What little-known facts about World War II fascinate you?

There is one thing that many people may not know: during the Second World War (1939 to 1945), Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland in the North Atlantic were actually places where "secret wars" took place: the "weather" war, or actually the war of monopolizing the weather data of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean.

During the "weather war" in the North Atlantic, the allies inspected the German parachute bag at the German broadcasting base in Greenland.

Initially, when the German army secretly landed in Greenland and Newfoundland from U-boat in August 1942, a "weather war" was waged. Subsequently, they secretly established weather stations and radio stations in these areas. This is also the first time that the Germans put boots on the ground in North America.

Remember, it is very important to collect meteorological data, because it may seriously affect military plans and the navigation routes of ships in the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. All these valuable information are coded by Enigma machine, then sent back to the secret German weather ship, and finally arrived at Kriegsmarine headquarters in Germany.

194310122 October, Kurt, German weather station on Hutton Peninsula, Newfoundland (image courtesy of Bundesarchiv).

How did the Allies react to this "secret war"? There is no doubt that the US Army Air Force (USAAF) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) quickly carried out air raids on German radio stations and "mopped up" the soldiers of the US Coast Guard.

Greenland and Newfoundland were actually "peaceful" during World War II. However, during the "weather war", they were not always "peaceful": radio searches and bomb attacks, hunting by German commandos and U-boat raids were all normal things. During the war, Iceland was indeed an ideal base for American bombers to carry out air strikes on German weather stations.

1944101On October 4th, the Germans in the Leontopodium 2 meteorological station were captured by the US military.

According to the official military history of the United States, the results of the war in the summer of 1943 to 1944 can be described as follows:

"In the second summer, Greenland resumed operations and discovered the German base north of Sabine Island. A landing team composed of soldiers and coast guard landed from cutters Northland and Storis, but found the place empty. A tired armed trawler was lying on the ice. A few days later, Northland saw and chased a strange ship, which proved to be another Nazi trawler. When it was inevitably caught, the crew towed it away. This time, 28 German officers and men fell into the hands of the Coast Guard. The year before, some of them belonged to the Sabin Island Garrison. 1before the end of the summer of 944, the second German base was attacked and destroyed, and a large trawler of 180 feet was captured and intact. The total achievements in two summers reached the level of three German bases, destroying two ships, capturing one and capturing sixty-two enemies. "

(Defending America and its Post, publication of the Center for Military History of the United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1964, pp. 552-553).

After the German transport ship Externsteine was captured by USCGC Dongfeng.

1944 10 10. On 4 October, the last German weather station in Greenland was completely annihilated, and the allied icebreaker USCGC? Dongfeng captured the German transport ship Externsteine? . In any case, this was one of the biggest "land operations" in Greenland during the war.