Operation Pastorius

Operation Pastorius was a failed German operation hoping to sabotage the United States war effort during World War II. This operation was headed by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the German Abwehr. The Abwehr was a German military intelligence program existing within the German defense ministry between 1920 and 1945. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war on the United States, Hitler authorized this mission in hopes of repeating a World War I plan that was successful against the French in Morocco.

Eight German residents who had lived in the United States were recruited. Two of them were American citizens, while the others had simply worked in the US. These agents went through an intensive sabotage training program and were instructed on the use of bombs and other skills necessary to perform their roles. Their mission was to stage attacks on important American economic stations. This included hydroelectric plants, the Aluminum country of America's plants, locks on the Ohio river, and a crucial railroad. Their other goal was to spread terror throughout the country by blowing up bridges, railroad stations, or public places.

The Eight German Agents

When the first four agents landed on US soil, led by George Dasch. Landing at Amagansett, New York, the team buried their explosives and gear on the beach. Dasch was discovered by an unarmed Coast Guardsman, John C. Cullen, who he threatened and tried to pay off with $260. Cullen then returned to his station and reported this encounter, allowing a patrol team to search the beach. Though the Germans had already left, the patrol found their buried equipment and reported it to both the FBI and President Roosevelt. The other four members landed without any problems at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

After realizing that their plan was not secret anymore and the FBI were surely on their trail, Dasch began to question his loyalty to the Nazis. He called up another member to his hotel room, and they both agreed that ultimately they hated the Nazi party and everything that it stood for, given the other member's time imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. They agreed at the end of the night to defect to the United States immediately and go to the FBI.

Initially, Dasch attempted to call the FBI from a payphone, but the agent receiving his call figured the man was crazy. Four days later, he went to Washington D.C. and went to the FBI's headquarters himself. Going from office to office getting dismissed by various agents as crazy, he finally ended up in the office of Assistant Director D.M. Ladd, who was in charge of the hunt for the Germans who landed on the beach in New York. Not until Dasch placed his mission budget of $84,000 did Ladd finally believe him. The rest of the spies were arrested in the next two weeks.

Roosevelt issued Executive Proclamation 2561, creating a military tribunal to try the arrested Germans. All eight were sentenced to death, but Roosevelt commuted Burger's sentence to life in prison and Dasch's to 30 years for turning themselves in.

Because this plan failed, it deterred Hitler from making any future attempt at sabotaging the United States. There was only one other time that Germans were even dispatched on submarines to the US coast, and both men sent were captured by the FBI.



Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372973/Revealed-The-secret-Nazi-operation-Pastorius-land-German-soldiers-U-S-soil-sabotage-war-effort-world-war-two.html
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/socialeffectsofwar/p/pastorius.htm