WEBVTT - The Time Nazis Invaded Florida 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from house Stuff 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:12.640 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.040 Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:24.640 This is stuff you should know. So huge thanks right 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:26.680 off the bat to everyone who came out for our 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:31.560 Northeast plus one summer tour. Yes it was a pretty 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.280 big success. Yeah, big thanks Boston and New York in 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.520 Philadelphia and Durham in Washington, d c uh and look 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.680 for us this fall, like early October in the Midwest, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.360 the Upper Midwest. Don't get excited yet. St. Louis not yet. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:53.479 But hopefully we're targeting Detroit, because boy, we're long overdue 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.280 for Detroit. Yeah. I don't know how we're going to 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.320 be received in Detroit. You're gonna love us, I hope. 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:03.840 So I think we're looking at your cargo Detroit, maybe Cleveland, Minneapolisoliswaukee, 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.360 in Milwaukee or Madison, We're not quite sure yet, so 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:12.440 um maybe some advice wisconsinites. Yeah, and then everyone in 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.479 each city will just say come here because I don't 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.640 feel like driving a few hours. Uh So yeah, thanks 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.120 for the support and look for us this fall. And 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.800 did you thank squarespace. Yeah, did you think how stuff works? Yeah? 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.360 Did you thank Jerry for the moral support? Sure? I 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:33.400 think Jerry every day. It's part of my wake up routine. Yeah, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.800 I'm looking forward to going back on tour. It's fun. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.960 It is Okay, you read for this, I'm ready. We're 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.040 gonna channel our stuff you missed in history class. Yeah. 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:46.920 I'm not sure if they've done this or not. Have 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:51.680 you are you? I don't know? So, um, Chuck, I 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:53.440 don't know if you know this one because it didn't 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.360 come up in this article. But back in World War Two, 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:01.000 did you know that the Japanese actually carried out main campaigns, 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.680 two of them in Oregon? I didn't know that, Oh 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.440 you did. I'm a bit of a buff and then insane. Yeah. 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.280 I mean there's a lot of forgotten history or little 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.400 known history that you read it in. Uh. Thank god 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.240 for like the Internet, because someone will post an article 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.640 and say, I bet you never knew this, and then 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.800 you're like what, Yeah, that's pretty much the function of 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.440 the internet that what you just describe, you know, So 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.720 this one, I think I've learned about this from unsurprisingly 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.280 Uncle John's bathroom reader years and years and years ago. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.959 But definitely not in this kind of detail. It turns out. 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:44.240 Then in World War Two, in I believe in Armagansett, 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:48.720 New York, which is on Long Island, and ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:54.560 which is just south of Jacksonville. UM, Nazi saboteurs landed. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:59.839 They invaded America. Pretty remarkable, it really is. What's even 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:05.440 remarkable is how badly their operations went. Yeah, what's remarkable 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:10.920 is well, not remarkable, what's uh. Thankfully they chose a 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:15.360 bunch of dopes, um, half hearted dope, half hearted dopes 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.480 who I don't know if they didn't do their research. 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.760 We'll get into how they picked these these shmos. But 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.160 it didn't go so well. But if they had to 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.520 pick them like the right guys, it might have been 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.440 a whole different story. Oh yeah, totally in this war 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:37.480 and and the FBI, especially Jager Hoover, really lucked out 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.680 that these guys were half hearted dope. Well not if 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.520 you ask him. No, it was just you might as 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.080 well have worn a cape around the office, you know, 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:51.760 well he may have. And little else. So um, back 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.920 in World War two, even before World War tour, before 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.040 the US centered the Second World War Hitler had this 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:03.240 great fantasy of sending New York City up in flames, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.160 Like he really wanted to just destroy New York and 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.840 Verna von Broun, the guy who helped get America to 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.520 the Moon, was working on a rocket program that could 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.599 strike uh, the United States from Europe. That was one 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:23.200 thing never fully realized, um, because the war came to 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.680 an end before they could develop the right kind of missile. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.080 But they were working on it, and they were also 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.440 working on long range bombers. They could fly out of 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.839 Europe all the way to america'ss coast and bomb. Apparently 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.320 hit they used to literally sit around and watch like 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.000 film footage of cities burning and like fantasizes about New 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:46.240 York City. Crazy. Yeah, well he was pretty crazy, um. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.920 But he finally realized that, like, if he was going 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:54.160 to get New York, the best, most efficient, most at 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.680 hand way to do that was to send saboteurs into 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:02.240 the United States to infiltrate and do New York themselves. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.479 That's right, you know, terrorists essentially. Well, yeah, the only 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.839 thing that kept him from being considered full fledged just 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.920 straight up terrorists is because we were formally at war 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.839 with this country. So they were they were considered officially 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:21.760 spies and unofficially saboteurs. Yes, Uh should we shout out 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.320 the articles here? Yes, let's right off the bat. I read, well, 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.640 I read a few. I read one on uh damned interesting, 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.680 which was good. Uh. There was one you sent called 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:37.440 world War two German saboteurs invade America in nineteen two. Yeah, 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.800 that was on history Net. History Net, and I feel 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.760 like there was one more. There was a Spiegel article. 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.320 Oh yeah, that's one o UM called Operation past Storious 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:52.120 Hitler's unfulfilled dream of the New York in flames poor. 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:57.800 I know his dreams failed. So, uh, World War two 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.560 hadn't been raging for long for the U S when 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:04.040 this happened. It was right after uh Paul Harbor was bombed, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.200 and Hitler said, you know what, they think they're over there, 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:10.640 They're a long way from us, so they probably feel 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.240 pretty pretty safe. So let me undermine that and let 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:18.560 me devise this plan um. And it was originally going 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:22.159 to be a wave of saboteurs like every you know, 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.040 four to six weeks. They were going to be sending 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:30.039 in small teams of of terrorist slash spies to wreak 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.760 havoc on the US, and uh, thankfully it didn't work 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:35.719 out that way, so it was kind of scrapped. Yeah, 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.960 the the obver I think that's how you pronounce that 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.440 you're the one who knows German, Is that right? Yeah? 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:48.440 So that was the the basically the sabotage unit of 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.279 the German Military Intelligence Corps. And these guys had kind 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:56.880 of perfected their craft with explosives and terrorism and and 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.359 um all that jazz in your Pean theaters already in 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.160 the war. And so they set up a school, a 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.560 terrorist school, which supposedly these guys were trained in like 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.520 jiu jitsu as well as explosives and stuff like that. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.080 And I'll bet it looked a lot like um, enter 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.920 the Dragon in there, but with Germans, you know. Yeah. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.600 I wonder if they were training kung fu school on 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.000 an island somewhere, but this is in the woods. I 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.679 wonder if they in the Black forest perhaps. I wonder 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.480 if they were trained in pe knuckle and movie watching 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:34.360 and car buying I think that, and rolling over and 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.360 singing like a canary. So the the app there um 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.160 selected a man. His name was Walter Capp Or is 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.280 that Cappy Walter cop what Walter Capp, who was a pudgy, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.160 bull necked man as described in the history article, and 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.080 the reason that they selected him to head up this operation, 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.800 which Cap came to um nickname is Operation Pastorious, which 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.280 was named after Francis Daniel past Story is one of 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.880 the early German immigrants to the United States who arrived 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:09.200 in Philadelphia in three The reason they selected Cap for 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:13.800 this operation was because he had lived in America for 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:18.400 twelve years already, so he was he was he understood America, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.520 how it functioned, what targets should be struck, that kind 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:26.080 of stuff. And they said, select your teams, and so 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.440 he put a donkey on the wall and got a 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.880 tale with a little pin on it. Right now. What 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.040 he did was he did some research and he went 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.079 through the records of something called the Austlin Institute, and 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:42.000 they were big on getting Germans back to Germany ones 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.680 that had emigrated to the United States workout, yeah, okay, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:48.960 So specifically the ones who were looking he was looking 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.400 for ones who had been in the United States in 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.520 this case, and a lot of these people have been 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:56.320 in what was called the Boon or is it the 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:01.720 bund uh I would say it's a booned, the American booned, 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.680 which was like the basically the Nazi sympathizers in the 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.200 United States, and they would set up little shops all 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.559 over the country. Yeah, and they would speak out against 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:16.480 UM Franklin Roosevelt or UM speak in favor of fascism. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.280 And apparently they managed to get twenty thousand people at 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.360 a rally at Madison Square Garden once by holding a 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.760 Knicks game. Pretty much. I don't think the Knicks could 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.679 even get twenty people would come out to Madison Square. Um, 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:34.600 but they were so unpredictable and radical here in the 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:39.040 United States that even the Nazi Party officially distanced itself 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:43.680 from these guys officially. Unofficially they recruited from their ranks 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.000 specifically for Operation Pastorious. Yeah. So what he uh? He 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.720 found some some blue collar dudes, um. All but two 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.320 of them had been Nazi Party members, which was a 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.320 good start. Ford dropped off right off the bat, and 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.840 that left him with what would be U eight dudes, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.959 which they divided up into two teams of four, one 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:08.080 leader on each side and three dopes below them, with 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.440 with cap at the head of the whole thing. Yeah. 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.280 Even though he didn't come over to the United States 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.400 for the operation. He was just sort of running the 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.720 training initially. Yeah, and he was watching him do jiu jitsu. 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:27.160 I guess so you're in the hilarious Germans. I don't 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.960 think so. It just seems a little like, you know, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:35.679 neighborhood ninja camp kind of stuff. You know. Well, they 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.920 had to train in some sort of hand to hand combat. No, 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.400 they're saboteurs. They're not. They don't need to know that 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:42.960 they're not. They're supposed to know how to blow up 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.439 a bridge. Yeah, but what if they it caught in 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.559 the middle. I gotta like turn and run away jiu 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.480 jitsu somebody down. Now, you just run if you're a saboteur. Well, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.360 that's some foreshadow right there. So I hear the players 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.280 on on one on Team one, we'll call it Team 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:03.040 um Nights. How about that? That one? Sure? On Team Minds, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.880 you had the leader George John Dosh and he was 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:12.080 thirty nine. He was the oldest guy and uh thirty nine, 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:14.760 and he was picked because he was um. He was 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.200 a smooth talker, and he was apparently just seemed very American, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.360 which was you're gonna stick some Germans over there to 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.680 to be saboteurs. It's probably good if they can pass 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:28.440 themselves off as just regular good German Americans. Right. Plus 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.720 also you have the added benefit of not having to 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:36.319 teach them to speak colloquial English. Sure. Um, and they 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.840 already know the terrain, they know the culture. Where's Coney Island? 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.720 Vant the hotdog exactly? Yeah, so they were all good, right. Yeah, 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.200 was that count Dracula? Uh No, that was that was 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.760 my German saboteur. So that's why they went with the 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.760 guys who had already spent time in America. Plus they 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:01.000 it also showed, um, a pretty significant loyalty to your homeland, 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.960 the fatherland in this case, where when war breaks out, 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.960 you go back to where the war is being fought supported. Yeah, 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.600 you know what I mean. So they're like selecting from 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:17.360 the Ostlands Institute roles of emigrants who were also boond members. 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:19.959 It seemed like a just to knock it out of 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.360 the park group of guys. Yeah, so um, uh josh, 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.480 he was. He actually did, like he said, served in 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.720 the German Army in World War One, came to America, 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.920 worked as a waiter, and then in nineteen thirty nine said, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.520 you know what duty calls, I'm going back home. Um. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.360 The second guy on the first team, Ernest Peter Berger. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.800 He was supposedly a smart guy, and he had an 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.120 interesting story because he was he had long been a Nazi, 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.400 since they said, as you know, as long as Hitler 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:52.040 himself had been a Nazi. Yeah, he was part of 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.719 the beer hall push. Yeah, he was what you call 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.960 a what's the early adopter. He was Nazis, he really was. 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.240 And he he actually had fled Germany for the United 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.559 States because he was afraid he was going to get 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.680 brought up on brawling charges. That's right. He like to fight. Yeah, 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.840 And he stayed there for about six years and then 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.839 worked as a machinist in the Midwest, even joined the 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.760 National Guard, the U. S National Guard, and um became 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.120 an American citizen yep. And then he went back after 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.360 Hitler game power, right, Well, he went back mainly because 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.120 of the Great Depression, because the right yeah, but I 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.400 mean it coincided. But he was like, yeah, this place 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:33.640 stinks now yeah, and Hitler's in power, I'm gonna go 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.079 become a brown shirt and rough up people on the street, 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.160 which is what he did. Pretty much because he really 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.640 did love to fight. And um, the brown Shirts were 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.040 purged in the Night of the Long Knives by Hitler 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:53.000 and his cronies and um Burger was it was Burger right? Yeah. 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:58.960 He he managed to not be killed during that purge. Yeah, 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.520 so he was working with his buddy um Ernst Room 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.439 of the Stormtroopers like serious business, right, Rome was actually 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:12.120 killed during the perch Oh yeah, they put apparently they 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.679 put a pistol in his cell with him and gave 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.880 him ten minutes to kill himself. And he said, if 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.640 if you want me dead, Adolph's gonna have to do 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:25.320 it himself. And they came back and he was staying 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.040 there right, and Hitler is like, what is going on here? Um, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:30.960 and the guy was standing there with the shirt off, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.800 with his chest bear to him. Yeah, supposedly, and they 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.920 just shot him in the chess point blank and the 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.880 head of the Brown Shirts went down. So that didn't 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.160 work out for him, No, but Burger did survive this, Yeah, 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.800 he did survive and went off to college. But then 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:49.320 he wrote a a paper about the Gestapo that was 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.080 not too favorable and he got sent to a concentration 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.920 camp for his efforts for seventeen months, right, and then 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.200 when he was released, they said you can come out, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.480 but you have to go off with the army. Yeah, 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.600 they harassed his wife. It was I don't know that 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:09.640 he was the best pick, right, think we've antagonized, thrown 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.960 in prison and then forced into the army. We also 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:17.680 killed his boss, harassed his wife. Will trust him as 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.960 a savage as a team of one of eight, So 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.280 Burger is the right hand man to Dash's team on 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:29.200 Team Team mites E I n Z E I n Z. 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:32.640 And then there were other There were two other dudes, 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:37.480 Heinrich Henk, right, it's a great name, and Richard queerin Yes, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.160 And they were a couple of machinists who, um, we're 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:44.680 a couple of machinists. They've been in America for a 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:49.360 while back, and we're selected for this team. Yeah. Basically 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:54.880 they went back to Germany started working at Volkswagen and um, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:56.920 you know, I guess we're probably eager to leap on 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.080 h top secret job like this. It's probably appealing to 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.040 these guys, you know. So that was Team Ice. We'll 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:24.920 talk about teams right after this. So Chuck tell us 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:30.320 about the smiling faces on Team survive well, Josh teams 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.480 FY was led by a man named Edward Curling or 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:35.920 Edward I guess who is I take it as the 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.360 only competent person in this entire mission. Yeah, he seemed 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.320 like it, right, kind of a little more than the rest. 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.800 Comparatively speaking, he seemed like a criminal genius. Yeah, that's 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.360 a good point. Um. So he was also one of 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:56.040 had gone to American to work, married a German woman 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.080 there and then they worked together as butler, butler and 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.360 cook for a little while, and then he said, you 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.000 know what, I don't like you anymore. I think I 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:07.040 want an American woman. So he did that and then, uh, 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.520 when the war broke out, he tried to sail to Germany. Right, 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:12.720 So I'm not sure if he was a mastermind either. 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.640 Another thing about it, well, he showed a lot of initiative. Well, 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.639 good point, and he was turned back by the um 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.040 the coast Guard. But he finally made it to Germany 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.719 UM in nineteen forty and he ended up working at 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:29.040 the Ministry of Propaganda. Yeah, I guess, huh yeah, sure. 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:34.199 And when he tried to um sail to Germany that 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:38.840 one time, he actually had a guy with him named Um, 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.080 was it Herbert new Bauer. I believe that was a 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.040 new Bauer on his boat. Yeah, he was on that crew, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.680 and so he would have been turned back as well. So, um, 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.199 he was a natural fit, right, and each other and 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.320 Curling actually recommended Herman new Bauer uh to be part 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.760 of the team. He's like, he can hoist a sail. Yeah, 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:00.560 what else do you need? That he was in the 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.320 boone who cares that was the youngest member of his 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.040 crew at twenty two? Was Herbert helped? And um, he 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:09.600 moved to the U S when he was just five 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.520 years old. And so I don't know that he was 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.880 a great choice because he was practically American. Yeah, and 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:21.880 you know he was also not so smart, or put 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.720 it this way, experienced. He was not experienced, right, A 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.280 little a little green, a little wet behind the ears. Um. 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:33.200 And then the last guy, Werner Thiel, he surprised surprise 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.959 as a member of the boond and he was working 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:42.160 in a war plant. So just this weird hodgepodge rag 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.120 tag group of guys were selected. Only two people out 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.560 of the whole original twelve or had been in the military. 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.200 This sounds like a movie in the making, but it 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.520 just if it would have had a great third act, 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.679 it probably would already be a movie. Oh yeah, you 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:00.640 know what I'm saying. Yeah, it is lack a third act. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.280 I imagine like when if someone had tried to develop this, 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:05.320 like this sounds great so far, it's going great, and 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:10.560 then that's how it ends. Yeah, shel fit. Yeah. Um. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.840 So these guys are put together. They're sent to the 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:18.440 over school to learn jiu jitsu, and the old guy, 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.160 George Josh is like low kick low kick, Oh my hip, 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.359 yeah you know. Yeah. They were also studying like explosive 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:29.480 techniques and wiring, not just explosive jiu jitsu technique, but 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:35.000 real explosive wiring, detonation timers, all of this stuff. They 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.960 got to go on field trips to um power plants 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.320 and bridges and canals and see like where the weak 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.200 points were um and all of this took place over 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.400 an intensive eighteen days of training. That's it. They got 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.520 eighteen days of training. Yeah, and apparently Josh, the leader 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.440 of Team Inns, wasn't even I read one account this 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.760 said he basically kind of snoozed through most of it, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:00.520 which would go on to explain a few things later 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.119 it's hilarious. Eighteen days and you can't even stay awake 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:10.119 to learn how to blow something up. Seriously. Um, all right, one, 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:14.320 they were given their assignment, um, and these were I 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.800 mean this was pretty smart. The assignments were. They had 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.000 a good they had a good plan in place. Small 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.119 teams of dudes. Uh Dash's team was assigned to destroy 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:28.560 quite a few things. Um, hydro electric plants at Niagara Falls, 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:33.280 the Aluminum Company of America factory in Illinois, Tennessee, New 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:37.360 York three plants, and the Philadelphia Sault Company's cryolite plant, 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.879 which apparently supplies raw materials for aluminum. Right. And the 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.400 reason they want wanted to go after aluminium was because 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:48.119 aluminum production in the United States the output was greater 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.280 than all of Europe's both sides access and or no, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.120 I'm sorry. All of the access is aluminum production put together. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.840 And aluminium is a very very valuable thing. During war 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.720 you used to make air craft frames. You use it 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:07.119 to make um, the interiors of ships. Apparently you use 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.040 it for everything from like m R. E's, like the 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.800 field ration tink hands or well not tin cans, aluminum 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.679 can but all of this stuff comes in handy. And 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.560 if you can sure pin wheels like the good ones, 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.760 if you um put those man, you can cut your 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.760 finger off with one of those things. Uh. If you 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.560 can cripple aluminum production, you can put a serious thing 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:30.600 in the wartime effort. Yeah, it was. It was a 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.159 smart play. Um. And then they are also told to 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:38.679 bomb um locks on the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:42.959 and Pittsburgh. Yes, so disrupting transportation that would have been 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.879 a huge deal. They would just strap a bomb to 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.960 a pack mule that was supposed to be pulling a 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.920 boat along the canal and kaboom. So that's team mines. Yeah, 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.159 team spy curling steam. They said, all right, you guys, 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.680 we want you to concentrate on railroad because we saw 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.280 during the American Civil War destroying railroads is a great 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:07.720 way to cripple and army. Um they blew. And I 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.159 don't think that's where they got the idea. You know, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.760 it's long been a wartime thing to destroy railroads. I 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:20.880 see Pennsylvania Railroad station at Newark. Uh, the Horseshoe Bend 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:25.480 section of railroad track near Altoona, Pennsylvania, Chesapeake and Ohio 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.800 railroad parts of it, the New York Central Railroads, Hell 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:33.440 Gate Bridge locks and canals in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Ohio, 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:37.280 and the water supply system of New York. Right. And 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:40.040 they were also told to carry out acts of general 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:46.480 terrorism to scare people in general, bombing Jewish own department stores, UM, 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:51.920 locker rooms at UM train stations, just basically just foment 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.160 like real fear and make Americans feel like, wow, America 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:59.800 is being struck. Yeah, we're vulnerable. Um. And so the 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:04.760 guy said, okay, let's do this, and they they they 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:08.760 shipped out on two different subs from Lorient, France. U 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:13.720 boats Baby, this is Germany, Yeah, okay, U boats. Um. 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:17.840 They left on U five eighty four in U two 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:23.240 oh two and um they had each team had four boxes, 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:26.480 three of like dynamite and other explosives, and then a 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:31.480 fourth box of things like timers and UM detonators and 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:36.480 wiring and all that stuff. Sausages sure, just in case 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:38.439 they got a little hungry on the trip. Yeah it 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:41.399 was Germans after all. They also had a lot of 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:46.239 money and roughly about a million dollars today UM. At 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.439 the time each group had fifty grand and they needed 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:51.760 this to travel and to live and to bribe people 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:54.440 and pay folks off right in cash. So they had 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:57.840 and what's equal to about a million dollars today in 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:00.680 cash on them and nothing greater than a fifty bill. 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:03.440 That's a lot of money, like physically a lot of money. 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:07.359 Each member was given nine thousand five of which it 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.320 was his very funny like team leader is going to 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.359 hold onto this and you can keep for yourself and 0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:16.919 your money belt and only carry like four fifty in 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:20.840 your pocket, and um, that should be enough dough to 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:23.200 carry out this plan was the idea, yep, and then 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:27.880 the uh. The team leaders also got handkerchiefs that had 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:32.200 um the names and addresses and things of contacts in 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.959 invisible ink written on them. Yeah. So this is like 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:41.399 a bona fide spy, yes, bionage terrorism operation. Again, great 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:46.080 movie in the making so far, so the m And 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:48.639 again I think you said before that like Hitler was 0:24:48.680 --> 0:24:53.159 planning on sending several waves or wave after wave. Apparently 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:55.399