Approximate Location of Weather Station "Kurt" | Second World War 1939-1945, weather / meteorological station, historic ruins

 Second World War 1939-1945, weather / meteorological station, historic ruins

Weather Station "Kurt" (Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26) was an automatic weather station, erected by Dr. Kurt Sommermeyer, assistant Walter Hildebrant, and ten sailors from the U-537 in October 1943. Installing the equipment for the station was the only known armed German military operation on land in North America during the Second World War.

The WFL had an array of measuring instruments, a telemetry system and a 150 watt, Lorenz 150 FK-type transmitter. It consisted of 10 cylindrical canisters, each measuring 3.5 by 5 feet and weighing around 220 pounds. One canister contained the instruments and was attached to a 33-foot antenna mast. A second, shorter mast carried an anemometer and wind vane. The other canisters contained the nickel-cadmium batteries that powered the system. 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. It was marked as belonging to the non-existent "Canadian Meteor Service" and was placed here to evade detection by local Inuit.

After the war it was forgotten about until its rediscovery by geomorphologist Peter Johnson, who thought it was a Canadian military installation, in 1977. The site was visited by historian W.A.B. Douglas and his team from the Canadian Department of National Defence in 1981. Weather Station "Kurt" was disassembled and is now on display at the Canadian War Museum.

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