Signehamna

First a 360 degree view from Sig­ne­ham­na im Lil­lie­höök­fjord, the wes­tern inner branch in Kross­fjord. We are stan­ding next to the remains of two Ger­man wea­ther sta­ti­ons from the dark times of the Second World War. Wea­ther data were of high importance then for mili­ta­ry ope­ra­ti­ons, and as no civi­li­an net­work of meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal sta­ti­ons was available any­mo­re, the Ger­man mili­ta­ry stri­ved to get their own data from the north Atlan­tic, whe­re much of the wea­ther of nor­thwes­tern Euro­pe is coming from.

In autumn 1941, the Ger­man Kriegs­ma­ri­ne (navy) estab­lished a wea­ther sta­ti­on cal­led “Knos­pe” (“bud”, after the sta­ti­on lea­der, who­se name was Knoe­spel), whe­re 6 men win­tered. In 1942-43, “Nuss­baum” fol­lo­wed (“nut tree”, after sta­ti­on com­man­der Nus­ser). In June 1943, short­ly befo­re “Nuss­baum” was picked up again, a group of Nor­we­gi­an sol­diers dis­co­ver­ed the Ger­man pre­sence in Sig­ne­ham­na. Shots were fired, and one Ger­man died. The sub­ma­ri­ne that soon came to pick the Ger­mans up dis­co­ver­ed the Nor­we­gi­an boat in Nils­pol­len, the small bay direct­ly south of Sig­ne­ham­na, and ope­ned fire. The boat sank, and one Nor­we­gi­an drow­ned during his attempt to reach the shore. Bloo­dy war events in the see­mingly pris­ti­ne arc­tic sur­roun­dings of Kross­fjord.

Two more pan­o­r­amic views (not 360 degrees) of Sig­ne­ham­na in Lil­lie­höök­fjord. In late Sep­tem­ber 2012, win­ter had alre­a­dy moved in.

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