The Nazi Weather Post In Labrador

The story of German Weather Station Kurt

The Second World War may have seemed like something far from the shores of Canada, but the war came to Canada several times.

The most famous example was the Battle of the St. Lawrence, which occurred from May 1942 to November 1944. The battle saw 23 merchant ships and four Royal Canadian Navy ships sunk. In all, it killed 340 people.

During the Second World War, with their weather stations in temperate climates, the Allies were able to make more accurate weather forecasts than the Germans. The Germans had to rely on reports from U-boats and weather ships in the North Atlantic.

To gather more information on the weather for accurate predictions, the Germans created the Wetter-Funkgerat Land automatic weather station. This station was designed to send weather readings every three hours. Depending on the batteries, the station could run for up to six months.

A total of 14 stations were deployed in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, and five were placed around the Barents Sea.

Then there was Weather Station Kurt, which was deployed on Oct. 22, 1943 at Martin Bay in northern Labrador by U-537. The site was selected because it was remote enough that it was unlikely to be discovered by the Inuit.

The station was camouflaged and empty American cigarette packets were left around the site to try and fool any Allied troops who saw it. One of the weather canisters was marked “Canadian Meteor Service”, which was a noticeable error as it should have said “Canadian Weather Service”.

No such agency existed in Canada. Also, the area was not part of Canada until 1949.

The weather station functioned for one month before it stopped working.

After the war, the station was completely forgotten. It was not until Geomorphologist Peter Johnson, working on a different project, discovered the weather station in 1977.

The Department of National Defence was contacted and they sent a team in 1981. The station was removed from the site and is now part of the collection at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.