[Milsurplus] WW2 Arctic Weather Stations (Long)

[BSugarberg]

Hello,

I thought the following might be of interest:

73, Bruce WA8TNC

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World War II In The Aleutians: A Brief History

On the 6th of June, 1942 at 22:27 hrs, the Japanese No. 3 Special Landing 
Party and 500 Marines went ashore at Kiska. The Japanese captured a small 
American Naval Weather Detachment consisting of ten men, including a 
Lieutenant along with their dog. One member of the detachment escaped for 50 
days. Starving, thin, and extremely cold he finally surrendered to the Japanese.

At nearly the same time, 03:00hrs on the 7th of June 1942, Admiral Omori's 
Attu invasion force, the Japanese 301st Independent Infantry Battalion, 
landed on Attu via Holtz Bay, ending up eventually at Massacre Bay and 
Chichagof Harbor. At this time Attu's population consisted of several Blue 
Fox, forty-five native Aleuts, and two Americans: Charles Foster Jones, a 
sixty year old ham radio operator and weather observer, and his 62 year old 
wife Etta Jones, a teacher and trained nurse. They lived in the little 
village of Chicagoff, Attu, consisting of frame houses around Chichagof 
Harbor. They maintained a precarious existence by fishing, trapping the 
foxes, and weaving baskets. Missionaries, as well as government patrol boats 
and small fishing craft, provided the inhabitants with their only direct link 
with the outside world...except for the small radio operated by Mr. Jones. 
Mr. Jones lost his life at the beginning of the invasion, while Mrs. Jones 
along with the remaining Aleut population were held prisoners.
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The Aleutian World War II Visitor Center

The National Park Service and the Ounalashka Corp., Unalaska's Native village 
corporation, in a public/private partnership, recently opened the Aleutian 
World War II National Historic Area Visitors Center in the restored Naval Air 
Transport Service Aerology Building (weather station).

Location

The Aleutian World War II Visitor Center is located at the Unalaska airport, 
within walking distance of both the cruise ship dock and the Grand Aleutian 
Hotel.

Exhibits

Many of the objects, quotes, and information in the Center came directly from 
Aleutian residents and World War II veterans who have shepherded this project 
along from the beginning. Exhibits on the Aleutian Campaign and the 
evacuation and internment of the Unangan (Aleut) people are on display on the 
lower level of the Aerology Building. The radio room uptairs in the has been 
reconstructed from 1940s photographs to look as it did during World War II. 
The Visitor Center regularly shows World War II-era films in its 1940s-style 
theatre, including “Report from the Aleutians” and “Alaska at War.”

Available Facilities

The Aerology Building is one of the most intact and architecturally 
significant World War II buildings in the Aleutian Islands. During the war 
years, the building served as the central station from which to monitor the 
unpredictable and harsh weather of Aleutians. World War II pilots relied on 
the data gathered at the station to complete air missions to and from Dutch 
Harbor.
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Weather Station Kurt

Weather Station Kurt, officially Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26, was a weather 
station erected by a German U-boat crew in northern Labrador, Newfoundland in 
1943. The installation of Weather Station Kurt was the only armed German 
military operation on land in North America during the Second World War.

Weather in the Northern Hemisphere predominantly moves from west to east. 
This gave the Allies an important advantage since they could predict the 
weather far more accurately than the Germans. On September 18, 1943 U-537 was 
sent from Kiel, Germany with orders to resolve this problem. The submarine 
was loaded with a mobile weather station, named WFL-26, nicknamed "Kurt." The 
station, manufactured by Siemens, had an array of measuring instruments and a 
powerful transmitter. It was designed to be fully automated. Also on board 
the submarine were meteorologist Professor Kurt Sommermeyer and two assistants.

On October 22 the submarine arrived at Martin Bay in isolated northern 
Labrador. After waiting for fog to obscure them from air patrols, the Germans 
disembarked and spent the next four hours installing the station. The station 
was camouflaged and marked as belonging to the "Canadian Weather Service." 
However, the station only broadcast for a few days before falling silent. A 
second U-Boat was sent to do repairs and replace the batteries, but was sunk 
by the allies in the northern Atlantic.

The station was forgotten for many years until the late 1970s, when a retired 
Siemens engineer named Franz Selinger who was writing a history, went through 
Sommermeyer's papers and learned of the station's existence. He contacted 
Canadian Department of National Defence historian W.A.B. Douglas, who went 
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.
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"Yanks in Siberia: U.S. Navy Weather Stations in Soviet East Asia, 1945"
by G. Patrick March

The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Aug., 1988), pp. 327-342
Published by: University of California Press
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"War North of 80: The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II"
by Wilhelm Dege and William Barr

University of Calgary Press (June 2004)

War North of 80 is the personal story of Wilhelm Dege, the leader of the last 
active German weather station of World War II, code named "Operation 
Haudegen." In an effort to secure weather data vital for military operations 
in northwestern Europe during World War II, the German Navy and Air Force 
secretly established manned weather stations in East Greenland, Svalbard, and 
Franz Josef Land.

Translated from the German by William Barr, War North of 80 describes the 
mission and its participants from its beginning until they were picked up by 
Allied troops on May 9, 1945, the last German troops to surrender. Dege’s 
lively writing describes not just the official weather observation program 
but also the recreational activities, the ambitious series of hikes around 
Nordaustlandet, and the hopes and fears of the group as they followed the 
increasingly dire war situation in Europe. With a detailed introduction, 
Barr’s translation offers English-speaking readers a rare glimpse into the 
Germans’ activities in the Arctic during the Second World War. An epilogue by 
Ekart Dege, Wilhelm’s son, offers insight into the various fates of the 
expedition members who worked alongside his father.