Saboteurs - the Nazi Raid on America by Michael Dobbs - Book Report/Review Example

Saboteurs - the Nazi Raid on America by Michael Dobbs Following U.S official entry into world war two, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Germany leader ordered broad sabotage campaign against the U.S in order to halt and disrupt the manufacture of airplanes, tanks, and other war machineries. Further, he called for total destruction of railroads and bridges to cut off transportation of vital products and artillery. Dobbs asserts that Hitler invasion in the U.S would sabotage the American government war efforts and terrorists’ attacks on American citizens would demoralize their engagement in war. In addition, Adolf ordered deployment of eight German saboteurs across the Indian and Atlantic Ocean by the German U-boats. One German team landed in Long Island and the second one in Amagansett near Florida (Dobbs 14). During their invasion in the U.S, the Nazi Germans carried enough explosives and money for a two-year operation in U.S, and moved deep within the country to explore vulnerable and potential targets. In his book saboteurs, Michael Dobbs documents the audacious activities and endeavors of the German army America as a dangerous terrorist threat. The author explores the saboteurs training activities in Nazi Germany, their week operation in U-boats or submarines, and their penetration in to the life of American people. He describes the purpose each volunteered, and their connection to a network of Nazi allies or sympathizers in the U.S (Dobbs 31-33). For instance, the author points out certain group who participates in the Nazi training in Germany. George Dasch, a bartender who once had a dream to make history, and Kerling Edward, a Nazi sympathizer caught between love for his wife and mistress participated in training. The author asserts that in June 1942, German submarines under the command of Adolf Hitler landed two teams of saboteurs on the U.S coastline near Florida. The Germans knew operation Pastorius had started, its aim to destroy the communication and industrial facilities in the U.S. The German saboteurs carried detonators, explosives, and money that could sustain them during the operation period. However, within two months of their landing in the U.S, their operation had already collapsed. The CIA and FBI intercepted the Nazi German activities in that within a period of sixty days, both teams had been apprehended and six of the original invaders or saboteurs had been executed after a fast trial by the U.S military tribunal (Dobbs 47). Michael Dobbs reveals that the architect of the Pastorius was an American administrator who fled to Germany to work with the Nazi Germany government. Kappe Walter was unskilled and incompetent administrator and had dismal judge of personnel. In order to prove his poor planning skills, two Nazi men organized to pull out of the squad as soon as they entered the U.S because what they found was contrary to what they had been told. Despite the fact that some of the saboteurs had stayed in America for some time, they had little knowledge about the recent intelligence in the U.S, and they looked amazed to see armed soldiers in front of significant facilities in the country when they arrived (Dobbs 67). The author further states that the submarine or U-boat that transported the saboteurs was stuck on a sandbar after the landing. It stayed in the sandbar for sometime loudly rewing its engines in an attempt to free itself from the sand. What the saboteurs never realized was that all these happenings were taking place in front of Amagansett Naval Radio Station, a branch of the top-secret network in U.S that tracked the German submarines and U-boats movements across the ocean. The author argues that the Germans landing in the U.S coastline seemed like a comedy because the guards at Amagansett never took their work seriously even when they were under attack. For instance, he states that the Amagansett guards did not get off the Coastline before it ran into America Coast patrol team. The guard was only armed with a flashlight. When he met the Germans, they spared his life as per their instructions but attempted to purchase him by pressing a couple of bills into his hand. He ran way and attempted to alert everybody but no one at the Coast Radio station trusted him instead they finally knew it was true when they saw the money (Dobbs 81-85). Unfortunately, the Coast guards did not manage to get qualified authority-Army, FBI or Navy to trust that the Germans had successfully landed in Amagansett. The author argues that when Dasch discovered that the mission was going to be doomed after he met with the Coast guards, he decided that he possessed his own secret. This event made George Dasch, one of the German saboteurs to call the FBI in order to present himself to them. Instead, they directed his call in a crank file. If he had not talked, attempting two or three times, he and his friends would not have been caught. Even after the law agencies were incorporated in the mission, the issue of overlapping jurisdictions continued to halt the case with a number of Coast guards concealing significant evidence from the FBI. However, the FBI under the leadership of Edgar Hoover was committed to soliciting enough evidence to break the case. The author asserts that what kept the Nazi spies from carrying out their mission was the presence of two disaffected Germans, who had different reasons as to why they worked with the FBI to trace and track down the bad people. Dobbs states that before the Pastorius operation started, it was clear that the mission would not succeed because George Dasch, the leader of the mission team forget some sensitive documents in a train, and one of the saboteurs when drunk confirmed to bar attendants that he was a secret agent sent by the German government to sabotage America war efforts (Dobbs 103). President Roosevelt wanted the German saboteurs to face the law by being tried in a military tribunal for sabotage and planning terrorist attacks on American civilians. Therefore, he feared that if the culprits were taken to a civilian court, it would be too lenient. In July 2, 1942, President Roosevelt released an executive order 251 authorizing the creation of a military tribunal to try the German saboteurs. Dobbs states that the Germans were charged with law violation in the sense that they were issuing intelligence information to an opponent or enemy country. Further, they were also charged for spying and conspiracy to commit an offense in America. The trial for the six saboteurs ended in August 1942 where they were found guilty of perpetrating the said crimes against America (Dobbs 115). They military tribunal sentenced them to death while people such as Dasch and Burger received life imprisonment and thirty years in jail respectively because they have presented themselves to the law enforcement authorities. Further, they got such lenient sentence because they offered sensitive information Nazi Germany and other saboteurs. Dobbs (132) argues that the amazing jealousies that faced the case in the entire pursuit and trial of the saboteurs add a significant dimension to what would have turned up to be a spy story. After George Dasch feared for his life, and turns himself to the authority, the role played by president Roosevelt, the criminal justice, and the FBI becomes as intriguing as the story. The trial process of the case is applied today because the trial of foreign spies and agents in a military tribunal sets a precedent for the trial of the impending cases of terrorist held at U.S prisons such as Guantanamo Bay. In conclusion, Michael Dobbs clearly presents how the Nazi government under the leadership of Adolf Hitler trained and equipped eight agents for a mission whose objective was to permeate America and do severe destruction to its industries and infrastructure. Additionally, he shows that it was a plot that left a significant mark in history because of the amazing extent of its success and the perplexing nature of its failure. As Dobbs recorded in his book, after the Germans submarines landed on America’s Coastline-one on the Florida and the other on Long island, it was clear that the U.S intelligence authorities matched the incompetence and lack of skills of the eight operatives. As Dobbs assert, had one of the operative not tipped them, the FBI agents would never have known the presence of the Germans in America nor could have the saboteurs been caught and sentenced despite a number of American citizens saw a German U-boat stuck on Long Island. The book offers an interesting tale of a botched mission and subsequent formation of military tribunal to trial the saboteurs. Further, it illustrates the state of nature of the U.S intelligence system during the Second World War. Work Cited Dobbs, Michael. Saboteurs: The Nazi raid on America. New York: Vintage, 2005. Print. Read More