
To camouflage the station, the inscription "Canadian Meteor Service" was painted on its containers, and empty American cigarette packs were scattered around. After 28 hours of nonstop, intense labor, the station's installation and submarine repairs were completed, and U-537 set out on a combat patrol in the Grand Banks area of Newfoundland. She returned to base only on December 8, after 70 days at sea.
For unknown reasons, radio contact with "Kurt" was lost after just a month. In 1977, Canadian geomorphologist Peter Johnson, having discovered WFL 26, assumed it was Canadian military equipment and named it "Martin Bay 7." At the same time, former Siemens engineer Franz Zelinger, while working on a book about stories The firm discovered documents related to the Kurt Station. Zelinger informed the Canadian Department of National Defence of its location, and a search party discovered the station in 1981. It is currently on display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
Automatic weather station WFL 26 Kurt
Another surviving automatic weather station is WFL 33 "Edwin III," deployed by the submarine U-737 on the northern coast of Spitsbergen on July 1, 1944. Its last weather data were received in May 1945, meaning the station operated for a full 11 months. It was discovered in 1982 and is now on display at the Forsvarsmuseum in Oslo.
The Luftwaffe also had its own automatic weather stations (type "Kröte"). On October 13, 1942, after two unsuccessful attempts, the Air Force Meteorological Service installed such a weather station on Mezhdusharsky Island in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It was designed by military engineer F. Wolfe.
Four parachutists, including the station's designer, assembled and launched it. But "Kröte" only operated satisfactorily for two weeks.
German weather stations on Svalbard
The last Wehrmacht soldiers to lay down their lives weapon On September 4, 1945, there was a meteorological group “Haudegen” (chief - Lieutenant Wilhelm Dege).
Wilhelm Dege on Spitsbergen
Many still believe that the last soldiers of the Third Reich were the U-boat crews of U-977, who surrendered in Argentina on August 17, 1945, and who are persistently credited with delivering Hitler and Eva Braun there. Now you see that this is not true.
Wilhelm Dege (1910–1979) was a truly remarkable figure: writer, educator, geographer, geologist, and university professor. After graduating from the Pedagogical Academy in 1931, he undertook expeditions to Spitsbergen in 1935, 1936, and 1938, culminating in his defense of his doctoral dissertation in 1939.
In 1940 he was called up for military service and, being an expert in Norway and its language, served in the navy. artillery military translator until 1943. In the summer of 1944, as an expert on Spitsbergen, he was appointed commander of the meteorological group (Operation “Haudegen”).
On September 10, 1944, the weather ship WBS 3 "Carl J. Busch" with 11 members of the "Haudegen" party, accompanied by the submarine U-307, left the Norwegian port of Hammerfest and headed for the shores of Spitsbergen.
The ship carried 80 tons of equipment, food, weapons, and other supplies, including the Knoespel-Würfel and 7 tons of coal for heating and cooking. Provisions were loaded to last for two years: 1,4 kg (6000 kcal) per person per day.
To defend against enemy attacks, protect against polar bears, and hunt, the polar explorers were equipped with a substantial arsenal of weapons and ammunition:
• 2 machine guns
• 4 Gewehr 43 self-loading carbines
• 8 Mauser Modell 98k carbines, two of which had optical sights and one had a rifle grenade launcher
• 4 MP-40 submachine guns
• 19 pistols and revolvers
• 1 flare gun
• 3 hunting rifles
• 1 small-caliber rifle
• 19,500 rounds of 7,92×57mm ammunition for carbines and machine guns
• 12,480 rounds of 9×19mm ammunition for MP-40 and pistols
• 300 hand grenades
• 258 fragmentation rifle grenades
• 90 armor-piercing rifle grenades
• 45 smoke grenades
• 48 smoke bombs
• Dynamite.
The Germans' fears were not unfounded. Since May 1942, ski patrols of the Free Norwegian Armed Forces had been searching for enemy weather stations in the archipelago, and British aircraft and ships periodically conducted reconnaissance missions.
The station was located on the shore of Reipfjord in the north of Northeast Land (80°00' N, 22°20' E). It remains in relatively good condition to this day, the only one of six German weather stations that existed on Spitsbergen from 1941 to 1945.
Haudegen weather station
[Center]
[Center]
Haudegen station, modern view
From September 15, 1944 to September 5, 1945, Gaudegen personnel conducted regular meteorological observations, which included:
• Atmospheric pressure
• Air temperature (current, average daily, minimum and maximum)
• Relative humidity
• Visibility
• Weather type
• Wind direction and speed
• Cloudiness
• Precipitation
• Evaporation
• Temperature of the earth's surface (snow- and ice-free soil, snow, ice, or sea)
Meteorological data collection at the Haudegen station
These observations were made every three hours, regardless of temperatures that often dropped below -40 degrees Celsius, snowstorms that buried the explorers' cabin up to the roof, making it impossible to escape without digging a tunnel through the snow, and the polar night that lasted 126 days. They only ventured out in pairs, rifles at the ready—hungry bears roamed the area.
Haudegen station staff are opening an exit from a residential building.
Encrypted weather reports were sent three times a day to the Kriegsmarine radio station in Tromsø. After Germany's capitulation, the reports continued to be transmitted, but in plaintext.
In addition, 140 radiosondes were launched to altitudes of up to 11,500 meters to measure atmospheric pressure and temperature in the upper atmosphere. Pilot balloons were used in combination with these to determine wind direction at various altitudes. Between July 5 and September 3, 1945, when battery supplies ran out, only 16 pilot balloons were launched.
Launching a weather balloon at Haudegen station
Telefunken E 381S receiver, used to receive data from weather balloons and record it
Recording weather balloon readings
In their free time, the polar explorers hunted (they managed to kill six reindeer), played music (they formed an entire ensemble consisting of two accordions, a violin, a guitar, and a banjo), and Wilhelm Dege lectured on German literature, history, mathematics, and polar exploration. One day, they had to shoot an enraged female bear that had attacked them, and two orphaned cubs briefly brightened the winterers' days by quickly escaping to freedom.
The life of polar explorers at the Haudegen station
To protect against possible enemy attack, a minefield of homemade mines, detonated remotely by an electric circuit, was laid around the station. Using cracker cans, an emergency shelter was built some distance from the weather station, stocked with food, weapons, ammunition, and a radio. Several snow igloos were also constructed.
On April 24, 1945, the Luftwaffe asked the polar explorers to prepare a landing strip for two aircraft to evacuate the station. They quickly set up a makeshift runway, but... on May 8, an order was received to destroy classified documentation and equipment due to Germany's surrender. On May 9, a Soviet weather report was intercepted in plain text. It became clear that the war was over. After this, the winterers deactivated the minefield and detonated the mines along with the grenade supply.
Contact with the mainland was lost on May 24. However, the station's staff continued meteorological observations and conducted scientific research on the Northeastern Land.
The Lorenz Lo 40K39 radio station, used at weather stations
Eventually, one of the distress signals transmitted by the weather station on Allied radio frequencies was received by the Norwegians. On the night of September 3–4, a ship chartered by the Norwegian Ministry of Defense to evacuate the Germans arrived in the fjord near the weather station. Wilhelm Dege and the ship's captain signed the act of surrender of the last Wehrmacht unit. After spending three months in a prisoner-of-war camp, the polar explorers from the "Haudegen" weather station were finally able to return home.
Mutual support, dedication to duty and science, a sense of teamwork, knowledge, and optimism helped this team overcome difficult trials without losses. This despite the fact that their average age, excluding the commander and his deputy, was only 21.
Wilhelm Dege left behind a memoir about his Arctic adventures: "War Beyond 80 Degrees: The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II" (German and English editions).
Bibliography
1. Dege, Wilhelm. War North Of 80: The Last German Arctic Weather Station Of World War II. Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2004
2. Selinger, Franz. Meteorological Operations in the Arctic 1940-1945. Conference "War in the Arctic 1939-1945". Lomonosov PSU, Arkhangelsk, 2000
3. Jak P. Mallmann Showell. Swastikas in the Arctic: U-Boat Alley through the Frozen Hell. Fonthill Ltd, 2014
4. Menshikova, Marina. The Arctic during World War II: Three polar stations bring victory closer
5. Lüdecke, Cornelia. German Marine Weather Stations of World II at Spitsbergen
6. John A. Tilley. The Coast Guard & Greenland Patrol
7. Jens Fog Jensen. The Weather War: The German operation 'Bassgeiger' on Shannon Island 1943/44
8. Jens Fog Jensen, Tilo Krause, Bjarne Grønnow and Morten Hjorth. The German operation Bassgeiger on Shannon Island 1943/44: The “Battle of Weather” 2010. Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations. 16th Annual Report 2010. Aarhus University, DCE – Danish Center for Environment and Energy
9. https://dandadec.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/7-forecasting-and-world-war-ii.pdf
10. Frode Skarstein. “A cursed affair”—how a Norwegian expedition to Greenland became the USA's first maritime capture in World War II. Norwegian Polar Institute, Polar Environmental Centre, 2013
11. Heinrich Schatz. Die Katastrophe der “Coburg” im Eis vor Shannon am 18.-19. November 1943
12. Monika Schillat. A Visit to Haudegen Station on Nordaustlandet. The Weather War in Svalbard. http://monika-schillat.eu/texte/e_essays.pdf
13. Theodor Guispietsch. Hans-Robert Knoespel zum Gedächtnis
14. Rupert HolzapfeI. "Deutsche Polarforschung 1940/45"
15. Lüdecke, Cornelia. Historische Wetterstationen auf Spitzbergen - ein Besuch im Sommer 2000
16. Captain Jerry Mason, USN (ret.). U-boat Weather Reporting. Equipment – Automatic Stations Land/Sea – Manned Stations
17. Ruge, Friedrich. War at sea 1939-1945
18. Vekhov, Nikolai. War in the Soviet Arctic. Novaya Zemlya. Ural Pathfinder, May 2020
19. Other Internet resources
Information