On September 18, 1943, U-537, commanded by Peter Schrewe, left Germany carrying a Wetter-Funkgerät Land weather station or WFL, codenamed “Kurt”.

Nearly a month later on October 22 the U-boat glided into Martin Bay, Labrador. Shortly after arriving some of the crew and Dr. Sommermeyer were assembling the station ¼ mile inland.

The WFL would broadcast weather readings every three hours during a two minute transmission on 3940 kHz. All of this material had to be carried from the U-Boat, put into rubber dinghies, rowed ashore and carried ¼ of a mile inshore to be installed at the station.

This was all done in a little over 24 hours by hand and in October in northern Labrador, meaning most of it was done in near darkness.

The Nazi weather station actually only stayed operational for about two weeks, but its nature and origin weren’t until 1977.

So how did it escape detection for so long? Simple: the Nazis put a sign out front that read, “Canadian Meteor Service”.

(Ironically, at that time the area in question was not, strictly speaking, part of Canada, but rather the Dominion of Newfoundland. Not that anyone noticed.)

Via Heritage Daily and Wikipedia.