Secret Nazi saboteurs invaded Long Island during World War II, MI5 documents reveal

NYDailyNews: Secret Nazi saboteurs invaded Long Island during World War II, MI5 documents reveal
Bumbling Nazi secret agents slipped into the U.S. through Long Island to sabotage the American war effort, declassified British documents revealed Monday.

The spies were tasked with committing "small acts of terrorism" with "incendiary bombs in suitcases left in luggage depots and in Jewish-owned shops," the report said.

The not-so-subtle spies stormed the beach near Amagansett in the Hamptons on the morning of June 13, 1942. Each was dressed in German uniforms, the documents say, and disembarked from a Nazi U-boat.

Dubbed the "Franz Daniel Pastorious Undertaking" by British officials - named after an early German settler in the U.S. - a second batch of agents also came ashore in Florida four days later.

"It was not brilliantly planned," said Edward Hampshire, a historian at Britain's National Archives, which released the wartime intelligence documents Monday. "The Germans picked the leader for this very, very poorly. He immediately wanted to give himself up."

The mission was ultimately undermined by its leader, George John Dasch, who surrendered shortly after arriving in the U.S. and gave up his cohorts to authorities.

The German agents had lived in the U.S. before returning to aid their native country. They received training in "sabotage school" in Germany, where they learned about creating explosives, building timers, and using "secret writing."

"The task of the saboteurs was to slow down production at certain factories concerned with the American war effort," said the report, crafted by MI5 intelligence officer Victor Rothschild.

"The sabotage was not to be done in such a way that it appeared accidental," he noted. "The saboteurs were however told that they must avoid killing or injuring people as this would not benefit Germany."

The agents were also tasked with disseminating anti-war propaganda, and "point out that the USA had no reason to be at the war with Germany."

The mission was plagued with mistakes and poor planning, however.

The U-boat assigned to take the secret agents to Long Island ran aground several times.

"It was only owing to the laziness or stupidity of the American coastguards that this submarine was not attacked by USA forces," Rothschild wrote.

The agents were caught by a member of the Coast Guard as they made their way ashore in a rubber raft. The report suggests they paid off the man with $300, even though they were ordered to "overpower any person met on landing and send him back to the submarine."

The four agents caught a train into New York City, then separated.

Days later the team's leader, George John Dasch, called the FBI to alert them "he was a saboteur and wished to tell his story to Mr. Hoover."

The rest of the Nazi agents in New York and Florida were arrested shortly afterwards. They were tried and executed months later, while Dasch and another agent deported to Germany after the war.