Wehrmacht weather stations in the Arctic

Weather stations in the Arctic were set up by the Wehrmacht for the permanent determination of weather data between 1941 and 1945. The Geophysical Observatory Ebeltofthafen was operated by Germany on Spitsbergen between 1912 and 1914 .

The Svalbard Treaty

The development of the weather and the foreseeable changes in the area of the Atlantic Ocean and in the north and west of Europe depend essentially on the meteorological processes in the atmosphere of the Arctic region . Since the First World War , the European weather stations have jointly used the data from the sometimes very remote weather stations for knowledge and forecasts, which recorded the weather situation regularly and sometimes several times a day and made it available to all interested parties by radio. The basis of this international co-presented the Treaty of Svalbard is that since 1920 the peaceful economic use of Spitsbergen (Norwegian: Svalbard ) defined and the neutral status of Spitsbergen (although falling under Norwegian sovereignty) guaranteed. In addition, this treaty granted all interested nations access to the meteorological information collected in the entire Arctic region. The Svalbard Treaty was ratified in 1925 (since then Spitzbergen has been Norwegian territory) and is still in force today.

Weather observation in the Arctic Ocean

With aviation beginning at the beginning of the 20th century, aircraft were also used to explore the still largely unknown Arctic. For this, the meteorological conditions of the higher atmosphere had to be examined. Therefore, in 1911, the German Observatory was built in the Advent Bay ( Isfjorden ). Today Longyearbyen Airport is located here . Due to disruptive local influences, the observatory was moved to Ebeltofthafen in the Crossbai in 1912 . Scientists wintered there every year. Based on this experience and later from the interwar period, the Wehrmacht was able to set up weather stations in the Arctic during the Second World War .

As a result of the outbreak of World War II, the function of the international meteorological network gradually came to a standstill. The weather observations were still needed, albeit mainly for planning and conducting military operations at sea and on the mainland. In 1940, when the Wehrmacht occupied neutral Norway in the course of the Weser Exercise operation , Soviet, Danish and Norwegian weather stations were operating in the entire arctic region from Greenland to Novaya Zemlya . Two Norwegian stations on Svalbard and Bear Island continued to report almost peacetime data to the German weather service, as the researchers were dependent on supplies from their Norwegian homeland, now occupied by Germany.

The first attempt to set up a war weather station was made in 1940 by the German Navy with the former Norwegian whaler "Furenak". A four-man meteorological squad was due to be dropped off in East Greenland , but were captured soon after the landing. Several other German weather ships and smaller land-based war weather stations were destroyed or attacked. Only the weather ship Sachsen was able to send weather reports for a long time before it could be applied. The raising of these weather ships tied up larger English naval forces.

Weather relay 5 with He 111 and Ju 88 was set up in Trondheim and Banak Norway to obtain weather data . The squadron conducted weather flights twice a day over the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea . The radius of action extended from East Greenland to north of Svalbard and east of Novaya Zemlya . Bad weather, however, restricted weather flights.

In February 1941 the German Navy stationed the weather ship Munich north of Iceland . The weather station set up by the British on Jan Mayen in March was cleared up and attacked in April by the German air force without success.

In April 1941, the Bansö company under Erich Etienne carried out the first landing with a He 111 on West Spitsbergen in Adventdalen . A weather station was temporarily set up near Longyearbyen . At that time, this place was not yet the main town on West Svalbard .

Operation Gauntlet

Contrary to Article 9 of the Svalbard Treaty, which banned the military on Svalbard, a small British troop landed in August 1941 to investigate the situation. This process ushered in the larger Allied Operation Gauntlet , in which a British-Canadian expeditionary force under Norwegian leadership secured Spitzbergen in September 1941. a. The civil meteorological facilities were also evacuated and the island was placed under martial law. The data from the weather stations there were no longer available to the Navy. The Soviet weather station stationed on Svalbard, which had been supplied by the Norwegians on German instructions, was also evacuated.

Military use of weather data in World War II

The collected weather data were required both for the weather forecast in Europe and the warfare of the submarines in the North Atlantic as well as for the conduct of operations of the navy and air force in the Arctic Ocean . Here, allied transport ships formed the supply line United States - Great Britain - Russia , via which war material was transported from the USA to Murmansk with the Northern Sea convoys as part of the lending and leasing law . Air force planes, ships and submarines of the Kriegsmarine operated against these convoys from northern Norway in appropriate weather conditions.

Both the air force and the navy therefore decided to set up weather stations for permanent observation. Due to the competitive situation between the navy and the air force, also due to the political position of the two commanders-in-chief, the weather data was not exchanged or only exchanged with a delay and could only be used with a delay by the other armed forces. Operationally, the naval weather stations were subordinate to the Norwegian naval command . Weather planes could only temporarily be used for instant exploration to obtain weather data. Weather ships that remained permanently in a position or in a certain sea area were threatened by enemy forces from the air and sea and were mostly sunk. After freezing in the ice, weather stations as land bases offered the advantage that they were less threatened and did not tie up any additional forces.

Warrior

Bud, walnut

Crusader

Banso

Landvik

Svartisen, Helhus

Days

Stations on Svalbard

Map shows u. a. Crusader

In the further course of the war - building on good experience with weather buoys - automatic weather stations were also used, including on Labrador in Canada ( weather station Kurt ). They automatically broadcast encrypted weather data to the remote station at the Marine Weather Service (MWD). The Luftwaffe had developed and set up its own model called "Toad" parallel to the Navy. These stations reported the data they collected to the Air Force Weather Service (LWD).

Due to the lack of reliable weather data from the North Atlantic in the area of the polar front between the westerly wind zone over the Atlantic and the polar cell , the temporary improvement in weather from 5/6 June 1944 could not be recognized by the weather service of the Wehrmacht . The Operation Overlord , the invasion of Normandy took place, therefore, unexpected as it was still raining the previous day and evening.

Manned weather stations

To defend against these weather troops, the Allies had to use both air and naval forces, which were tied up with them and not available for other purposes. a. the Sirius patrol was set up in Greenland for the reconnaissance and defense of weather troops .

Companies	TSK ¹⁾	place	time	ladder	Strength ²⁾	Remarks
Banso	LWT	West Spitsbergen	1941/42	Etienne / minor	4th	Adventdalen
bud	MWT	West Spitsbergen	1941/42	Cartilage	6th	Signehamna, Lilliehöökfjord
walnut	MWT	West Spitsbergen	1942/43	Nusser	6th	Signehamna, Lilliehöökfjord
Wooden eye	MWT	NE Greenland	1942/43	White / knight	17th	Sabine Ø
Crusader	MWT	West Spitsbergen	1943/44	Cartilage	12	Liefdefjord
Treasure hunter	MWT	Franz Josef Land	1943/44	Drees / Makus	10	Alexandraland
Svartisen	LWT	Hops	1943/44	Ertl / black	4th
Bass violinist	MWT	East Greenland	1943/44	treasure	8th	Shannon Island
Edelweiss	MWT	NE Greenland	1944	White / Alleweldt	11	Dove-Bugt
Edelweiss II	MWT	NE Greenland	1944	Schmidt	12	Lille-Koldewey Ø
Migratory bird	MWT	Greenland Sea	1944/45	Hofmann / Schönfeld	20th	Weather ship Wuppertal
Helhus	LWT	Hops	1944/45	Neunteufl	4th
Landvik	Defense	South Spitsbergen	1944/45	Norwegian	2	Stormbukta
Days	Defense	Bear Island	1944/45	Norwegians / Ukrainians	2	Sørhamna
Warrior	MWT	NE Svalbard	1944/45	Dege	11	Ripfjorden

¹⁾TSK: armed forces; LWT: Air Force Weather Force; MWT: Marine Weather Force

²⁾ In some companies, leadership was shared between a military-seafaring weather troop leader and a meteorologist

Training and equipment

The Air Force and the Navy each carried out the training of the weather teams separately. The Air Force trained its personnel to operate manned and automatic weather stations in Norway on the Hardangervidda . The "North Trial Site (Arctic)" in the technical office of the Reich Aviation Ministry in Finse am Hardangerjøkulen on the strategically located Bergen Railway began operations in spring 1943 under the direction of the polar expert and defense employee Vitalis Pantenburg .

Sometimes the air force deployed a doctor in the weather force, while the navy provided its expedition members with extensive medical training, as was customary for smaller ship units and submarines on which no ship's doctor was available. This qualification included simple dental treatments.

Goldhöhe research station

The training of the marine weather troops (MWT) was carried out in the research station Goldhöhe in the Giant Mountains and lasted three months. The training manager was initially Hans-Robert Knoespel, who was supported by Heinrich Schatz. In 1943 the meteorologist Gottfried Weiss took over the management of the training camp. Training topics were weather and traffic radio, weather observation, astronomical navigation and orientation, weapon training and hunting, tent and igloo building , winter bivouac, dog sledding. Field kitchen training, mountain training with climbing and skiing were added in further training sections. The additional months of military training took place with the mountain hunters in the mountain hunter barracks in Mittenwald and Luttensee, today's Luttensee barracks. The training included combat service and pioneer training, especially in mountain combat and in the fight for mountain positions. A 14-day medical training course including emergency treatment of dental diseases took place at the mountain medical school in St. Johann in Tirol and Bad Gastein .

Despite the war situation, planning, preparation and equipment were extensive and thorough. The equipment included the latest and highest quality material for the time. This (bsp 80 t with the company warhorse.) Consisted of the provisions (1.2 kg per man per day), polar clothing (such as Frauenhaarfüßlinge.) Bivouac equipment with tents, down sleeping bags and Zdarsky - bivouac sacks of reindeer skin , mountaineering equipment skis , Snowshoes and alpine equipment, medicines and medical instruments, boats, nansen and Greenland sledges , tools, kitchen utensils, care material, accommodation huts ("Knoespel-Würfel", see below) with heating material (coal and petroleum) and weather service material for optical and synoptic weather observation and radio equipment .

Assault rifle 44 , carbine 98k with ZF , MP 40 , MG42 and shotguns served as military and hunting weapons, and pistols and revolvers for self-protection. The JP Sauer Drilling M30 served as a survival weapon in the Air Force .

Knoespel Cube

To see the weather stations in a short time to unload by the station crew and the ship's crew and build anlandende had Councilor Hans-Robert Knöspel the unit kit of a cabin in the level 3 m × 3 m × 2.20 m can be developed. Several of these kits, known as “Knoespel-Würfel”, could be put together on site using the stable construction kit principle to form a weather station. For the stay in the Arctic, necessary improvements turned out. For the Haudegen company , the design was changed according to the knowledge gained from previous companies. The roof pitch was increased, a lighter framework and hardboard (instead of wood) were used, and a double floor and roof were installed.

Construction of the war weather stations

In addition to the respective main building, another shed was usually built for the necessary meteorological material in order to carry out the radiosonde ascents. The chemicals required for this were stored in this external shed for safety reasons. The station premises were secured with explosive charges. An alarm post secured the surrounding station area and was supposed to alert the crew when the enemy approached. Field positions for the machine gun were prepared and, as with Haudegen, designed with the main direction of fire on possible landing sites from the sea. In the case of the Haudegen station, the explosive charges were blown up when the station was handed over. However, this did not happen everywhere, as was the case with an institution on Franz-Josef-Land . In order to ensure evasion, one or more escape depots with extensive equipment were set up further away - they were mostly dug by the Norwegians after the war. Escape aid depots with rucksacks and emergency equipment were set up in the immediate area, which were used to ensure that the most necessary equipment was available when leaving the station immediately. At the Haudegen station, this material was only recovered in the 1980s by his son Deges during an expedition of the Norwegian Navy. The weapons and ammunition found were functional.

Emergency huts

The former war weather stations on Svalbard, the correct designation for West Spitsbergen and Northeast Land as well as the surrounding islands, served or still serve as emergency huts and were or are equipped with appropriate equipment.

literature

Wilhelm Dege : War North of 80. The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II (= Northern Lights Series. Vol. 4). Translated from the German and edited by William Barr. University of Calgary Press et al., Calgary et al. 2004, ISBN 1-55238-110-2 .

Wilhelm Dege: Trapped in the arctic ice. Weather troop "Warrior". 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. Convent, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-934613-94-2 .

Axel Eggen: Sled patrol Greenland. German soldiers fight in the ice deserts of the Arctic (= soldiers' stories from all over the world. No. 16). Moewig, Munich 1958.

Axel Herbschleb: From cabin boy to submarine commander. Captain Karl-Heinz Herbschleb. A biography in words and pictures. Flechsig, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-88189-778-5 (company "Svartisen").

Виктор Николаевич Леонов: Лицом к лицу. Воениздат, Москва 1956 (In English: Victor Leonov: Blood on the Shores. Soviet Naval Commandos in World War II. Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by James F. Gebhardt. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1993, ISBN 1-55750 -506-3 ).

Franz Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. Meteorological undertakings in the Arctic 1940-1945 (= writings of the German Maritime Museum. Vol. 53). Convent, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-934613-12-8 .

Günter Wagner : Climatological observations in Südostspitzbergen 1960 (= results of the Stauferland expedition 1959/1960. Issue 10, ZDB -ID 843452-9 ). Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1965.

Gottfried Weiß: The arctic year. A winter in Northeast Greenland. Westermann, Braunschweig et al. 1949 (2nd edition. Haag and Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-89228-535-7 ).

Rupert Holzapfel: German Polar Research 1940/45 (Manuscript Online )

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Corresponding regulations are contained in Articles 4 and 5 of the Svalbard Treaty.
↑ Cornelia Lüdecke: Historical weather stations on Spitzbergen - a visit in summer 2000 . In: Polar Research. Vol. 71, 2001 (2002), ISSN 0032-2490 , pp. 49-56, (PDF; 1.7 MB).
↑ Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. 2001, p. 44.
↑ Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. 2001, p. 52.
↑ see also company Wikinger .
↑ Weather radio. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016 ; Retrieved on September 24, 2016 (German weather radio station from WWII discovered): “It was not until 1981 that the Americans discovered a German weather radio station from WWII.” Kurt weather station by U 537.
^ Wilhelm Dege, William Barr: War North of 80. The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II . Calgary 2004, p. XX.
↑ Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. 2001, p. 151.
↑ Hans-Robert Knoespel was head of the company Knospe and Kreuzritter, as well as training manager at the gold level.

[1] Corresponding regulations are contained in Articles 4 and 5 of the Svalbard Treaty.

[2] Cornelia Lüdecke: Historical weather stations on Spitzbergen - a visit in summer 2000 . In: Polar Research. Vol. 71, 2001 (2002), ISSN 0032-2490 , pp. 49-56, (PDF; 1.7 MB).

[3] Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. 2001, p. 44.

[4] Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. 2001, p. 52.

[5] see also company Wikinger .

[6] Weather radio. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016 ; Retrieved on September 24, 2016 (German weather radio station from WWII discovered): “It was not until 1981 that the Americans discovered a German weather radio station from WWII.” Kurt weather station by U 537.

[7] Wilhelm Dege, William Barr: War North of 80. The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II . Calgary 2004, p. XX.

[8] Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. 2001, p. 151.

[9] Hans-Robert Knoespel was head of the company Knospe and Kreuzritter, as well as training manager at the gold level.