Weather Station Kurt
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Weather Station Kurt, officially Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26, was an automatic weather station erected by a German U-boat crew in Northern Labrador, Newfoundland in October 1943. The installation of Weather Station Kurt was the only armed German military operation on land in North America during the Second World War.
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[edit] Background
Weather in the Northern Hemisphere predominantly moves from west to east. This gave the Allies an important advantage. The Allied network of weather stations in North America, Greenland and Iceland provided data that allowed the Allies to make more accurate weather forecasts than the Germans. German meteorologists had only weather reports sent by weather ships and U-boats operating in the North Atlantic, reports from small clandestine weather stations in remote parts of the Arctic and readings collected over the Atlantic by specially equipped weather aircraft[1]. However, the ships and clandestine stations were easily captured by the Allies during the early part of the war. Data from aircraft was incomplete as they couldn't fly in bad weather. Regular weather reporting by U-boats put them at risk as it broke radio silence, allowing the Allies to locate them and track their movements by radio triangulation[1].
[edit] Development and Deployment
To help solve the problem of inadequate weather data, the Germans developed the Wetter-Funkgerät Land automatic weather station. The fully-automated station was designed by Dr. Ernest Ploetze and Edwin Stoebe and 26 were manufactured by Siemens[2]. The WFL had an array of measuring instruments, a Telemetry system and a 150 Watt, Lorenz 150 FK-type transmitter[3]. It consisted of 10 cylindrical canisters, each 1 metre (3.3 ft) by 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) and weighing around 100 kilograms (220 lb)[1]. One canister contained the instruments; it was attached to a 10-metre (33 ft) antenna mast[1]. A second, shorter mast carried an anemometer and wind vane. The other canisters contained Nickel-cadmium batteries [4] that powered the system. The WFL would broadcast weather readings every three hours during a two minute transmission on 3940 kHz[1].
Fourteen of these stations were deployed in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions (Greenland, Bear Island, Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land) and five were placed around the Barents Sea. Two were intended for North America. One was deployed in 1943 by the U-boat U-537, but the submarine carrying the other - U-867 - was sunk in September 1944 on its way across the Atlantic[1].
On September 18th, 1943, U-537, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Peter Schrewe, departed from Kiel, Germany on her first combat patrol. It carried WFL-26, codenamed "Kurt", a meteorologist, Dr Kurt Sommermeyer, and his assistant, Walter Hildebrant[1]. En-route, the U-boat was caught in a storm and a large breaker produced significant damage, this included leaks in the hull and the submarine's quadruple anti-aircraft cannon being ripped off, leaving it defenseless on the surface against Allied aircraft.
On October 22nd, the U-537 arrived at Martin Bay in Northern Labrador, at a position 60°4′30″N 64°23′36″W / 60.075°N 64.39333°W[3]. This is close to Cape Chidley at the north-eastern tip of the Labrador Peninsula. Schrewe selected a site as far north as possible as he believed this would minimize the chance of the station being discovered by Inuit people[1]. Within an hour of dropping anchor a scouting party had located a suitable site and soon after Dr Sommermeyer, his assistant and ten sailors disembarked to install the station. Armed look-outs were posted on nearby high ground and other members of the crew set to repairing the submarine's storm damage[1].
For concealment, the station was camouflaged. It was marked as the property of the non-existent "Canadian Weather Service" and empty American cigarette packets were left around the site, to help deceive any Allied personnel that chanced upon it[1]. The crew worked through the night to install Kurt and repair their U-boat. They finished just 28 hours after dropping anchor[1] and, after confirming the station was working, U-537 departed. It undertook a combat patrol in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland during which it survived three attacks by Canadian aircraft[5], but sank no ships. The submarine reached port at Lorient, France on December 8[2]. However, the station it left behind only broadcast for a few days before falling silent.
[edit] Rediscovery
The station was forgotten for many years, until the late late 1970s, when a retired Siemens engineer named Franz Selinger, who was writing a history of the company, went through Sommermeyer's papers and learned of the station's existence[2]. He contacted Canadian Department of National Defence historian W.A.B. Douglas, who went to the site with a team in 1981 and found the station still largely intact. Weather Station Kurt was brought to Ottawa and is now on display at the Canadian War Museum.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hadley, Michael (1990). U-Boats Against Canada: German Submarines in Canadian Waters. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 163. ISBN 0-7735-0801-5.
- ^ a b c "Weather station Kurt erected in Labrador in 1943". U-boat.net. http://www.uboat.net/ops/weather_stations.htm. Retrieved on 2009-03-18.
- ^ a b "Weather Station Erected in Labrador in 1943". http://www.pinetreeline.org/other/other8/other8ap.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-18.
- ^ Alberto Rosselli. "The Special U-Boot Missions In North America, Iceland and Canada 1942-44". German Naval History. http://www.pinetreeline.org/other/other8/other8ap.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-18.
- ^ "U-537". U-boat.net. http://www.uboat.net/boats/u537.htm. Retrieved on 2009-03-22.
