Weather Station Kurt

In the northern hemisphere, weather systems in temperate climates predominantly move from west to east. This gave the Allies an important advantage. The Allied network of weather stations in North America, Greenland, and Iceland allowed the Allies to make more accurate weather forecasts than the Germans. German meteorologists used weather reports sent by U-boats and weather ships, such as Lauenburg, operating in the North Atlantic. They also had reports from clandestine weather stations in remote parts of the Arctic and readings collected over the Atlantic by specially equipped weather aircraft. 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 were limited in range and susceptible to Allied attack. 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. == Development and deployment ==

at anchor in Martin Bay, Labrador To gather more weather information, the Germans developed the Wetter-Funkgerät Land (WFL) automatic weather station. It was designed by Dr. Ernst Ploetze and Edwin Stoebe. Twenty-six were manufactured by Siemens. The WFL had an array of measuring instruments, a telemetry system and a 150 watt, Lorenz 150 FK-type transmitter. that powered the system. The WFL would send weather readings every three hours during a two-minute transmission on 3940 kHz. This is close to Cape Chidley at the north-eastern tip of the Labrador Peninsula. Schrewe selected a site this far north as he believed this would minimize the risk of the station being discovered by Inuit. The U-boat undertook a combat patrol in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland during which she survived three attacks by Canadian aircraft, but sank no ships. The submarine reached port at Lorient, France, on 8 December after 70 days at sea. She was sunk with all hands 11 months later on 11 November 1944 by the submarine USS Flounder near the Dutch East Indies. == Rediscovery ==

The German weather station was forgotten until 1977 when Peter Johnson, a geomorphologist working on an unrelated project, stumbled upon it. He suspected it was a Canadian military installation and named it "Martin Bay 7". Around the same time, retired Siemens engineer Franz Selinger, who was writing a history of the company, went through Sommermeyer's papers and learned of the station's existence. == See also ==