Operation Haudegen
Operation Haudegen was the name of a German operation during the Second World War to establish meteorological stations on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. In September 1944, the submarine U-307 and the supply ship Carl J. Busch transported the men of Unternehmen Haudegen to the island. The station was active from 9 September 1944. On May 8, 1945, the staff received a message from their commanders in Tromsø that Germany had surrendered and the war was over. After that, radio contact was lost. The soldiers were capable of asking for support only in August 1945 and on 4 or 6 September, were picked up by a Norwegian seal hunting vessel and surrendered to its captain. The group of men were the last German troops to surrender after the Second World War.
Background
Svalbard Archipelago
The Svalbard Archipelago is in the Arctic Ocean from the North Pole and a similar distance north of Norway. The islands are mountainous, the peaks permanently snow-covered, some glaciated; there are occasional river terraces at the bottom of steep valleys and some coastal plain. In winter the islands are covered in snow and the bays ice over. Spitsbergen Island has several large fiords along its west coast and Isfjorden is up to wide. The Gulf Stream warms the waters and the sea is ice-free during the summer. Settlements were established at Longyearbyen and Barentsberg in inlets along the south shore of Isfjorden, in Kings Bay, north up the coast and in Van Mijenfjorden to the south. The settlements attracted colonists of different nationalities and the treaty of 1920 neutralised the islands and recognised the mineral and fishing rights of the participating countries. Before 1939, the population consisted of about 3,000 people, mostly Norwegian and Russian, who worked in the mining industry. Drift mines were linked to the shore by overhead cable tracks or rails and coal dumped in winter was collected after the summer thaw. By 1939 production was about a year, roughly evenly divided between Norway and Russia.Allied operations
Operation Gauntlet
Gauntlet was an Allied Combined Operation from 25 August until 3 September 1941 during the Second World War. Canadian, British and Free Norwegian Forces landed on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago, south of the North Pole. Coal mines on the islands were owned and operated by Norway at Longyearbyen and by the Soviet Union at Barentsburg; both governments agreed to their destruction and the evacuation of their nationals. Gauntlets objective was to deny the Germans the coal, mining and shipping infrastructure, equipment and stores on Spitsbergen and suppress the wireless stations on the archipelago, to prevent the Germans from receiving weather reports. Gauntlet was a success, the Germans had not known of the expedition until it was long gone. The raiders suffered no casualties, the Svalbard population was repatriated, several ships were taken by the raiders as prizes; a German warship was sunk on the return journey.Operation Fritham
Operation Fritham was an Allied attempt to secure the coal mines on Spitzbergen, the main island of the Svalbard Archipelago. A party of Norwegian troops sailed from Scotland on 30 April, to reoccupy the island and eject a German meteorological party. On 14 May, four German reconnaissance bombers sank the ships in Green Harbour. The commander, Einar Sverdrup, and eleven men were killed, eleven men were wounded and most of the supplies were lost with the ships. On 26 May, a Catalina made contact with Fritham Force and destroyed a German Ju 88 bomber caught on the ground. More sorties delivered supplies, attacked German weather bases, evacuated wounded and rescued shipwrecked sailors.Operation Gearbox
Operation Gearbox was a Norwegian and British operation that superseded Operation Fritham. The survivors of Fritham Force had salvaged what equipment they could and set up camp in Barentsburg, which had been deserted since Operation Gauntlet and sent out reconnaissance parties. The Admiralty discovered much of what had happened, through Ultra decrypts of Luftwaffe Enigma coded wireless signals. On 2 July, 57 Norwegians with of supplies arrived by cruiser. Barentsburg was fortified and parties attacked the German weather party at Longyearbyen on 12 July, only to find that they had departed three days earlier. The airstrip was blocked and on 23 July, a Ju 88, carrying an experienced crew and two senior officials, was shot down while flying low over the landing ground; the German plan to send another weather party had been thwarted.Operation Gearbox II
Operation Gearbox II was a Norwegian and British operation. The reinforcements of Operation Gearbox consolidated the Barentsburg defences and made preparations for Gearbox II, another reinforcement of the Norwegians and part of the plan for Convoy PQ 18, to prevent a repeat of Convoy PQ 17 in which 24 of the 35 freighters had been sunk. The fleet oilers and and four destroyer escorts sailed from Scapa Flow on 3 September and anchored in Lowe Sound several days later. From 9 to 13 September, relays of destroyers were detached from PQ 18 to refuel before the convoy passed Bear Island and into the range of the Luftwaffe bombers and torpedo-bombers based in north Norway. Another German weather party was chased off the island by the Norwegians and on 19 October, the cruiser and four destroyers delivered more Norwegian troops.German operations
Operation Bansö, 1941–1942
By August 1941, the Allies had eliminated German weather stations on Greenland, Jan Mayen Island, Bear Island and the civil weather reports from Spitzbergen. The Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe surveyed land sites for weather stations in the range of sea and air supply, some to be manned and others automatic. Wettererkundungsstaffel 5 part of Luftflotte 5, was based at Banak in northern Norway. Dr Erich Etienne, a former Polar explorer, commanded an operation to install a manned station at Advent Bay ; its subsoil of alluvial gravel was acceptable for a landing ground. The site received the code-name Bansö and ferry flights of men, equipment and supplies began on 25 September. He 111, Ju 88 and Ju 52 pilots gained experience of landing on soft ground, cut with ruts and boulders.The British followed events at Bletchley Park through Ultra decrypts, which was made easier by German willingness to make routine use of radio communication. Dr Albrecht Moll and three men arrived to spend the winter of 1941–1942 transmitting weather reports. On 29 October 1941, Hans Knoespel and five weathermen were installed by the Kriegsmarine at Lilliehöökfjorden, a branch of Krossfjord in the north-western Spitzbergen. On 2 May 1942, the apparatus for an automatic weather station, a thermometer, barometer, transmitter and batteries arrived at Banak, in a box named a Kröte by the aircrew. As soon as weather permitted, it was to be flown to Bansö and the Moll party brought back. On 12 May a He 111 and a Ju 88 were sent with supplies and the technicians to install the Kröte. The aircraft reached Adventfjorden at The He 111 crew and passengers joined the ground party