Arctic ocean predator confidential
RESEARCH STUDY “WEATHER WAR”
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RESEARCH STUDY “WEATHER WAR”The North Atlantic weather war occurred during World War II. The allies (Britain in particular) and Germany vied for access to reliable weather data in the North Atlanticand Arctic Oceans and sought to deny the other weather information. Meteorological data was important as it affected military planning and the routing of ships and convoys. In various circumstances, good visibility was necessary (photographic reconnaissance and bombing raids) and in others it wasn't (keeping ship movements secret or suppressing enemy air activity). D-day planning was greatly affected by weather forecasting; it was delayed by one day in the expectation that a storm would blow out and sea conditions would be acceptable. British sources of data included ships at sea and the weather station at Valentia Observatory and Blacksod Point, in neutral Ireland. There were also attempts to set up land based weather stations in contested locations such as Spitsbergen, and even on Allied-held shores, such as Weather Station Kurt in Labrador. The Germans were obliged, by their continental location, to rely largely on long-range aircraft and weather ships, which were vulnerable to attack, and clandestine teams in exposed locations. The Allies had a distinct advantage in the contest, holding all of the major land areas (Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland) of the North Atlantic. As weather patterns at that latitude generally travel west to east, the Allies could follow the progress of a front as it traveled across the Atlantic. The Germans, with their small number of (impermanent) observation stations, had to rely on a certain amount of luck to detect a weather front before it reached Europe. German use of weather ships also exposed their secret Enigma codes. The Munchen and Lauenberg were boarded by the Royal Navy, who managed to gather valuable information in each case. The Wuppertal became trapped in ice and was lost without trace of ship or crew. In August 1941, in the preparation for Operation Gauntlet, the Royal Navy destroyed the weather station on Bear Island and, later, the one on Spitsbergen (after it had transmitted false information to discourage air observation). Spitsbergen was an important location, however, as it enabled the Germans to monitor weather conditions on the convoy route to northern Russia. The Germans made several attempts to establish and maintain weather reports from the Svalbard archipelago including Spitsbergen and Hopen (Hope Island) and these were never successfully suppressed. Other locations used were on Jan Mayen Island and eastern Greenland with teams and automated stations. Operation “Sizilien”24
240 kilometer (150 miles) north of Bear Island and 640 kilometer (400 miles) north of Kåfjord and North Cape, the most northerly point of Norway and the Continent of Europe, is South Cape, the most southerly point of the island of Spitzbergen. A bleak island which before the war had some 3,000 inhabitants, Norwegian and Russian, whose livelihood had been coal mining, its inhabitants had been evacuated by the Allies in August 1941 and the mines smashed. A month later the Germans had set up a weather reporting station on the island. A rival Norwegian station had been established in the summer of 1942 and the Germans had been forced to evacuate their weathermen by submarine.
On 6 September 1943 squadron consisting of Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and 9 destroyers (Erich Steinbrinck, Karl Galster, Hans Lody, Theodor Riedel, Z27, Z29, Z30, Z31, Z33) weighed anchor in Altenfjord and Kåfjord and headed for Spitzbergen. The objective was to attack the enemy base on Spitzbergen. The mission was codenamed Operation "Sizilien". At dawn on 8 September 1943 Tirpitz and Scharnhorst opened fire with their main armament against the two 3 in guns which comprised the defences of Barentsburg and the destroyers ran inshore with landing parties. Before noon it was all over. Some prisoners had been taken, a supply dump destroyed, the wireless station wrecked and the landing parties had returned on board. The German ships returned safely to Altenfjord and Kåfjord 9 September 1943 at 1730 . For the only time in her existence Tirpitz had fired her main armament offensively at low trajectory. Although those on board were not to know it, Tirpitz had carried out her last operation. In the 14 months remaining to her, she was to be nothing but a target for attack Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2016 2016 -> 2017 afoCo Landmark Scholarship Program 2016 -> Instructions for the Preparation of Camera-Ready Contributions to the Conference Proceedings 2016 -> Step student Scholarships for Year 10-13 2016 -> The united church of canada 2016 -> Idan raichel biography – May 2016 Brief Producer, keyboardist, Lyricist, composer and Performer Idan Raichel 2016 -> An introduction to centre’s interventions expanding access to justice 2016 -> Sanchar Shakti 2016 -> Unit analysis should help here. We want number of bananas 2016 -> The Autobiography of Elder Joseph Bates 2016 -> The Great Heat and the Rhode Island Deep Water Bay Scallop (Argopecten irradians) Fishery 1875-1905 Download 17.49 Mb. Share with your friends:
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