The story behind Operation Pastorius is facinating, mostly because of how ambitious it was in contrast to the ineptness it was carried out with.
It was almost derailed before it even began since George Dasch (the commander of the team) accidentally forgot documents about it on a train, and one of the members got drunk in a Paris bar and declared he was a spy.
They were transported by a submarine to the coast of Amagansett, New York and were almost immediately caught by an unarmed US coast guard. After barely escaping (by bribing him) the two teams kept a low profile until Dasch betrayed them by calling the FBI and turning themselves in – and the FBI at first thought it was a prank call. He only managed to get their attention when he travelled to their office in person. He had some ambition about being celebrated as a hero for exposing the plot, but nothing came of this.
There was also some confusion as to how to charge them, since Dasch had betrayed the teams before they could put anything in action.
Burger and Dasch got 30 years of prison since they had turned themselves in, the others were executed in the electric chair at Sing-Sing.
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Okay, 6 of these dudes *look* like spies.
The story behind Operation Pastorius is facinating, mostly because of how ambitious it was in contrast to the ineptness it was carried out with.
It was almost derailed before it even began since George Dasch (the commander of the team) accidentally forgot documents about it on a train, and one of the members got drunk in a Paris bar and declared he was a spy.
They were transported by a submarine to the coast of Amagansett, New York and were almost immediately caught by an unarmed US coast guard. After barely escaping (by bribing him) the two teams kept a low profile until Dasch betrayed them by calling the FBI and turning themselves in – and the FBI at first thought it was a prank call. He only managed to get their attention when he travelled to their office in person. He had some ambition about being celebrated as a hero for exposing the plot, but nothing came of this.
There was also some confusion as to how to charge them, since Dasch had betrayed the teams before they could put anything in action.
Burger and Dasch got 30 years of prison since they had turned themselves in, the others were executed in the electric chair at Sing-Sing.