Weather Station Kurt Weather Station Kurt ( Wetter - Funkgerät Land - 26 ) was an automatic weather station , erected by a German U - boat crew in Northern Labrador , Newfoundland 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 . Background . Weather systems in temperate climate s 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 had weather reports sent by U - boats and weather ships , such as the " 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 . For more information , the Germans developed the " Wetter - Funkgerät Land " weather station . It was designed by Dr . Ernest 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 . It had 10 cylindrical canisters , each by c . 47 cm diameter ( circumference ) and weighing around . One canister contained the instruments ; it was attached to a antenna mast . A second , shorter mast carried an anemometer and wind vane . The other canisters contained nickel - cadmium batteries that powered the system . The WFL would broadcast weather readings every three hours during a two minute transmission on 3940 k Hz . The system could work for up to six months , depending on the number of battery canisters . Fourteen stations were deployed in Arctic and sub - Arctic regions ( Greenland , Bear Island , Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land ) and five were placed around the Barents Sea . Two were intended for North America . One was deployed in 1943 by the U - boat U - 537 , but the submarine carrying the other , U - 867 , was sunk . On September 18 , 1943 , U - 537 , commanded by Kapitänleutnant Peter Schrewe , departed from Kiel , Germany on her first combat patrol . It carried WFL - 26 , codenamed " Kurt " , a meteorologist , Dr Kurt Sommermeyer , and his assistant , Walter Hildebrant . En route , the U - boat was caught in a storm and a large breaker produced significant damage , including leaks in the hull and the loss of the submarine ' s quadruple anti - aircraft cannon , leaving it unable to dive and defenseless against Allied aircraft . On October 22 , the U - 537 arrived at Martin Bay in Northern Labrador , at a position . 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 people . Within an hour of dropping anchor a scouting party had located a suitable site and soon after Dr . Sommermeyer , his assistant and ten sailors disembarked to install the station . Armed lookouts were posted on nearby high ground and other crew set to repair the submarine ' s storm damage . For concealment , the station was camouflaged . Empty American cigarette packets were left around the site to deceive any Allied personnel that chanced upon it , and the equipment was marked as the property of the non - existent " Canadian Meteor Service " ( although , at the time , the area was part of the Dominion of Newfoundland , not part of Canada ) . The crew worked through the night to install Kurt and repair their U - boat . They finished just 28 hours after dropping anchor and , after confirming the station was working , U - 537 departed . It undertook a combat patrol in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland during which it survived three attacks by Canadian aircraft , but sank no ships . The submarine reached port at Lorient , France on December 8 , after 70 days at sea . Rediscovery . The station was forgotten until the late 1970s , when a 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 . He contacted Canadian Department of National Defence historian W . A . B . Douglas , who went to the site with a team in 1981 and found the station still there , although canisters had been opened and components strewn about the site . Weather Station Kurt was brought to Ottawa and is now on display at the Canadian War Museum .