German Espionage in World War II

Image: The 33 Convicted Members of the Duquesne Spy Ring; public domain

 

Hello readers. It's been a while since I last posted an actual post here on the blog, so I'm excited to get back into the swing of things. Previously, we were examining espionage in WWII, and that's where we're going to continue. 

The Abwehr 

After WWI and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was prohibit­ed from establishing an intelligence or­ganization of their own; in 1920, the espi­onage group Abwehr was formed within the Ministry of Defense. In 1929, under General Kurt von Schleicher, the individual military services' intelligence units were combined and centralized under the Ministry of Defense. The Abwehr would become the German military intelligence service for the Reichswehr and Wehmacht from 1920 to 1945. 

Abwehr stations dotted Germany, with each station in an army district. As the Reich expanded, more offices were opened in occupied territories and in neutral countries. In 1935, the Ministry of De­fence was renamed the Ministry of War and then was replaced altogether by Adolf Hitler with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (or OKW). The OKW was part of Hitler's working staff from June 1938 to 1945 and the Abwehr became its intelligence agency under Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris; both the Abwehr and OKW were headquartered in Berlin.

During the early years of the war under Vice Admiral Canaris, the Abwehr expanded and proved to be efficient with its most notable success having been Operation Nordpol. Oper­ation Nordpol was an operation against the Dutch underground network. The Abwehr also collected information on both Denmark and Norway, observing Danish and Norwegian shipping ports and successfully infiltrating their militaries, which provided the Luftwaffe with valuable information during the invasion of Norway. Abwehr operatives helped broker arms-for-oil deals, and also played on the Romanian's fears of the Soviet Union and promised the Romanians protection in exchange for cheap oil.

The early successes of the Abwehr contrib­uted to the overconfidence of the German military. Early assessments by the Abwehr of the Soviet Red Army were low and it was de­termined that the German military would attempt to invade the Soviet Union; however, it was later determined that the Abwehr underesti­mated their enemies and overestimated their own capabilities, as the German invasion of the Soviet Union would fail due to a lack of supplies and an especially harsh winter.

The Abwehr was also present in the North African theatre. In 1940, Italy declared war as an ally to Germany and invaded Egypt and Libya. An Italian of Jewish heritage was re­cruited by the Abwehr and was sent to Egypt to report on any British operations; unknown to the Germans, this individual had already been working for British intelligence prior to the outbreak of the war and passed along hundreds of MI5 doctored messages to German intelligence, which aided in the successful surprise Allied landings in North Africa.

Vice Admiral Canaris made the United States a primary target for Abwehr agents even before the US entered the war. Abwehr agents infiltrated aluminum plants and other manufacturing plants in the hopes of gathering information about US war produc­tion means. Many of these agents were discovered; some were executed while a number went on to be double agents working for the US and sending falsified information back to Germany. Even Vice Admiral Canaris, who was losing confidence in Germany's ability to win the war early on, would pass false information to Hitler to prevent invasions Canaris knew would be unsuccessful. Still, the Abwehr powered on throughout the war but not without suspicions.

Some Abwehr members were opposed to the Nazi regime and communicated with Ameri­can officials, which included passing along in­formation about the existence and locations of concentration camps as well as information that was used to carry out Operation Overlord (also known as the D-Day Invasion). Due to the suspicious activities, Hitler's SS began to closely monitor the Abwehr and investigated its officers.

Duquesne Spy Ring

The Abwehr was not the only agency gathering and sending intelligence to the German cause. In the early 1940s, the Duquesne Spy Ring was uncovered as having infiltrated the US before the US had even fired a single shot in the war. 

The Duquesne Spy Ring was the largest espionage operations case in the United States. The Duquesne Spy Ring was run by Frederick Joubert Duquesne, a South African who became a naturalized American citizen in 1913. The ring was established to gather infor­mation that could be used if the US was to enter the war; the ring was intended to find holes in American military forces and preparedness as well as to destabilize the country and its morale via domestic terrorism, sabotage, and espionage. William Sebold, a German native who became a naturalized US citizen in 1936, was recruited for the spy ring while visiting his elderly mother. Sebold was questioned about his knowledge of military planes and equipment. Multiple visits by German Secret Police prompted Sebold to agree to be a spy rather than put his family at risk. 

Sebold discovered that his passport was stolen and went to the US Consolate to get a replacement; while there, he quietly spoke with an official and said he wanted to work as a double-agent. Under the guise of Harry Sawyer, Sebold was given espionage training by the Germans and was set up with a home and office in New York City by the FBI. Sebold met up with several members of the spy ring, including Duquesne.

Busting the spy ring was an intricate process. The FBI set up Sebold's apartment and office with hidden microphones, two-way mirrors, and an elaborate short-wave radio transmitting system. Duquesne passed along information related to sabotage possibities in industrial and weapons manufacturing plants; another agent passed along information, and explosive devices to Sebold.

Through Sebold's efforts, the FBI gathered enough evidence to arrest and convict all of the spies before they could carry out any of their plans.

Operation Pastorius

In June 1942, the Abwehr staged

a plan for sabotage inside the US, code named Operation Pastorius after Francis Daniel Pastorius, the leader of the first organized: German settlement in America.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war on the US days later, and the US response of declar­ing war as well, Hitler authorized a mission to sabotage the American war effort and attack civilian targets.

Eight German residents who had been living in the US were recruited by the Abwehr and were given three weeks of intensive training at an estate at Quenz Lake near Berlin. The agents, two of which held Ameri­can citizenship, were trained in the manu­facture and use of explosives, incendiaries, and primaries as well as the manufacture and use of mechanical, chemical, and electrical delayed timing devices. The agents were given extensive false personal histories and were encouraged to read American newspapers and magazines to keep up with current events and to improve their English speaking skills. The agents were given fake birth certificates, social security cards, driver's licenses, and draft deferment cards with their assumed aliases as well as $175,000 before they landed on the East Coast.

The agents' mission was to sabotage various targets that would bring both ec­onomic hardship as well as would slow America's wartime production. The targets included but were not limited to: hydroelec­tric plants, aluminum manufacturing plants, and more. The agents were to plant their explosive and incendiary devices at various bridges, canal locks, railroad stations, water plants, electrical plants, and public places to create wave after wave of terror among the American citizenry.

Operation Pastorius was at risk of failure before it had even begun-one agent left sensitive documents on a train and another, while drunk, bragged about being a secret agent. When four of the eight agents landed at what is today Atlantic Avenue Beach on Long Island, NY in June 1942, they were dis­covered by a Coast Guardsman as they were burying their uniforms and devices; the agents attempted to bribe the Coast Guardsman, who feigned cooperation and reported the incident, and a manhunt for the agents began. The second team of four landed without incident near Jacksonville, Florida. The two teams of agents were supposed to convene at a hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio to go over their plans for sabotage.

Two of the agents, George John Dasch and Earnst Burger, met in Dasch's hotel room where they confessed neither of them in- tended to go through with the mission; Dasch abhorred Nazism and planned to report the oper­ation to the FBI, and Burger planned to defect to the US immediately.

On June 15, 1942, Dasch made a phone call to the New York office of the FBI to explain who he was and why he was making contact, but the agent who answered the call was skep­tical of Dasch and disconnected. Four days later, Dasch arrived at the FBI building in Washington DC, where he brought evidence of the operation, and turned himself and the other agents in, unbeknownst to everyone except Burger and himself. Over the next two weeks the eight agents were arrested, with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover taking full credit for the fall of Operation Pastorius.

The eight agents faced trial via a military tribunal from July 8, 1942-August 1, 1942. All eight agents were found guilty; six were sen­tenced to death by electric chair on August 8th; Burger received life imprisonment and Dasch received a 30 year sentence for turning them­selves in and providing information on the others and the operation.

The failure of Operation Pastorius led Hit­ler to reprimand Vice Admiral Canaris and the Germans did not attempt to carry out further sabotage plans from within the US.

Next time on the blog, we're going to examine the postwar era, moving ever closer to our present day!