Most of the Nazi forces surrendered to the Allies during the first week of May 1945.
During the following days, the remaining German resistance units stationed in Czechoslovakia,
Greece, Poland, and Yugoslavia also fell, and soon France was isolated.
German submarines also surrendered to the Americans during that time,
dropping their weapons in the United States and Latin America.
However, there was still one unit left, a weather reporting team
stationed in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, not far from Northern Norway.
They were the men from Operation Haudegen,
a mission so secret that even the Nazis forgot about them.
Weather Forecast
Weather forecast was a fundamental part of military strategy planning during World War II.
During the earlier stages of the war, this information was usually obtained by aircraft
and naval units, and it was so vital and sensitive that it was primarily transmitted in code.
As the Germans kept losing vehicles that provided weather conditions,
the army set its sights on land-based weather stations in the Arctic.
These posts were also critical, as the air that passed through the area
could help predict what would happen over the North Atlantic ocean and continental Europe.
One such station was placed in the Svalbard Archipelago.
Located 650 miles away from the North Pole and roughly the same distance north of Norway,
the post allowed the Nazis to monitor weather conditions on the Allied convoy
routes taking off from Iceland to deliver essential material to the Russians.
In Svalbard, also known as Spitzbergen, the islands were filled with white-peaked
mountains and large rivers at the bottom of steep, frosty valleys.
The archipelago had several fjords along its western coasts, and although the
winters provided a lot of snow, there was no visible ice on the ocean during the summer.
During the 1920s, colonists from different European countries were attracted to the area
after a treaty neutralized the islands,
and Svalbard became an important mineral hunting and fishing source.
Before the war broke out in 1939, the islands' population was 3,000,
mostly made up of Norwegian and Russian miners who evenly divided their findings.
The occupying Germans eventually took control of
the islands' oil fields and weather stations by 1941,
and the civilian population was evacuated. By then, the Nazis had complete control over Norway.
Still, when the Soviet Union fell to Germany in July,
the Allies sent military forces to Svalbard to destroy or capture the enemy installations.
Operation Haudegen
For three years, both parties conducted several operations to install their
own weather posts in the Arctic while destroying the other ones’ in the way.
On August 5, 1944, during one of such operations, eleven German men departed
from northern Norway and headed for Svalbard on a top-secret mission. A U-boat and a supply
vessel dropped the unit off at the island with equipment, weapons, ammunition, and supplies.
The expedition leader was Doctor Lieutenant Wilhelm Dege of the Naval Artillery,
a scientist who had previous knowledge of Spitzbergen,
as he had already traveled to the area years before the war.
He had then returned to the Arctic in 1940 as part of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Norway.
Dege was handpicked four years later by Nazi top brass to head this secretive meteorological
mission, in which he would be both the military and scientific chief. The team also consisted
of a deputy chief, a deputy chief scientist, a meteorologist, several corporals, radio operators,
members of the meteorological service, naval artillery private, and a camp leader.
With the exception of Dege and one other man, the rest of Operation Haudegen's team were no
older than 21. The men had also received training to deal with the hardship and learned how to ski,
build igloos, cook, pull infected teeth, and basic health protocols, including frozen limb removal.
As they reached Svalbard, the unit set up a weather station near one of the fjords,
erecting huts with wooden panels and white nets as camouflage,
and immediately began sending weather reports back to a German base in Tromsø, Northern Norway.
From December of 1944, the station transmitted encrypted weather intelligence to the Tromsø
base five times a week. In addition, they also released a hydrogen-filled weather
balloon five miles into the air to obtain data from the upper atmosphere on a weekly basis.
The remainder of the time the men explored the area, studied geography,
mathematics, and philosophy with Dege. They were also able to build a sauna to relax in it.
Despite having plenty of food to last for two years,
the unit also enjoyed hunting reindeer to eat. According to Siegfried Czapka,
an 18-year-old radio operator who gave an interview to Der Spiegel magazine in 2010: (QUOTE)
"It was an unforgettable experience; we had everything but beer."
Despite the occasional delicacies and relatively comfortable life, weather conditions in the Arctic
were harsh, as December temperatures dropped as low as -40 degrees Celsius.
The men also had to carry rifles every time they went outside, as polar bears roamed the area.
For an entire year, the men of Operation Haudegen dutifully sent their reports,
which were of vital importance during the German offensive of the Boggle of the Bulge.
War Is Over
On April 24, 1944, the men stationed in Svalbard received a notification from the German command
post in Tromsø requesting them to prepare a landing zone for two aircraft near the base.
In his journals, Lieutenant Dege wrote that at the time of the request,
the team already knew that the end of the war was near and that they were the defeated ones.
Eager to come home, the detachment members on the
island quickly removed the icy and slippery irregularities in the bay
and formed a cross made out of cloth to signal a landing area for the upcoming pilots.
However, no aircraft arrived after a week of receiving the warning, and by May 2,
they received the news that the Führer had fallen.
Six days later, another message from Tromsø arrived claiming that the war was over.
Lieutenant Dege and his men were ordered to destroy secret documents,
and the group quickly burned the papers.
By May 9, one of the team members intercepted unencrypted meteorological reports sent by
the Soviets, which was a first and a clear sign that the war was over.
The detachment remained in contact with the Tromsø station until May 24.
After that day, the men received no further news from anyone.
Operation Haudegen was now stranded in the Arctic.
A Call For Help
The German team tried to contact the base several times to no avail.
Despite having two year's worth of food rations, they were afraid of being stuck
in the frozen Archipelago. They had no way to leave the base and only counted with a rowboat.
For weeks, they continued to spend their time issuing meteorological observations,
collecting scientific information, and exploring the island.
The group also collected all the remaining documents in the base and put them in a
sealed metal box that they buried 55 yards south of their weather station.
Desperate to go home and find out about their families, they continually transmitted their
coordinates on the wavelengths used by the Allies hoping for any vessel to listen.
By the end of August, Norwegian authorities finally answered their calls and assured the
stranded men that a ship would set sail towards the Archipelago soon.
On September 2, 1945, months after the men received their last incoming message,
Japan surrendered to the Allies, officially ending World War II.
The following day, a seal-hunting Norwegian ship led by Captain Ludwig Albertsen
arrived in Svalbard to rescue them. The Germans were elated and
invited the Norwegians for a joint celebratory meal in their station.
Dege had learned Norwegian from his years as an interpreter and said: (QUOTE)
"Shall we start our official business right here on the beach,
or may I invite you to our station for a coffee and a schnapps?"
Then Albertsen replied: (QUOTE) "Real coffee and a good German schnapps? Yes, of course."
Upon boarding the Norwegian ship, Doctor Lieutenant Dege handed his weapon to Captain
Albertsen in a gesture of surrender. He then uttered: (QUOTE) "With this I surrender."
To which Albertsen replied: (QUOTE) "May I keep the pistol?"
Dege and Albertsen then signed the last official surrender document of the war
before heading to Europe.
Back Home
After leaving Svalbard, the men arrived in Tromsø, where they became prisoners of war
for three more months. When they finally returned to their country,
they found their once glorious land divided and sunk in misery.
The eleven men from Operation Haudegen were separated by the Iron curtain
dividing Germany and never reunited. Still, in 2004, 60 years after the end of the war,
two of the survivors met again for a trip to the Svalbard Archipelago.
After returning to Germany, Lieutenant Dege returned to his scientific
studies and became a professor at Dortmund Pedagogical University.
In 1985, his son, Eckhart Dege, arranged and funded an operation to retrieve the buried
metal box left in Svalbard. When they opened it, the documents were all still in mint condition,
and they also found personal hand-written letters by the members of the detachment.
To this day, the German Haudegen Station is still standing, and it is used as an emergency shelter.
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