Company Haudegen

Haudegen weather station

Haudegen was an expedition of the German Navy in 1944 to the Norwegian Spitzbergen . The weather troop "Haudegen" was evacuated from its position on September 4, 1945 as the last unit of the Wehrmacht in World War II .

As with most other weather troops, the code name “Haudegen” was derived from the name of its leader, Wilhelm Dege . Haudegen was one of several Wehrmacht weather stations in the Arctic that were used by the Navy and Air Force to obtain weather data in the polar region in Spitsbergen, Northeast Greenland, Labrador and Franz Josef Land, sequentially or next to each other. The respective weather troops were deployed separately from one another as a marine or air force in land stations or on ships and were each active for their armed forces.

preparation

Under the leadership of the geographer Leutnant (MA) S Wilhelm Dege , the navy weather team (total strength 11 soldiers) was given the task of collecting operationally important weather data for the navy in Norway by operating a war weather station. In September 1944, the marine weather troop and their equipment (80 t or 20 kg / (man · day) of which 1.4 kg food) were embarked in Narvik on board the fish steamer Karl J. Busch for landing on Svalbard's northeastern country . The equipment included the entire weather station made of prefabricated cubes of Knoespel as well as 7 tons of coal to fire the heating ovens. The food ration including alcohol was set at 1.4 kg per man per day or 6000 kcal / man-day for one year.

Weapons and equipment

Infantry weapons

• 2 MG 42 - of which lost at a landing and by MG 34 by the Karl J. Busch replaced
• 4 G43 semi - automatic rifles
• 8 carabiners Mauser model 98k (two with ZF 41 and one with grenade cup)
• 4 MP 40

Handguns

• 11 pistols Radom-M-35 9 mm Para
• 1 P08 caliber 9 mm Para
• 4 Walther PPK caliber 7.65 mm
• 1 Walther pistol, caliber 6.35 mm
• 1 Russian Nagant revolver caliber 7.62 mm
• 1 Reichsrevolver M 83 caliber 10.6 mm
• 2 signal pistols (single barrel)

Hunting weapons as additional equipment for hunting and self-protection

• 1 rifle Mauser caliber 8 × 57 IS
• 1 M30 triplet with riflescope from Sauer & Sohn caliber 9.3 × 74R / 16/70
• 1 double shotgun from Sauer & Sohn
• 1 small bore rifle

Ammunition and explosives

• 19,500 rounds 7.92 × 57 mm for machine guns and rifles
• 12,480 rounds 9 × 19 mm for MP and pistol
• 300 hand grenades
• 258 high-explosive rifle grenades
• 90 tank rifle grenades
• 45 smoke missile
• 48 smoke pots

For the hunt, ammunition with partially jacketed hollow point and partially jacketed bullets was carried. In order not to be suspected of violating international martial law with this “dum-dum” ammunition in the event of a possible capture , the participants in the weather team marked it with the label “Only for bears”. Large amounts of dynamite were carried along for blasting and building makeshift mines .

execution

The U 354 , originally intended as an escort submarine, was sunk with part of the equipment in an attack on the aircraft carrier HMS Nabob of the Royal Navy, an escort ship of the Allied convoy JW 59 . The now missing equipment could be temporarily replaced. From Hammerfest - this time in the company of the submarine U 307 - the company got caught up in an Allied convoy near Bear Island . The Karl J. Busch , however, reached the north coast of the island of Nordostland safely through the Olga and Hinlopen Straits . On the east side of the Wordiebukta in Prins-Oscars-Land , the weather station could be built and operated until September 1945 - after the surrender openly as a weather station. It was not picked up by the Norwegian Navy until September 1945.

According to an eyewitness report published in 2004 by the former German corporal Heinz Schneider from Dresden, the Wehrmacht simply "forgot" the eleven German soldiers on the island off Spitzbergen. The weather conditions in particular drained their strength. The soldiers had to endure temperatures well below −40 ° C. In addition, there is polar night from late October to early February . Even polar bears , who penetrated into the camp posed a danger. Since this was a war weather station, the weather group always had to reckon with enemy forces.

Order of the weather team

(1) Measurement or observation of the weather on the ground (so-called "Obs"):

• Air pressure
• Temperature (current, daily mean, minimum and maximum temperature)
• relative humidity
• view
• Weather type according to the Copenhagen key
• Wind direction and strength
• Cloud cover (type, height, direction of movement and degree of coverage)
• Precipitation (amount of rain or snow)
• evaporation
• Soil temperature (over free earth, snow, sea water or over ice)

These observations were made eight times a day (every three hours) without interruption from September 15, 1944 to September 5, 1945. The (encrypted) radio transmission to the Tromsø naval radio station took place at predetermined times (so-called "program times") three times a day. From there the data was forwarded to the OKM in Berlin by telex. After the German surrender (May 8, 1945) "Haudegen" transmitted the data openly (according to the Copenhagen key). The composition of such a weather report is shown under SYNOP .

(2) Radiosonde ascents to measure air pressure and temperature in higher air layers (so-called "Temp")

Altogether 140 successful radiosonde ascents were carried out by "Haudegen", six during the "International Aerological Days" in November 1944, daily ascents from December 1, 1944 to February 2, 1945, 22 ascents until the surrender on May 8, 1945 and twelve ascents after the surrender. The measurement results were transmitted to the Tromsø marine radio station every evening at 6 p.m. DGZ (encrypted). On the average of all ascents, an evaluable height of 11,500 meters was reached.

(3) Pilot balloon ascents to measure the altitude wind (so-called "pilot")

Combined with the radiosonde ascents ("Temps"), the radiosonde balloon was tracked with a recording theodolite. Between July 5 and September 3, 1945, 16 pure pilot balloon ascents took place (without a radiosonde, as the batteries were no longer usable due to overlay).

End of the enterprise

On September 4, 1945, the soldiers were evacuated by the Norwegian seal- catching ship Blaasel . According to later statements by those involved, rescuers and rescued met with respect. After some items of equipment had been exchanged, the expedition leader W. Dege signed a separate declaration of surrender to the captain of the ship. As a symbolic act, Dege placed his service pistol on the table of the weather station. Before that, the deployed fire mines were blown up and parts of the ammunition supply, especially for the machine guns, were fired. The weather troop "Haudegen" was the last unit of the Wehrmacht in World War II that was disarmed by the Allied side.

Aftermath

In 1985, during an expedition to the museum of the Norwegian Defense Ministry, in which Dege's son took part, a metal box with his father's diaries buried near the station and an escape aid depot of the “Haudegen” marine weather team with weapons and ammunition were recovered.

literature

• Wilhelm Dege: Scientific observations on the northeast region of Spitzbergen 1944–1945. With contributions by Arthur Baumann. Reports of the German Weather Service No. 72. Offenbach a. M. 1960 ( digitized version ).
• Wilhelm Dege: War North of 80. The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II. Translated from the German and edited by William Barr. Arctic Institute of North America (Northern lights series 4). Calgary, Alberta (University of Calgary Press) and Boulder, CO (University Press of Colorado) 2004, ISBN 1-55238-110-2 .
• Wilhelm Dege: Trapped in the arctic ice. Weather troop "Haudegen" - the last German Arctic station of the Second World War. Introduced and appended by William Barr and Eckart Dege. Edited for the German Maritime Museum by Lars U. Scholl. Hamburg (Convent Verlag) 2006, ISBN 3-934613-94-2 .
• Franz Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. Meteorological ventures in the Arctic 1940–1945. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 53, published, Convent Verlag, Hamburg (2001) ISBN 3-934613-12-8 .
• Hartmut Dege: Task, training and arming of the German weather troops in the Arctic during World War II . In: Deutsches Waffen-Journal 3.1980, pp. 340–343.
• Wilhelm Dege: weather troop Haudegen . FA Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1954.

Remarks

1. ↑ Dege was special leader (= S) of the naval artillery (= MA) and received this rank as head of the Haudegen company. He was previously employed as an interpreter and as an orderly officer in charge of business in an infantry division in the rank of sergeant - on the path of life see notes under discussion.
2. ^ Dege (management), Naut. Inspectors Maaß and Baumann, Ob. Maat Ehrich (head of the radio station), the radio corporals Semkat, Schneider, Schlösser, Czapka and Grams as well as the private Scheidweiler and Reyer, OG Zumbusch had previously been disembarked on orders, Rieche returned to Norway as ordered after the station had been set up.
3. ↑ The collection was delayed due to a change in leadership in the MOK Nordmeer and as a result of the naval leadership's newly defined priorities through the capitulation

Other Wehrmacht weather stations in the Arctic

• Bass violinist company (Greenland)
• Edelweiss Company and Zugvogel Company (Greenland)
• Company Holzauge (Greenland)
• Company Bud (Spitzbergen, Nor.)
• Treasure graves weather station (Spitzbergen, Nor.)

Web links

• The end of the war in the Arctic: The forgotten warriors Spiegel online article
• Site with remains of the Haudegen station (2001)

Coordinates: 80 ° 2 ′ 52.8 "  N , 22 ° 30 ′ 57.6"  E