Top Banner
Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII Summary Many Americans think that September 11, 2001, marked the first time that foreign terrorists attempted to attack the United States. Among the lesser-known episodes of World War II, however, were actual attempts by the Germans and the Japanese to disrupt weapons production and commerce, destroy transit systems, and terrorize American citizens inside the United States by using trained saboteurs and trans-oceanic balloons. In this lesson, students will read about what could have been a terrible episode in American history, and how these attempts were ultimately thwarted. Objectives Students will: 1) read the accounts of “Operation Pastorius” and the Japanese balloon bombs during World War II and answer discussion questions; 2) compare and contrast the terrorist attacks of 9/11 with the attempted plots of Germany and Japan during WWII; 3) analyze the legality of the military trial of the eight Nazi saboteurs of “Operation Pastorius” with similar trials held for al-Qaeda terrorists U.S. History Event World War II Grade Level Middle school or high school Materials Readings and discussion questions for “Operation Pastorius” and the “Japanese Balloon Bombs” (one copy for each student), a transparency of the “Wanted by the FBI” pictures, and selected articles comparing the military trial of the eight Nazi conspirators of “Operation Pastorius” with the trials of suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Lesson Time One class period.
17

Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Mar 14, 2020

Download

Documents

dariahiddleston
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII

Summary Many Americans think that September 11, 2001, marked the first time that foreign terrorists attempted to attack the United States. Among the lesser-known episodes of World War II, however, were actual attempts by the Germans and the Japanese to disrupt weapons production and commerce, destroy transit systems, and terrorize American citizens inside the United States by using trained saboteurs and trans-oceanic balloons. In this lesson, students will read about what could have been a terrible episode in American history, and how these attempts were ultimately thwarted.

Objectives Students will:

1) read the accounts of “Operation Pastorius” and the Japanese balloon bombs during World War II and answer discussion questions;

2) compare and contrast the terrorist attacks of 9/11 with the attempted plots of Germany and Japan during WWII;

3) analyze the legality of the military trial of the eight Nazi saboteurs of “Operation Pastorius” with similar trials held for al-Qaeda terrorists

U.S. History Event World War II

Grade Level Middle school or high school

Materials Readings and discussion questions for “Operation Pastorius” and the “Japanese Balloon Bombs” (one copy for each student), a transparency of the “Wanted by the FBI” pictures, and selected articles comparing the military trial of the eight Nazi conspirators of “Operation Pastorius” with the trials of suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Lesson Time One class period.

Page 2: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Lesson Procedures

1) As students walk into the classroom, have them answer the following question on the

board or the overhead projector: “What is the primary purpose of terrorism? Do you think that the United States had ever been targeted for terrorist attacks before 9/11?”

2) After a brief discussion of their responses, tell them that in today’s lesson, they will read about two specific instances when the United States was targeted for terrorism by enemies during World War II.

3) Place a transparency of the “Wanted by the FBI!!” poster included with this lesson and allow the students to comment on the appearance of the depicted Germans. Ask your students if they think these individuals would have a good chance of pulling off a terrorist act in America based strictly on their appearance. Lead your students into understanding that these men could easily blend into the American cultural landscape, even during WWII (they aren’t Japanese; they look like average white Americans).

4) Hand out the reading materials (“Operation Pastorius” and “Japanese Balloon Bombs”) and instruct students to read the passages and answer the questions completely on their own paper. Option: Assign an allotted time for the reading of each section and answer the questions as a group.

5) Have students compare and contrast the terrorist attacks of 9/11 with the attempted terrorism by the Axis Powers during WWII using the Venn diagram provided with this lesson. Option: Allow students to work in pairs or groups in order to brainstorm ideas during this activity.

6) Assign any of the included activities of your choosing.

Page 3: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Activities “Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered a sabotage operation against targets inside America. This mission was codenamed “Operation Pastorius,” after one of the first German immigrants in America in the 1600’s, and was spearheaded by the Abwehr, Nazi Germany’s espionage and sabotage unit. The top-secret operation had three objectives: 1) hinder the ability of the United States to manufacture vital war material and supplies and transport these materials to European battlegrounds; 2) strike fear into the American civilian population; and 3) diminish the resolve of the United States to overcome its wartime enemies. This first of what was supposed to be many forays into America was organized by Walter Kappe, an early convert to Hitlerism who had moved to the United States after Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1924. Kappe lived in the U.S. for thirteen years, first employed as a journalist for a Chicago-based German-American newspaper before he became a leader in the organization of an American Friends of Hitler movement. Kappe then moved back to Germany in 1937, where he soon earned a position in the Abwehr as a recruiter and a trainer of saboteurs. Upon American entry into World War II, Kappe’s orders were to select and train the recruits for “Operation Pastorius.” He handpicked men he believed to be trustworthy and able. In possession of detailed reports on German men who had recently returned to Nazi Germany from extended stays in America, he looked for the following prerequisites: 1) familiarity with American culture and customs; 2) fluency in English; 3) at least a high school diploma; 4) relatively young and in excellent health; and 5) impeccable Nazi credentials. By the beginning of 1942, Kappe had picked and had begun training eight saboteurs in a four-week program at Quenz Farm, a rural setting near Brandenburg, Germany. All eight recruits learned how to use explosives to blow up a bridge or a factory, how to assemble a bomb, write in code, and even use invisible ink. They were also immersed in American culture, memorized popular songs and slang, learned the rules of popular American sports and games, and were educated in American politics and current events. They were groomed to be perfect Americans and perfect spies. By late May, they were ready for action. The eight-man group was split into two groups of four, each with different assignments. The first group was led by Georg John Dasch (39 years old) and consisted of Ernest Peter Burger (36), Heinrich Harm Heinck (35), and Richard Quirin (34). Their orders were to: destroy the hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls and the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) factories in Illinois, Tennessee, and New York; blow up the Philadelphia Salt Company’s cryolite plant in Philadelphia; and to disable the locks on the Ohio River between Louisville and Pittsburgh with explosives. The second group, led by Edward John Kerling (33), was manned by Werner Thiel (35), Hermann Otto Neubauer (32), and Herbert Hans Haupt (22). After blowing up the Pennsylvania railroad station in Newark, New Jersey, and other vital railroad sections, Kerling’s group was to attack the lock and canal installations at St. Louis and Cincinnati and the water supply system for New York City. Both groups were also instructed to plant bombs in Jewish-owned stores and in locker rooms at major passenger railroad stations to spread fear and panic. On May 26, 1942, at 9:00PM, the first group headed by Kerling boarded a U-boat, U-584, at a German submarine base at Lorient, France, with four small waterproof crates, roughly twice the size of a shoe box (three filled with explosives and the fourth containing fuses, wire, and acid). The U-boat quietly slid out of its bunker on the way to the American east coast. Two nights later, a second U-boat, U-202, headed for the United States from the same submarine base with the other group of saboteurs commanded by Dasch. The captain of U-202, Hans-Heinz Linder, later wrote, “Four men wearing infantry uniform came aboard; they brought with them shovels, explosives, a large sum in dollars and civilian clothes; which they later put on.” Thus, the attack on America was about to begin.

Arrival Aboard the U-boats traveling across the Atlantic there was much speculation from crewmembers as to the identities of their mysterious passengers and the contents of four small waterproof crates in their possession. Crewmen knew that these strange men must be involved in something special. Even the U-boat captains were unsure of the mission, only aware of the

Page 4: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

destinations of the submarines and the details of the agents’ disembarkation. All other information was considered unnecessary and no one asked, nor was any detail offered. All eight saboteurs wore German military uniforms to insure that if they were captured, they would be treated as prisoners of war, not spies. Each group was in possession of $50,000 in real American currency to pay for living expenses, travel, and expected bribes during the planned two-year mission. Shortly after midnight on the morning of June 13, 1942, after a little more than fifteen days at sea, U-202 inched close to the shore of Amagansett on the eastern end of Long Island, New York. Two U-boat crewmembers launched a small rubber dinghy into which the agents and their four watertight containers were placed. With the rubber boat still tethered to the submarine, the four agents made their way through heavy mist and fog to the beach. Upon reaching the shore, all four members of the group led by Georg Dasch disembarked with their crates. Giving two tugs on their tether line, signaling to be pulled back to the relative safety of the U-boat, the two apprehensive sailors returned to U-202. During the seemingly endless minutes spent transferring the Abwehr agents ashore, U-202 had settled onto a shallow sandbar where it became stuck fast in the gummy sand, unbeknownst to Captain Linder. With his two sailors safely aboard, Linder ordered both of the U-boats diesel engines to be put full astern, despite the danger of being overheard from the beach. The engines revved, but the U-boat did not move. Linder then attempted to “sally ship,” or get the U-boat to rock out of its position with a combination of rapid engine thrusts and frantic rudder movements, but again to no avail. To make matters worse for U-202, dawn had begun to creep into the eastern sky.

On shore, the four agents worked feverishly. Their plan called for them to bury their supplies and uniforms on the beach under cover of darkness, change into civilian clothing, and catch the first train from Amagansett, Long Island, to New York City before meeting the second group in Chicago, where they would live for three or four months and begin tcampaign of terror. Everything did not go according to plan, however. From the nearbAmagansett Coast Guard station, 22-year-old John Cullen had set out on a routine patrol ofthe beach, armed only with a flashlight and a flare gun in the dense early-morning fog. As Cullen approached the beach, Dasch spotted him. To keep the young Coast Guardsmfrom noticing the half-buried boxes on the beach, Dasch approached him on the dunes. “Who are you?” Cullen asked in the fog. With his three co-conspirators still unloading anburying supplies, Dasch explained that they were all fishermen from Southampton thrun aground. Cullen offered his help, explaining that the Coast Guard station was less

a mile down the beach and that the men were welcome to spend the night there before returning to the beach the next morning.

heir y

an

d at had

than

Dasch said yes, then no. Cullen asked why. Dasch responded, “Well, I wouldn’t want to have to kill you.” Suddenly, Ernest Burger appeared through the fog carrying a wet duffle bag and asked Dasch in German what was going on. “Shut up, you d----- fool! Go back to the boys and stay with them!” screeched Dasch in English to his subordinate. Unarmed and alone, on a fog-shrouded beach with unknown strangers, Cullen started to look for a way out. Dasch offered him a bribe of $260 to forget he ever saw them on the beach. Cullen took it, and Dasch asked him if he would recognize them if they ever met again. Cullen responded, “No, sir, I never saw you before in my life.” As Dasch turned away to help bury the remaining supplies, Cullen took off down the beach to the Coast Guard station. Dasch let him go, to the protests of his men, who were scared stiff at this point and sure that they would soon be caught. They finished burying their supplies and made haste for the nearby railroad station. After stumbling in at 5AM, they purchased four tickets to New York on the 6:57 AM train.

Picture E-4-1: Cullen

Seaman Second Class John Cullen made it back to the Coast Guard station and began telling a strange tale to his commanding officer of oddly-dressed fishermen, speaking a foreign language, who wanted him to forget that he had ever seen them. After turning over the $260 given to him by Dasch, Cullen and other Coast Guardsmen were combing the beach looking for any recently buried supplies. As dawn broke they came upon the tracks of a heavy load that had been dragged through the sand. Digging with their own hands, they soon uncovered the four waterproof crates and German Navy uniforms. As the sun began to rise over the eastern horizon, Cullen and the other men felt the ground slightly tremble and heard the distant rumbling of what

Page 5: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

sounded like diesel engines near the shore. As they had been anxiously searching the beach, U-202 had been just as frenetically trying to break free of the Long Island sand. In the thick fog that lingered over the shore, the rising sun brought in the tide, causing the sub to shift slightly. Captain Linder ordered a quantity of fuel to be dumped into the sea in a last effort to lighten ship, and U-202 finally broke free from its sandy prison. Safely away from the beach, U-202 headed for deep water.

On the early morning of June 17th, the other four agents of “Operation Pastorius” were disembarked from U-584 near Ponte Vedra Beach, about 25 miles south of Jacksonville, Florida. They buried their supplies for future retrieval without incident, changed into civilian clothing, and slipped quietly into the night. They received a ride to Jacksonville by bus. From there, they all boarded a train for Cincinnati. Upon reaching their destination, Kerling and Thiel boarded a train for New York City, while Haupt and Neubauer arranged travel to Chicago. Little did they know that their cover was about to be blown. This is the historic marker in place on Highway A1A in Ponte Vedra showing the location where four Nazi agents landed on the beach as part of “Operation Pastorius.”

Page 6: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Betrayal After the Coast Guard had uncovered the saboteurs’ supplies on the beach at Amagansett, they quickly notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI imposed a news blackout, sent word to all local law enforcement agencies, and launched the largest manhunt in its history. But besides the eyewitness account of John Cullen and four boxes of supplies, the FBI had nothing to work with. Meanwhile, Dasch’s group arrived in New York City, where they quickly blended into the cultural landscape. They bought new wardrobes and checked into mid-town hotels under false names. They then laid low, while the FBI pondered where the four spies who had washed ashore at Long Island may have headed. After a few hours, though, it became apparent that Georg Dasch had other ideas in mind besides the destruction of America. While in New York, Dasch ran into an old friend. Dasch proclaimed “You’ll be reading about me all in the papers pretty soon.” On the morning of their second day in New York, Dasch called the local FBI office. Calling himself Franz Daniel Pastorius, he told the agent on the line that he had arrived from Germany with vital information, and that he would personally contact J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, sometime that next week. The agent noted the call and filed it with all of the other strange calls that he had received that day. Before this phone call to the New York office of the FBI, Dasch had confided in Burger that he planned to betray the entire group of saboteurs. Why he took this dangerous step isn’t clear. It is possible that, since he was married to an American, he may have planned from the beginning to foil the entire mission and turn everyone into the authorities. Maybe he felt some loyalty to the U.S. since he had served in the U.S. Army for more than a year beginning in 1927 before being honorably discharged. Also an arrogant, self-absorbed, ambitious man, Dasch maybe felt that he had been denied his proper role in the Nazi Party, but as an immigrant in America years before, he had never been able to rise above menial jobs. Perhaps he wished to be regarded as a hero in the United States. He may have imagined a fat reward, a parade down Broadway, a presidential citation, even a street named after him. He also may have been convinced in his own mind of the imminent failure of the mission; some of the money originally given to the group in Germany had been U.S. currency taken out of commission in America years before. Though this was taken care of quickly when Dasch voiced concerns, he later recalled that he had been struck with the impression that the Abwehr didn’t take the mission seriously. Far from any noble motives, Dasch may have been merely trying to save his own neck. After all, he had been seen, and had threatened to kill, an American Coast Guardsman. He could be picked as the leader of the whole plot. For whatever reason, he told Burger of his plans, and Burger went along, most likely because he had been treated pretty roughly by Hitler’s secret police, the Gestapo, upon arriving in Germany after years of living in America and saw this as a way to get back at the Nazis. On June 15th, they both made up their plans for surrender: Dasch would travel alone to Washington, DC, while Burger would stay in New York to keep Heinck and Quirin at bay. Back on Long Island, the FBI had taken over the case. They sealed off the beaches, posted guards at the Coast Guard stations, and began interviewing people on the island. They began a house to house search of anyone resembling the description of Dasch given by Seaman Cullen. Suspects were brought in, questioned, and released. Finally, an agent interviewed Ira Baker, the train station master for Amagansett. He remembered selling four tickets to a suspicious-looking group of men just after 5:00 in the morning on Saturday, June 13th. They were headed to New York City. Finally, a break—the FBI knew their direction and probable location, but now had to find the agents in the biggest city in America. As the FBI closed in on Manhattan and the location of Dasch’s group, Dasch himself was on his way to Washington to personally meet J. Edgar Hooper. On the morning of Friday, June 19th, Dasch called FBI headquarters from a Washington hotel. He gave his location and was immediately taken into custody. His vision’s of a hero’s welcome and reward quickly dissipated the minute he was captured. Instead of meeting Hoover, he was questioned by FBI agent Duane Traynor. When Dasch offered to lead the FBI directly to his seven partners, the FBI declined, saying that they could handle it alone. The more details that Dasch gave of the entire two-year mission, the more he began to realize that he was nothing more than a traitor of his home country and an enemy of his adopted country. A few days later, after finishing his interrogation, Dasch

Page 7: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

merely asked to be jailed along with his fellow spies, so that his cohorts would not know of his treachery. The FBI was happy to oblige. Using the evidence that Dasch provided, the FBI quickly swooped into New York City and Chicago. The other three members of Dasch’s group were captured on June 20th, Kerling and Thiel were apprehended on June 23rd in New York, and Neubauer and Haupt were caught on June 27th. Barely two weeks after the first landing on Long Island, J. Edgar Hoover announced that the Nazis’ fiendish plan to terrorize America had been crushed. There was not a word about Dasch’s participation in rooting out his fellow Nazis. He was only listed as one of eight enemy agents captured due to the cunning and persistence of Hoover’s “G-men.”

Page 8: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Brought to Justice Once in custody, the only real question was how to convict the saboteurs. All eight readily confessed their plans, so there was no question of guilt. Public opinion centered on how to punish them—either by hanging all of them, or shooting them, just so they were all killed. After all, their intentions had been quite clear. They had slipped ashore in two locales, New York and Florida, they had been armed with explosives and detonating devices, and they had been trained to destroy vital American interests. The fact that they had not carried out their duties yet was no defense, according to the authorities. The two options for a trial were a civil trial by jury, or a military tribunal. There were distinct advantages to a military trial. First, the burden of proof would not be as strict as in a civilian trial. Prosecutors would not need to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. Secondly, the rules about what evidence can be used in a military trial are looser than in a jury trial. Prosecutors would be able to use hearsay statements and evidence gathered through usually illegal means. And thirdly, a military trial would be closed to the public and therefore secret. It was important to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover that the world, especially America’s enemies, believed that his intrepid agents had uncovered the Nazi spies as they arrived. He did not want anyone to find out that the FBI’s investigation was going nowhere until they were tipped off by one of the German saboteurs. On July 2nd, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued a presidential order establishing a military tribunal whose verdict would be forwarded to the president himself. Roosevelt would set the penalty, and there would be no appeal. If found guilty, the death penalty would apply. The Germans were tried by a military commission of seven U.S. Army officers picked by President Roosevelt. To prevent the truth about how the FBI had really found the eight Nazi spies, Hoover and Attorney General Francis Biddle, the chief prosecutor in the trial, made a deal with Dasch; if he pled guilty to all charges against him, he would receive a presidential pardon within six months. Dasch agreed. The trial lasted from July 22nd to August 8th, 1942. The eight Germans were represented by two Army officers who immediately questioned the legality of a military court. Upon losing that argument, which made it all the way to the Supreme Court, the men were all found guilty of sabotage. Six of the men were executed in the electric chair hours after their verdict was read on August 8th, and their bodies were buried in a cemetery outside Washington, DC, where wooden boards marked their graves. Ernest Burger received a life sentence when his defense counsel argued that he had stepped forward to help with the investigation after being apprehended. At first, Dasch also received a life sentence, which was later lessened by President Roosevelt to thirty years of hard labor in federal prison. Hoover and Biddle’s “promise” of a quick pardon was forgotten. Only when President Harry Truman pardoned both Dasch and Burger in 1948 on the condition that they both return to postwar Germany was Dasch released. Even then, Hoover had Dasch snatched at the gate of Leavenworth prison in Kansas and whisked him out of the country before he could tell his story. Upon their return to Germany, Dasch and Burger both lived out their lives as traitors and failures. Burger publicly blamed Dasch for the death of their accomplices. Dasch published a book in his defense, then disappeared from public life in 1959. There were some complaints from journalists, congressional leaders, and the public about the legality of the secret trial used to convict the eight Nazi spies, but mostly the American public was pleased with the outcome. In Germany, so shaken was the Abwehr by the failure of this carefully planned mission that no similar sabotage attempt was ever made again. The only positive accomplishment of “Operation Pastorius” was the expenditure of $612 for clothing, food, lodging, and travel, and a bribe of $260. The FBI recovered the remainder of the almost $180,000 possessed by the two groups. Thus ended Hitler’s plot to strike fear into the heart of America.

Page 9: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Japanese Balloon Bombs

Hitler’s plot to infiltrate America with Nazi saboteurs wasn’t the only plan to terrorize the United States during World War II. On April 18, 1942, Lt. Gen. James Doolittle led sixteen bombers on a raid of Tokyo from an aircraft carrier 800 miles away from the Japanese home islands. Though the destruction experienced by the Japanese as a result of the raid was miniscule, the psychological damage was immeasurable. Suddenly, Japan was not unreachable for American air power, while an attack on the U.S. mainland was impossible for the Japanese military. About this same time, Japanese meteorologists had been studying “jet streams,” or rivers of fast-moving air in the upper atmosphere. They soon realized that at around 30,000 feet, there was a jet stream that traveled from Japan across the Pacific to the west coast of North America. After more research was conducted using over 200 balloons with radio transmitters and measurement devices, Japanese scientists figured that it might be possible to fly high-altitude balloons, called Fu-Go balloons, from the Japanese islands all the way to the west coast of the United States! These Fu-Gos could carry bombs and incendiary devices to start forest fires in the Pacific Northwest and frighten all Americans living on the west coast. The balloons were constructed with washi, a kind of paper derived from the kozo bush. It was produced in little squares and pasted together by schoolgirls after classes were over everyday.

re gathered in large concert halls or sumo wrestling amphitheaters, stripped of their hairpins, instructed to cut their fingernails, and told to glue together the wassquares with konnyaku-nori, a paste made from a Japanese potato commonly known as “Devil’s tongue.” Of course, with wartime food rationing a dominafeature of Japanese life in the WWII era, many girls had to be scolded for eating the paste.

These girls wehi

nt

The balloons were assembled and, from November 1944 through March 1945, almost 10,000 of them were released from the eastern shores of Japan’s main island of Honshu. The balloons’ trip across the ocean took approximately sixty hours. Upon reaching the west coast, Americans would watch the balloons drift silently by, and were later startled by the sounds of loud explosions and fires. Unfortunately for the Japanese, though, the massive balloon launches coincided with the Pacific Northwest wet season, so the balloons were not very effective in causing huge forest fires. In early January 1945, Newsweek and the New York Times ran articles on the mystery balloons. The Office of Censorship quickly sent out a notice to the nation’s media to cease all future stories or articles about the balloons. At that point, the government had no idea who was launching the balloons and did not

want mass panic on the west coast. After some months of media silence while balloons continued to slide through American skies, Reverend Archie Mitchell, his wife Elsie, and five children went picnicking in the woods outside of Bly, Oregon. Elsie and some of the children came upon a downed balloon. Someone tugged on it and the balloon’s bomb detonated, killing all five children and Elsie Mitchell. The Office of Censorship quickly yanked its request, and publications across the country quickly warned Americans to not touch strange objects in the woods. The six killed in the Oregon woods were the only fatalities of the Japanese balloon bombs.

Picture E-4-2: Fu-Go balloon

Meanwhile, the U.S. military desperately tried to figure out where the balloons were coming from, and who was responsible for sending them. Planes were dispatched to shoot down incoming balloons, but they were difficult to find, and less than twenty were destroyed in this fashion. After finding some radio transmitters in a few balloons, the military attempted to locate transmissions from ones still aloft and soon figured that the balloons were coming from the west. Balloon travel across the Pacific Ocean was not considered possible, however, so the military concentrated on finding the submarines that were surely responsible for releasing these balloons. Other theories for the origins of the balloons were Japanese frogmen on shore, or even German POW camps inside the U.S. Only when the U.S. Geological Survey’s Military Geology Unit examined the contents of the sandbags used to weigh the balloons down was it realized that the balloons had to be coming

Page 10: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

from across the Pacific because the sand examined contained the fossils of tiny diatoms found only at the balloon launch site on Honshu. The U.S. military quickly bombed the launch site, as well as two of the hydrogen plants supplying the balloon effort. By then, the balloon operation itself had been halted. Because of the media ban by the United States Office of Censorship, the Japanese military could receive no word as to the effectiveness of the balloons. Because the balloon project was so expensive, and because superior officers in the Japanese military began to doubt its effectiveness, the project was dropped, even though it had been the world’s first successful transcontinental attack. It experienced even more success than Japan’s other two attacks on the U.S. mainland: in February 1942, Japanese submarine I-17 shelled an oil field in California and damaged a pumphouse; four months later, I-25 shelled a coastal fort just south of the Oregon-Washington border, destroying a baseball backstop nearby. Of the almost 10,000 balloons launched by Japan, fragments of only 285 have since been found in North America. Most have turned up in Washington and Oregon, but some made it as far south as Mexico, as far north as Alaska, and as far east as Michigan. It should be noted, however, that on March 10, 1945, one trans-Pacific balloon that had sailed over the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range descended on the small town of Hanford, Washington, which was one of the locations of the U.S. military’s far-reaching top-secret Manhattan Project. The balloon landed on an electric line. This particular line fed power to a building containing a reactor that was producing plutonium… the same plutonium that would be used in the atomic bomb that would later obliterate Nagasaki. The downed power line caused the reactor to be shut down for awhile, only to resume operation several hours later. http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/mshwfug2.htm -actual article from the Seattle Times detailing the deaths of Elsie Mitchell and five children

Page 11: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

WANTED by the FBI!! The Ponte Vedra Four

Perpetrators of “Operation Pastorius” Georg John Dasch- leader

John Kerling- leader

rnest Peter Burger

Werner Thiel

einrich Heinck

Hermann Otto Neubauer

ichard Quirin

Herbert Han Haupt

The Long Island Four

E

No Photograph Available

H

R

s

Page 12: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Discussion Questions- “Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training

1) What were the three objectives of “Operation Pastorius?” 2) What were the eight Nazi recruits taught at Quenz Farm near Brandenburg? 3) Why do you think that the Abwehr insisted on training saboteurs who had already lived in

America? 4) Why were the saboteurs trained in American customs, slang, sports, and politics?

Arrival 5) How did the saboteurs arrive in America? What would be an advantage of using this

method of traveling? Would there be any disadvantages? 6) In what two locations did the groups of saboteurs land in the United States? Why would

the Abwehr have split the saboteurs into two groups to rendevous later? 7) What happened to Georg Dasch’s group almost immediately after landing at their

destination? Did this pose a potential problem? Betrayal

8) What did Georg Dasch tell his accomplice Ernest Burger in New York City? What did Burger decide to do? What would you have done if you had been Burger?

9) Why was it so important to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to make it appear that the FBI had successfully tracked down all eight Germans without alluding to the assistance given by Dasch?

Brought to Justice

10) Why was a secret military tribunal selected as the trial method for the eight German saboteurs? Do you agree that this was the correct choice? Why or why not?

11) What were the sentences handed down by the military court to the German conspirators? Were all of the sentences carried out completely?

12) Why do you think that both Burger and Dasch were treated as traitors when they returned to Germany in 1948? Why do you think that Burger tried to blame Dasch for everything?

13) What was the end result of “Operation Pastorius?” What effect did this have on all future attempts of terrorism by the Nazi government of Germany?

14) Do you think that Dasch and Burger got what they deserved? Explain your answer. Discussion Questions-“Japanese Balloon Bombs”

15) Why did the Japanese military decide to release thousands of balloon bombs into the upper atmosphere on a course for the western United States?

16) Were there any fatalities as a result of the Japanese balloon bombs? 17) Out of the almost 10,000 balloons that targeted the U.S., pieces of less than 300 have

been found in North America. What would account for the missing balloons? (Landed in the Pacific Ocean or unaccounted for in the vast forests of the Pacific Northwest)

Page 13: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Compare/Contrast Terrorist Attacks of al-Qaeda and Enemies of the United States during WWII- using the Venn diagram below, the reading passages, and your prior knowledge to compare and contrast the attacks of 9/11 with WWII

9/11- al-Qaeda WWII- Nazi Germany & Japan

Page 14: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Possible answers- same Possible answers- different *carried out by foreigners with a lot of cash *9/11 resulted in thousands of American deaths, who had lived in the United States previously the attempted attacks of WWII resulted in only six *both attacks caused Americans to fear more foreign *9/11 carried out by hijacked planes, WWII attacks attacks launched with U-boats, balloons *both attacks were planned secretly *U.S. was at war with Japan and Germany when balloon attacks and “Operation Pastorius” were planned; no state of war existed between al-Qaeda and U.S. on 9/11 *both attacks were attempts at terrorizing Americans *9/11 targeted symbols of American economy and crippling the American economy and military power; WWII attacks targeted American war industries

Page 15: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Assignments 1. Using the articles found at the URLs listed below, have students write a 2-3-page essay

arguing for or against the legality of using military tribunals for cases involving foreign terrorists, as opposed to using the traditional American method of a trial by jury. Students should take one stance or the other, then cite specific examples mentioned in the accounts read in class, the articles given for this assignment, and their own research to effectively argue their case.

“Should the government of the United States be allowed to hold military tribunals in secret for suspected foreign terrorists, or should the government have to hold a public trial-by-jury for each suspected foreign terrorist?” http://writ.news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/dean/20011123.html www.sptimes.com/News/121701/news_pf/State/Gang_of_WWII_spies_fa.shtml

2. Place your students in groups of 3-4, and have them write, make props for, and perform 1-2 minute skits detailing events of “Operation Pastorius” and the Japanese balloon bombs of 1944-5. Skits to be assigned can include, but not be limited to, the following:

a) the selection and training of the Nazi saboteurs for “Operation Pastorius;” b) the landing on the beach for the teams of saboteurs; c) John Cullen meets Georg Dasch; d) Dasch reveals his plans of betrayal to Ernest Burger; e) Dasch travels to Wash., DC, and is interrogated; f) the verdict of the eight Nazi saboteurs; g) Dasch and Burger return to Germany h) the construction and release of the Japanese balloon bombs; i) Americans watch balloon bombs drift across the sky

3. Have your students answer the following question: “Was the U.S. Office of Censorship

correct in prohibiting any news of the Japanese balloon bombs from being broadcast by the American media, or did it have an obligation to allow the media to inform the American public?” They should answer the question and then justify their response in 1-2 pages. Facts to consider could be that the government did not want the American public to panic and also did not want word of the effectiveness of the balloons, or lack thereof, to reach the Japanese military; and that if warnings had been broadcast about the potential dangers of the mysterious balloons that had been seen in the Pacific Northwest, the six deaths could have been avoided.

4. Have students write a brief response to the following question: “How would the war have

ended differently if the balloon bomb that drifted harmlessly onto a power line that supplied electricity to an atomic reactor in Hanford, Washington, resulted in the immediate destruction of the atomic device being prepared for use on Nagasaki, Japan five months later?”

Page 16: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Assessment

1. True or false. The attacks of 9/11 were the first time that foreign terrorists targeted the United States.

2. True or false. One difference between the attacks of 9/11 and the attempted attacks

on America by the German and Japanese militaries during WWII was that a state of war actually existed between the U.S. and Germany/Japan during WWII.

3. The code name of the attempted sabotage mission by Nazi Germany on America was:

a. “Operation Drumbeat” c. “Operation Paper Clip” b. “Operation Pastorius” d. “Operation Drumstick”

4. Which one of the following was NOT an objective of the attempted Nazi sabotage mission that targeted the US?

a. hinder the ability of the United States to manufacture vital war material and supplies and transport these materials to European battlegrounds;

b. strike fear into the American civilian population; c. diminish the resolve of the United States to overcome its wartime enemies; d. make the United States part of the Nazi-occupied world

5. Ultimately, the German sabotage mission was betrayed by one of its leaders. He was named: a. Georg Dasch c. Adolf Hitler b. Benito Mussolini d. Werner Thiel

6. Upon the capture of the eight Nazi saboteurs, President Roosevelt decided to:

a. pardon all of them on the condition that they returned to Germany; b. put them on trial under a secret military court; c. have them all shot; d. give them all a public trial by a jury of their peers since they were captured in

America

7. During WWII, the Japanese military elected to use high-altitude balloon bombs against the United States in order to:

a. destroy American war industries b. start huge forest fires and frighten Americans on the west coast c. drop atomic bombs on large American cities

Page 17: Target: America! Attempts to Terrorize the U.S. during WWII“Operation Pastorius” Selection and Training Shortly after he declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941,

Resources Gannon, Michael. Operation Drumbeat: The Dramatic True Story of Germany’s First U-boat Attacks Along the American Coast in World War II. Harper & Row: New York. 1990. Orrick, Bentley, and Crumpacker, Harry L. The Tampa Tribune: A Century of Florida Journalism. University of Tampa Press: Tampa, FL. 1998. Phelan, Mary Kay. Design for Destruction: The Story of Eight Nazi Saboteurs Who Landed on the East Coast of the United States in World War II. The Drummond Press: Jacksonville, FL. 1997. www.uboatwar.net/1ufbkagents.htm www.montauklife.com/history_night_of_the_nazis.html -picture of John Cullen http://uboat.net/ops/agents1942.htm www.itrc.ucf.edu//df/FL_MARK/HISTMARK/wwar.jpg Trial of saboteurs: www.nlj.com/oped/102802turley.shtml www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/nazi/nazi.htm -pictures of the Nazi saboteurs www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/7/hs738a.htm http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134374561_tribunals05m.html www.usnewsclassroom.com/issue/011210/ideas/10tribunal.htm http://writ.news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/dean/20011123.html www.sptimes.com/News/121701/news_pf/State/Gang_of_WWII_spies_fa.shtml Japanese balloon terror weapons: www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/jbb.htm -picture of the balloon bomb www.historyhouse.com/in_history/balloon_1/ www.historyhouse.com/in_history/balloon_2/ http://www.ufx.org/fugo/fugo.htm http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/feb02/feature_military.html http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/mshwfug2.htm -actual article from the Seattle Times detailing the deaths of Elsie Mitchell and five children