There is a fine line between success and failure when it comes to sabotage operations. The difference between a triumph and a fiasco can often boil down to one false move or unfortunate coincidence. In different circumstances—with better luck, better planning, and, above all, better leadership—Hitler might have pulled off his gamble, and brought a war that had already engulfed much of the rest of the world onto American soil.
ADMIRAL WILHELM CANARIS, the Abwehr chief who signed the order for Operation Pastorius, was executed by the Nazis in the courtyard of the Flossenberg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, along with four other prominent opponents of Hitler. He was strung up naked on a hastily erected gallows, and his body was then cut down and left to rot.
General Erwin von Lahousen, the head of the sabotage division of the Abwehr, who supervised Operation Pastorius, appeared as a witness for the prosecution in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. After two years in Allied military prisons, he returned to his native Austria, where he died in 1955.
Walter Kappe became a trade union official in Hanover. As he got older, he drank ever more heavily, and took a succession of increasingly minor union jobs. He ended up running a souvenir shop outside a U.S. Army base in Frankfurt, and died in 1958.36
Peter Burger lost his job as manager of a U.S. Army motor pool in Würzburg in 1951 following an Associated Press article that drew attention to his past. He kept in touch with the FBI for many years, submitting regular reports on the activities of his former companions and sending Christmas cards to J. Edgar Hoover. The last mention of him in FBI records is in 1961, when he was reported to be employed by the Bayer pharmaceutical company in Cologne and in good health after recovering from a heart attack.37
George Dasch failed in his repeated attempts to get back into the United States, largely because of Hoover’s vehement opposition. “This is outrageous,” the FBI director scrawled on a March 1958 State Department memorandum recommending a visa for Dasch. “Make as strong a case against Dasch as possible.”38 Dasch published his account of Operation Pastorius in 1959 under the title Eight Spies Against America. It received little attention. He died in Germany in 1992.
Notes
NOTE ON SOURCES
I first became interested in the case of George Dasch and the Nazi saboteurs after stumbling across a treasure trove of research material at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The FBI records of the Dasch case include forty boxes of original material, each containing thousands of pages of memoranda, photographs, letters, interrogation reports, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia. Since this was one of the FBI’s most important cases, anything of relevance to the investigation was preserved, including the handkerchiefs with secret writing that Dasch and Kerling used to list each other’s contacts and letters written by the saboteurs to their families on the day of their execution. The records are a researcher’s dream.
Unless otherwise stated, the notes below refer to the FBI records at NARA, which can be found in Record Group 65, FBI Headquarters Files. The main file number for the Dasch case is 98-10288. When available, I have provided the subfile number, e.g., 98-10288-3472. (In this example, 98 is the FBI headquarters reference number for all sabotage cases, 10288 is the Dasch case, and 3472 is a report on the postwar interrogation of Wilhelm Ahlrichs, a German Naval Intelligence officer.)
While the FBI records contain the most exhaustive information on the Nazi saboteur case, many other agencies kept records on the case, including the Department of Justice, the Coast Guard, the Office of the Secretary of War, the U.S. Army and Navy, and the Secret Service. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park has its own saboteur collection. Transcripts of the military commission can be found in several places, including the FDR Library, the Records of the Army Staff (RG 319), and the Records of the Judge Advocate General (RG 153). I have used the following abbreviations in the source notes:
AP Associated Press
BdU Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote, Commander in Chief of U-boats
ESF Eastern Sea Frontier
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt
NARA National Archives and Records Administration
NYT New York Times
ONI Office of Naval Intelligence
OWI Office of War Information
PRO Public Record Office, London
RG Record Group
WP Washington Post
PROLOGUE
1. Lahousen/Abwehr diary for April 16, 1942, NARA, RG 238, Reference Files 1933-1946 (Entry 2), Box 18.
2. Roger Manvell and Heinrich Frankel, The July Plot, 102. For description of the Wolf’s Lair, see also Constantine FitzGibbon, 20 July, 10–17.
3. Max Seydewitz, Civil Life in Wartime Germany, 100–101.
4. FDR radio address, December 29, 1940; see also State of the Union address, January 1, 1942.
5. H. R. Trevor-Roper, Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941–44, 180.
6. Ibid., 188.
7. Ibid., 179, 545.
8. Ibid., 279.
9. Don Whitehead, The FBI Story, 199.
10. Karl Heinz Abshagen, Canaris, 183–190, Charles Wighton and Günter Peis, Hitler’s Spies and Saboteurs, 42–48, and Erwin Lahousen interview with AP reporter George Tucker, December 6, 1945, NARA, reprinted in part in NYT, December 10, 1945. The Wighton and Peis book must be treated with caution as it includes clearly fabricated dialogue, even though it is based on interviews with Lahousen and extracts from the Abwehr war diary.
11. Abshagen, 186–187; Lahousen AP interview.
12. Interrogation of Wilhelm Ahlrichs, German naval intelligence officer, NARA, RG 65, FBI headquarters file 98-10288-3472. The complete file is contained in Boxes 18–58.
13. Abwehr war diary, April 7, 1942.
14. Clay Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939–1942, 562.
15. Lahousen AP interview. See also Abwehr war diary, April 16–17, 1942.
16. Lahousen AP interview.
CHAPTER ONE: SCHOOL FOR SABOTAGE
1. Burger FBI statement, FBI file 98-10288-1172, June 23, 1942, 11; FBI memorandum, October 12, 1942.
2. Dasch FBI statement, FBI file 98-10288-1163, June 19–24, 1942, 145.
3. Author visit, September 2002. Quenz Lake Farm has been absorbed into the grounds of a steel mill, but the original farm buildings still exist.
4. Dasch FBI statement, 57a.
5. Burger, 12.
6. Heinck FBI statement, June 23, 1942; Dasch FBI statement, 144; Burger drawing, FBI files 98-10288, Box 41.
7. Military Tribunal Transcript, 2530, NARA, RG 153, Records of Office of Judge Advocate General, Court-Martial Case Files, Entry 1009, Boxes 17–21. For Burger account, see Tribunal, 2664.
8. Dasch FBI statement, 130.
9. George Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 78.
10. Burger, 23; Dasch FBI statement, 193.
11. Interview with Hans-Georg Kohnke, Museum im Frey-Haus, Brandenburg; see also Michael Dobbs, WP, November 30, 1998, A1.
12. FBI memo, August 21, 1942, 98-10288-1586.
13. Kappe FBI file, 98-11449-240.
14. Burger, 23; Dasch FBI statement, 147.
15. Tribunal, 2309.
16. Burger, 13.
17. Ibid., 14.
18. FBI memo, August 21, 1942.
19. Dasch FBI statement, 98. Dempsey’s real name was William Braubender.
20. Burger, 17–22.
21. Tribunal, 2049, 2468; Dasch, Burger, Quirin, and Heinck statements to FBI.
22. Burger, 23.
23. Burger, 24; Heinck, June 23, 1942, 11.
24. Burger, 31. See also testimony by FBI expert, Tribunal, 212–220.
25. Burger, 40–41.
26. Ibid., 26.
27. Quirin statement to FBI, June 25, 1942, 11.
28. Ibid., 12.
29. Dasch FBI statement, 146.
30. Ibid., 106–109; Burger, 35–36.
31. Dasch F
BI statement, 107; Heinck, June 23, 1942, 10.
32. Kerling letter to Miriam Preston, December 22, 1940, FBI file 98-10288-1102.
33. Kerling letter to Miriam Preston, November 25, 1941, loc. cit.
34. Tribunal, 2374.
35. Burger, 33.
36. Tribunal, 2321.
37. Dasch FBI statement, 24; Tribunal, 2550–2552.
38. Dasch FBI statement, 102.
39. Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 83.
40. Tribunal, 2321.
41. Dasch FBI statement, 68–69; Burger, 40.
42. Burger, 34.
43. Dasch FBI statement, 110.
44. Tribunal, 2469.
45. Quirin, June 25, 1942, 13–14; see also Burger, 29.
46. Heinck, June 23, 1942, 27.
47. Burger, 44.
48. Dasch FBI statement, 147.
49. Burger, 37.
50. Dasch FBI statement, 155.
51. Harry N. Holmes, Strategic Materials and National Strength, 31.
52. Dasch FBI statement, 94; Roosevelt address to Congress, January 6, 1942.
53. Hoover letter to attorney general, July 10, 1942. See also FBI files 98-10288-578 and 146-7-4219.
54. Burger, 41, 44.
55. Ibid., 41.
CHAPTER TWO: FAREWELLS
1. Haupt letter to parents from prison, July 1942. Bureau of Prisons, Notorious Offenders Files, RG 129, NARA; FBI report on Walter Froehling, July 3, 1942; FBI report, August 4, 1942, 98-10288-1605.
2. Burger, 43.
3. Dasch interview with FBI official W. C. Hinze, June 21, 1942.
4. Dasch FBI statement, 113.
5. Ibid., 2.
6. Ibid., 8–9.
7. Notorious Offenders, Dasch file, September 29, 1942, NARA, RG 129.
8. Marie Dasch statement, April 20, 1943, FBI file 98-10288-2809.
9. Dasch FBI statement, 11.
10. Ibid., 12.
11. Hoover memo to attorney general, October 28, 1944, FBI 146-7-4219.
12. Dasch FBI statement, 15.
13. Ibid., 16.
14. Ibid., 19.
15. Ibid., 23.
16. Ibid., 24.
17. FBI interview with Alma Neubauer, November 14, 1946, 98-10288-3597; see also Neubauer FBI statement, June 23, 1942.
18. Tribunal, 2208.
19. Burger drawing, FBI file 98-10288.
20. Dasch FBI statement, 57.
21. Ibid., 116.
22. Burger, 46.
23. Reinhold Barth FBI file, 98-11448-1373.
24. Haupt, FBI statement, June 29, 1942, 8; see also Dasch FBI statement, 157–159.
25. Dasch FBI statement, 161.
26. Ibid., 161.
27. Burger, 39–40.
28. Dasch FBI statement, 164.
29. Ibid., 36.
30. Tribunal, 2050–2052, 2149–2152.
31. Burger, 43
32. Dasch FBI statement, 204.
33. Ibid., 194; for Schmidt outfit, see Burger, 21.
34. Dasch FBI statement, 133.
35. Burger, 35.
36. Burger, 46; Quirin, June 25, 1942, 15; Tribunal, 204–236; FBI report NY 65-11065, July 1, 1942, 84.
37. Dasch FBI statement, 65, 207.
38. Ibid., 199–200.
39. Ibid., 166–167; Kerling statement to FBI, 98-10288-1174, June 30, 1942, 3; Memo from FBI agent E. P. Coffey, June 22, 1942, 98-10288-230.
40. Dasch FBI statement, 34.
41. Alexandra Richie, Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin, 522.
42. Dasch conversation with FBI agent W. C. Hinze, June 20, 1942.
43. Dasch FBI statement, 236.
44. Burger, 48.
45. FBI memo, October 24, 1942; Dasch FBI statement, 37.
46. Dasch FBI statement, 90.
47. Ibid., 142; Burger, 46.
CHAPTER THREE: “THE MEN ARE RUNNING WILD”
1. Tribunal, 2207.
2. Kappe FBI file, NY 98-870, 6.
3. Kappe FBI file, NY 98-870, 13.
4. Kappe FBI file, 98-11449-240.
5. Kappe FBI file, NY 98-870, 29.
6. Kappe FBI file, NY 98-870, 36, quoting WP magazine article, September 2, 1934.
7. Kappe FBI file, NY 98-870, 60, quoting United Progressive News.
8. Dasch FBI statement, 140; Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 72.
9. Dasch FBI statement, 37.
10. Quirin, June 25, 1942, 15.
11. Burger, 47.
12. Tribunal, 2688-2689, 2373-2374.
13. Ahlrichs FBI interview.
14. Ahlrichs FBI interview; for Haupt outfit, see Burger, 20.
15. Burger, 14.
16. Tribunal, 2326.
17. Dasch FBI statement, 50–51.
18. Ahlrichs FBI interview.
19. Dasch FBI statement, 92.
20. Ibid., 75.
21. Ibid., 102.
22. Burger, 44.
23. Dasch FBI statement, 61.
24. Quirin, FBI statement, June 25, 1942, 16.
25. Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, May 13 and May 15, 1942.
26. Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, April 23, 1942.
27. Ahlrichs FBI interview.
CHAPTER FOUR: ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
1. Timothy Mulligan, Neither Sharks nor Wolves, 3.
2. British Admiralty report, PRO, ADM 186 ⁄ 808.
3. Dasch FBI statement, 180.
4. German BdU War diary, May 26, 1942.
5. Account of crew member Otto Wagner, U-boot Archiv, Cuxhaven.
6. Clay Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War: The Hunters, 57–59.
7. Dasch FBI statement, 39.
8. Dasch FBI statement, 39; Burger, 51.
9. Stephen Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 234–236.
10. Bletchley Park decrypt, PRO, HW 18⁄323.
11. Haupt FBI statement, June 28, 1942, 10.
12. Dasch FBI statement, 181.
13. Ibid., 173.
14. Mulligan, Neither Sharks nor Wolves, 18.
15. Dasch FBI statement, 184; Burger, 50.
16. Mulligan, Neither Sharks nor Wolves, 63.
17. Burger, 50.
18. Dasch FBI statement, 173.
19. Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War: The Hunters, 58.
20. Dasch FBI statement, 183.
21. FBI interrogation of Hermann Faje, June 29, 1942.
22. U-202 log, NARA, Microform Room, May 28–30, 1942.
23. Dasch FBI statement, 102.
24. Ibid., 2.
25. Ibid., 4.
26. Burger, 1–3.
27. FBI memo, August 24, 1942, 98-10288-1974.
28. Dasch FBI statement, 40.
29. Ibid., 185.
30. U-202 log, June 2, 1942.
31. Dasch FBI statement, 41.
32. Tribunal, 1993.
33. NYT, June 13, 1942.
34. Dasch FBI statement, 86–88.
35. Ibid., 142.
36. FBI memo, August 24, 1942, loc. cit.
37. Report from Radioman Kuenne, U-boot Archiv; see also Burger, 35; U-202 log, June 15, 1942.
38. Dasch FBI statement, 42.
39. Ibid., 41, 171.
40. Burger, 15, 50.
41. Ibid., 51.
42. Otto Wagner account, loc. cit.
43. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 237.
44. Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 95.
45. Burger, 52.
46. Dasch FBI statement, 42; Burger, 53; U-202 log, June 13, 1942.
47. Ahlrichs FBI interrogation, 98-10288-341.
48. Otto Wagner, loc. cit.
49. Dasch FBI statement, 117.
50. Ibid., 43.
51. Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 97.
52. Burger, 54.
53. Dasch FBI statement, 42.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE BEACH
1. Stetson Conn et al., The U.S. Army in World War II: Guarding the United States and Its Outposts, 97.
2. Henry Landau, The Enemy W
ithin, 77–80.
3. Materials for Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting, March 30, 1942.
4. Memorandum from FDR naval aide John McCrea, April 6, 1942, to Admiral Ernest King.
5. Author interview with John Cullen, January 2002; see also New Yorker, “Talk of the Town,” July 25, 1942.
6. Confidential U.S. Coast Guard memorandum 602, New York District, April 11, 1942.
7. Cullen interview.
8. Cullen interview; Tribunal, 101–107; Cullen statement to FBI, 98-10288-2139; Dasch FBI statement, 43–44; Tribunal, 2533–2534; Cullen statement to FBI agent Connelley, June 19, 1942, FBI file 146-7-4219.
9. Dasch FBI statement, 126–128.
10. Carl Jennett interview, 1997, the History Project, Inc., 14; Jennett FBI interview, 98-10288-2139.
11. In his testimony to the military tribunal, Cullen estimated the elapsed time at around twenty minutes, but the Office of Naval Intelligence reported that he did not get back to the beach until 0105. (NARA RG 38 ONI Security classified administrative correspondence, June 18, 1942.)
12. Cullen interview; Cullen statement to FBI, loc. cit.
13. FBI memorandum, 98-10288-347.
14. Otto Wagner account, U-boot Archiv, Cuxhaven; Günther Gellermann, Der Andere Auftrag, 67.
15. U-202 log, June 13, 1942.
16. Ibid., June 15, 1942.
17. Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 102; Burger, 55.
18. Dasch FBI statement, 45, 125–128.
19. Ibid., 45.
20. Burger, 56; Dasch FBI statement, 118.
21. Author interview with Fred W. Nirschel Jr., August 2002.
22. Eastern Sea Frontier war diary, chapter 4, June 1942, NARA, RG 38, Box 332; see also Third Naval District intelligence office memorandum, June 29, 1942; Coast Guard intelligence memorandum, June 18, 1942, NARA RG 38 ONI Security classified administrative correspondence.
23. ESF war diary, chapter 4.
24. Ibid., chapter 5, July 1942.
25. Ibid., chapter 4.
26. Jennett interview, the History Project.
27. Warren Barnes statement to FBI, 98-10288-2139.
28. Otto Wagner account, U-boot Archiv.
29. Carl Jennett statement to FBI, 98-10288-2139.
30. Tribunal, 125.
31. ESF war diary, July 1942.
32. Tribunal, 110.
33. Jennett interview, the History Project.
34. FBI interviews with Barnes and Jennett, 98-10288-2139.
35. FBI memorandum, June 17, 1942, 146-7-4219; Cullen interview with FBI, 98-10288-2139.
36. Coast Guard Intelligence report on “activity vicinity of Amagansett Lifeboat Station,” June 18, 1942.