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Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America Hardcover – February 10, 2004

by Michael Dobbs (Author)

35 customer reviews

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Shortly after America’s entry into World War II, Adolf Hitler ordered an extensive sabotage campaign against the United States to disrupt the production of tanks and airplanes and blow up bridges and railroads. Eight German saboteurs were dispatched across the Atlantic by U-boat, one team landing in Amagansett, Long Island, the other near Jacksonville, Florida. They brought with them enough money and explosives for a two-year operation and traveled inland to explore potential targets.

The full story of this audacious endeavor is a remarkable account of a terrorist threat against America. Michael Dobbs describes the saboteurs’ training in Nazi Germany, their claustrophobic three-week voyage in submarines, and their infiltration into American life. He explores the reasons each volunteered, and their links to a network of Nazi sympathizers in the United States. He paints a portrait of the group’s leaders: George Dasch, a onetime waiter who dreamed of leaving his personal mark on history, and Edward Kerling, a fanatic Nazi caught between his love for his mistress and his love for his wife. And he shows how the FBI might never have captured the saboteurs had one of them not helped J. Edgar Hoover transform a hapless manhunt into one of his proudest accomplishments. A military tribunal, a historic Supreme Court session, and one of the largest mass executions in American history provide a stunning climax to a dangerous but failed mission.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first German sabotage mission to reach the shores of the U.S. during WWII is the subject of Washington Post correspondent Dobbs's follow-up to Madeleine Albright: A Twentieth Century Odyssey and Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. The early background chapters concerning the recruitment and training of the German agents can be slow going, but once the story reaches the open seas, the landing of the agents on the shores of Long Island and Florida, and their movements within the U.S., it will captivate readers for the remainder of the book. The detailed account of the summer 1942 landing of the eight German saboteurs, all with prewar experience in the U.S., is engrossing, as is their stalking by the FBI with the help of several other government agencies (livened up with extensive reconstructed dialogue that leans on declassified material). The personalities and careers of the eight are revealed in some detail, including those of two American citizens, as is the fate of the two surviving members. The interagency jealousies that plagued the case throughout the pursuit and trial of the agents add an additional dimension to what would otherwise be a simple spy story. After one of their number, American George J. Dasch, finally gets cold feet and turns the group in, the account of the military trial and the parts played by the Justice Department, President Roosevelt and the Supreme Court become as fascinating as the main story. The legal aspects of the case, clearly and simply explained, are echoed today, since the saboteurs' trial by a military tribunal, rather than a civil court, is a precedent for the impending trial of accused terrorists held at the prison in Guantanamo, Cuba. Easy going and compelling, this title should find favor beyond the WWII niche.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Dobbs' full-scale account of the eight German saboteurs landed on the U.S. East Coast in the summer of 1942 is likely to be definitive on the subject for some time. Dobbs has researched the FBI archives comprehensively, and he writes surpassingly well, producing a story that would almost be humorous if the stakes hadn't been so high and six of the eight men hadn't eventually been executed. The selection and training of candidates for the mission were both haphazard, and one of the U-boats used was nearly fatally stranded on the American coast. Then the leader of one team, George Dasch, decided to turn coat, which helped the FBI overcome J. Edgar Hoover's pit-bull fondness for turf fights with other government agencies. Eventually all eight were rounded up and tried, and all but Dasch and another turncoat died in the electric chair. Dobbs probes in considerable detail the legal ramifications of trial, sentence, and execution, in each of which precedents relevant to post-9/11 dealings with terrorists were set--and even dealing with these legalities, he is clear and well balanced. Altogether, this is a very fine piece of work. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (February 10, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375414703
ISBN-13: 978-0375414701
Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 35 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,625,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5467 in Books > History > Europe > Germany
- #14672 in Books > History > Military > World War II
- #72729 in Books > History > Americas > United States

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Those that cannot learn from history....

Bygreatnannieon September 5, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I had read " The Discovery " by Dan Walsh which is a novel loosely based on the story of a soldier sent to America during WWII for the purpose of sabotage by the Nazis, which got me to thinking that I vaguely remembered hearing that such a thing HAD actually happened, which led me to this book. Well, it's no romance novel...you have to pay attention while you read to keep the characters and the story straight...but it was fascinating...not only to see how such a thing came off, but all of the other things that were going on in the Reich, America, the FBI, the Oval Office, each of the " player's " lives etc. that influenced the twists, turns and final outcome. It definitely makes you THINK...and isn't that what a good book should do ?

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Finding saboteurs: yesterday and today

ByJon Hunton April 20, 2004

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Michael Dobbs had written a fast-paced book of intrigue regarding the eight German saboteurs whose ineptness in carrying out "Operation Pastorius" led to their arrests and eventual jail sentences and executions. The comparison between this historical account and today's Al-Qaeda couldn't be more timely.
Dobbs weaves an intricate tale of German plans for the destruction of military and civilian targets in the United States in the spring of 1942. Everything looked good on paper (literally....with the use of invisible ink!) from its inception to the landing of the two U-boats off the coasts of Long Island and Florida. The one weak link happened to be one of the two leaders, George John Dasch, an unstable man who eventually was able to get his cohorts arrested. The author's most impressive offering through much of the book is his ability to get inside the heads of these men....what they were thinking, how and why they acted and especially their interaction with one another. It's a great story to read and is made even more attractive for the simple reality that it all actually took place.
What I found to be the best part of "Saboteurs", however, was the last few chapters. Dobbs covers the miltitary tribunals in pithy detail reserving some of the comedic parts to rivalries between the FBI and other government agencies. What J. Edgar Hoover wouldn't do to enhance his and his bureau's reputation! The culmination, in a sense, led to the defendants' lawyers appearing before the Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to supercede the war tribunal's very existence as set up by President Roosevelt. One cannot help but compare the situation with that of today....the rivlaries between the CIA and FBI and the friction between the Secretaries of State and Defense. The most fascinating few pages deal with the afterthoughts of some of the Supreme Court justices with regard to the trial and subsequent changes of opinion. One wonders about the parallels of the detainment of these eight men and the hundreds held at Guantanemo today.
It is a fitting addition to "Saboteurs" that Michael Dobbs touches on American opinion about the case at that time and how, after the trial was drawing to a close and Americans found out more and more about the saboteurs, that anti-German sentiment began to build. The feelings of Arab-Americans today must be very much connected with those feelings of German-Americans in 1942. This is a powerful book with timely repercussions.

0Comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Much ado about almost nothing

ByMr. JoeTOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICEon December 31, 2005

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

In June of 1942, two 4-man teams of Nazi saboteurs exited U-boats onto American beaches in Florida and Long Island, NY. All of the eight had previously spent time in America. Indeed, one had spent twenty years in the U.S., and another, a naturalized American citizen, had spent seventeen since the age of five. Returning to the Third Reich for various reasons, they volunteered to return to the U.S. and sabotage that country's war effort by striking at its aluminum production plants. Each team hit the beach with a supply of explosives and $90,000 cash for expenses. Two weeks later, they were all in FBI custody. All were tried by a military tribunal and found guilty. Six of the eight were quickly executed by electrocution; two were imprisoned for the war's duration and eventually returned to Germany.

A friend of one of the saboteurs, who'd also been offered the chance to join the mission but declined, said:

"In Germany ... everything was rationed. Nobody in his right mind was going to go from a country like that to a country with everything, like America, and start blowing things up. You'd have to be nuts."

That statement just about says it in a nutshell because even though Hoover and his FBI trumpeted their foiling of the plot as the greatest victory for America since Yorktown and the former just about wet his pants in an effort to grab all the credit for (chiefly) himself and his G-men, the eight conspirators resembled more an expanded clone of the Three Stooges, and their fourteen days on the loose were a farce. Glad to be free of Germany's wartime belt tightening, they started spending their cash on food, clothes, drink, women, and, in one case, a new car. A couple of them looked up family members, wives, and former girlfriends. There didn't seem to be any great urgency to get down to the business of "blowing things up". In the meantime, the leader of the Long Island four, George Dasch, was off spilling his guts to the Feds. Though SABOTEURS: THE NAZI RAID ON AMERICA is well written and documented, one wonders why author Michael Dobbs bothered. Perhaps a clue lies in Michael's assertion that:

"One of the lessons of the saboteur affair is that it is very difficult to fight a war and respect legal niceties at the same time."

In the seventy-six pages of the book dealing with the invaders' trial and punishment, Dobbs goes to commendable lengths to describe how the accused were denied the right of habeas corpus, an abridgement not seen since Abraham Lincoln suspended such during the Civil War. Oh, and by the way, the handling of the saboteurs' case by the U.S. government is apparently the legal basis for its trying of al-Qaeda terrorists before military tribunals post-9/11.

SABOTEURS seems less about the abortive "raid" on America than an essay on its legal system when severely stressed - or perceived to be stressed - by outside forces. Perhaps the lesson to be learned is reflected in the statement by Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in a 1999 speech, and which is quoted towards the end of this volume:

"While we would not want to subscribe to the full sweep of the Latin maxim INTER ARMA SILENT LEGIS (In a time of war, the laws are silent), perhaps we can accept the proposition that, though the laws are not silent in wartime, they speak with a muted voice."

22 comments 23 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Five Stars

ByShirley M. Grundhoeferon July 30, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Still reading but is very good