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Germans Submarine landed in North America. Secret Weather Station U-537 Labrador Canada

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Uploaded by on Sep 6, 2011

WWII Secret Weather Station "Kurt" deployed by U-537 Submarine at Martin's Bay Labrador Canada.
Kurt Wetterstation location 2.5Km west on the mainland west of the south tip of Oo-olilik Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. geo:lat=60.077087908682955 geo:lon=-64.37833786010742

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_%28weapon%29
Canadian War Museum, Ottawa http://www.warmuseum.ca/splash
http://www.uboat.net/ops/weather_stations.htm
The U-537 made the only armed German landing on North American soil in WWII.

U-537 left Kiel, Germany on September 18, 1943. She made a brief stop in Bergen, Norway and headed out to sea again on 30 Sept. The boat went on patrol in the western North Atlantic under Kptlt. Peter Schrewe. Its task was to set up an automatic weather station on the coast of Labrador. U-537 carried a scientist, Dr. Kurt Sommermeyer, and Wetter-Funkgerät (WFL) number 26 (the sixth in a series of 21 such stations) manufactured by Siemens. It consisted of various measuring instruments, a 150-watt Lorenz 150 FK-.type transmitter and ten canisters with nickel-cadmium and dry-cell high-voltage batteries.

On October 22 U-537 arrived at Martin Bay at the northern tip of Labrador. For the next 48 hours U-537 lay at anchor while the crew manhandled the 220-pound canisters, along with a tripod and mast, into rubber boats and then onshore. The weather station was set up 400 yards inland on a 170 feet high hill. At 5:40 P.M. on October 23, having ensured that the station was functioning properly, Schrewe weighed anchor and set off for an anti-shipping patrol off Newfoundland. His patrol was uneventful and on December 8 U-537 returned to Lorient, France.

Reports indicate that the weather station sent out normal transmissions for a few days, but then there was apparent jamming on that frequency (about which nothing is known; no evidence has yet turned up that the Allies learned about the equipment).
Map of Martin Bay Labrador Kurt site Location:
http://nlarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/kurt.jpg

http://nlarchaeology.wordpress.com/
It consisted of several measuring instruments, a telemetry system and a 150 watt Lorenz 150 FK-type transmitter http://www.laud.no/ww2/lo40k/index.htm. It also had 10 cylindrical canisters which were about 3 feet tall and weighed around 220 lb each. One canister contained the instruments and was attached to a 10-metre (33 ft) antenna mast. A second, shorter mast carried an anemometer and wind vane. The other canisters contained nickel-cadmium batteries that powered the station. The WFL would broadcast weather readings every three hours during a two minute transmission on 3940 kHz. The system could work for up to six months, depending on the number of battery canisters. All of this material had to be carried from the U-Boat, put into rubber dinghies, rowed ashore and carried ¼ of a mile inshore to be installed at the station. This was all done in a little over 24 hours by hand and in October in northern Labrador, meaning most of it was done in near darkness.

http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/articles/feature2.html
Special U-Boot Missions In North America, Iceland and Canada 1942-44

TilTul http://tiltul.com LinksYouWantToRemember
CIMG9560

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Uploader Comments (TilTuli)

  • Thanks for the upload

  • @ostapslobodian You are welcome.

    Under "Show More"

    see a link to an interesting article on "Special U-Boot Missions In North America, Iceland and Canada 1942-44"

    It describes the landing of other U-Boats in North America for less known undercover operations during WWII.

    You may find it interesting.

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  • @TilTuli Thanks.

    Yesterday I was reading about this, German Spy's in North America, and the Japanese fire balloons for hours.

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