The Second World War proved to be not only a war fought for resources, territory and domination, but also an information war. All sides of the conflict conducted intelligence and counter-intelligence operations, but the Allies and the Germans had something more basic and absolutely necessary on their mind in the early stages of the war.
In some circumstances, visibility was necessary (photographic reconnaissance and bombing raids) and in others concealment (keeping ship movements secret or suppressing enemy air activity).
The Allies had an upper hand in the so-called North Atlantic weather war, for in temperate climates (like the area around the Arctic and the north of Atlantic Ocean) the weather systems moved from west to east.
The Allied network of weather stations in North America, Greenland and Iceland established during the early years of the war enabled them to provide their ships with far superior weather forecast than the Germans. Like in any information war, the point was that you gather information and deny your opponent from getting them.
Since the Germans were behind the Allies in the race for meteorological data, they used specially modified airplanes, ships and U-Boats to carry out the retrieval of weather information. However, these missions proved to be quite dangerous.
Scientists at the Siemens Company developed an automatic weather station that was capable of sending data every three hours via radio waves on 3940 kHz. It was called Wetter-Funkgerät Land (WFL). Twenty-six were manufactured. Fourteen of them were placed in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, including the Allied-occupied Greenland. Five were placed around the Barents sea.
Two were intended for North America. The WFL used an array of specialized measure instruments. It was equipped with two masts carrying the anemometer which registered the winds speed and wind wane for direction. The WFL had a telemetry device installed so it could register data automatically and send it via a transmitter. It was powered by nickel-cadmium batteries which were rechargeable and it was capable of working for up to six months.
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