WEBVTT - Selects: The Time Nazis Invaded Florida 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.239 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh, and for this week's Select, 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.320 I've decided it's time for a rousing bout of goofy 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:10.200 history with our twenty fifteen episode on the Nazis who 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.440 invaded the United States during World War Two. I won't 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.160 give anything away, but suffice to say it's the kind 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.480 of topic that records itself. So relax. Let me give 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.280 you a quick shoulder up there, very nice and enjoy 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:31.280 this classic stuff you should know at Welcome to Stuff 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:40.400 you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.760 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:53.200 Jerry's over there. This is stuff you should no. Okay, 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.560 ready for this. I'm ready. We're gonna channel our stuff 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.440 you missed in history class. Yeah. I'm not sure if 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.480 they've done this or not. Have you are you? I 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:06.000 don't know, So, Chuck, I don't know if you know 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.000 this one because it didn't come up in this article. 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.480 But back in World War Two, did you know that 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.360 the Japanese actually carried out bombing campaigns, two of them 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.840 in Oregon? I didn't know that, Oh you did. I'm 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.320 a bit of a buff and that insane. Yeah. I 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.839 mean there's a lot of forgotten history or a little 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.120 known history that you read it in. Thank God for 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.080 like the Internet, because someone will post an article and say, 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.960 I bet you never knew this, yeah, and then you're like, what, Yeah, 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.440 that's pretty much the function of the Internet what you 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.920 just describe, you know. Sure, So this one, I think 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.600 I've learned about this from unsurprisingly Uncle John's Bathroom Reader 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.320 years and years and years ago. Oh yeah, but definitely 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.960 not in this kind of detail. It turns out that 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:55.200 in World War Two, in nineteen forty two, I believe 0:01:55.960 --> 0:02:00.080 in Armagansett, New York, which is on Long Island, and 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:05.680 ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, which is just south of Jacksonville. Yeah. Um, 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:12.120 Nazi saboteurs landed, they invaded America. Yeah, pretty remarkable, it 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.519 really is. What's even more remarkable is how badly their 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:22.000 operations went. Yeah. What's remarkable is well, not remarkable, what's uh. 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:27.840 Thankfully they chose a bunch of dopes, um, half hearted dope, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.320 half hearted dopes who I don't know if they didn't 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.600 do their research. We'll get into how they picked these 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.679 these schmows. Yeah, but um, it didn't go so well, 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.160 I really did. But if they had to pick them 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.680 like the right guys, it might have been a whole 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.560 different story. Oh yeah, totally in this war and the FBI, 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.919 especially Jager Hoover, really lucked out that these guys were 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.080 half hearted dope. Well not if you ask him. No, 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:57.639 it was just you might as well have worn a 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.560 cape around the office. Yeah, you know, well he may 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:06.280 have a little else. So back in World War two, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.440 even before World War Tour, before the US centered the 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:14.119 Second World War, Hitler had this great fantasy of sending 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.040 New York City up in flames, like he really wanted 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.760 to just destroy New York. And Werner von Braun, the 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.919 guy who helped get America to the Moon, was working 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:31.240 on a rocket program that could strike the United States 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:36.120 from Europe. That was one thing never fully realized because 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:38.000 the war came to an end before they could develop 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.520 the right kind of missile. But they were working on it, yea. 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.320 And they were also working on long range bombers they 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.440 could fly out of Europe all the way to America's 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.640 east coast and bomb. Yeah. Apparently Hitler used to literally 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.960 sit around and watch like film footage of cities burning 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:57.120 and like fantasizes about New York City. Crazy. Yeah, well 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:02.640 he was pretty crazy, sure, but he finally realized that, like, 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.200 if he was going to get New York, the best, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.120 most efficient, most at hand way to do that was 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:13.560 to send saboteurs into the United States to infiltrate and 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:19.680 do New York themselves. That's right, you know, terrorists essentially. Well, yeah, 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.880 the only thing that kept him from being considered full 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.000 fledge just straight up terrorists is because we were formally 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.160 at war with this country. So yeah, they were. They 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:34.840 were considered officially spies and unofficially saboteurs. Yes. Uh, should 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.000 we shout out the articles here? Yes, let's right off 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.600 the bat. I read, well, I read a few. I 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:45.159 read one on Damned Interesting, which was good. There was 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:49.080 one you sent called World War two German saboteurs invade 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:52.840 America in nineteen forty two. Yeah, that was on history Net. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:55.080 History Net, and I feel like there was one more. 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.320 There was a Der Spiegel article. Oh yeah, that's one 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.359 of um called Operation from Pastorious Hitler's unfulfilled dream of 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.040 the New York in flames. Yeah, poor Hitler, I know 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:11.760 his dreams failed. So uh, World War two hadn't been 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:13.719 raging for long for the US when this happened. It 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:19.200 was right after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and Hitler said, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.120 you know what, they think they're over there, They're a 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.359 long way from us, so they probably feel pretty pretty safe. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:29.640 So let me undermine that and let me devise this plan. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.720 And it was originally going to be a wave of 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.840 saboteurs like every you know, four to six weeks. They 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:41.960 were going to be sending in small teams of terrorists 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.600 slash spies to wreak havoc on the US, and thankfully 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.320 it didn't work out that way, so it was kind 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.839 of scrapped. Yeah, the the ob fair, I think that's 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:54.760 how you pronounce it. You're the one who knows German 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:59.080 up fair, Is that right? Yeah? So that was the 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:03.160 UM the basically the sabotage unit of the German Military 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.760 Intelligence Corps. And these guys had kind of perfected their 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:12.400 craft with explosives and terrorism and all that jazz, yeah, 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.240 in European theaters already in the war. And so they 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:21.039 set up a school, a terrorist school, which supposedly these 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.360 guys were trained in like jiu jitsu as well as explosives, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.000 and stuff like that. Yeah, and I'll bet it looked 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.800 a lot like um enter the dragon in there, but 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.360 with Germans, you know. Yeah. I wonder if they were 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.480 training kung fu school on an island somewhere, but this 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.400 is in the woods. I wonder if they in the 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.040 Black forest perhaps, Yeah, I wonder if they were trained 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.159 in pinuckle and movie watching and car buying. I think 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.560 that just came naturally and rolling over and singing like 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:53.359 a canary. So the ab there selected a man. His 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.680 name was Walter Kapp or is that Cappy? Walter Kopp 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.880 what Walter Kapp, who was a pudgy, bull necked man 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.320 has described in the history article and the reason that 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.320 they selected him to head up this operation, which Cap 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:13.000 came to nickname his Operation Pastorius, which is named after 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.720 Francis Daniel Pastorius, one of the early German immigrants to 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.200 the United States who arrived in Philadelphia in sixteen eighty three. 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.640 The reason they selected Cap for this operation was because 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:29.400 he had lived in America for twelve years already, so 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.280 he was was he understood America, how it functioned, what 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.520 targets should be struck, that kind of stuff, And they said, 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:41.400 select your teams yeah, and so he put a donkey 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.960 on the wall and got a tale with a little 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.280 pin on it. Right. Now, what he did was he 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:49.320 did some research and he went through the records of 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.559 something called the Auslin Institute. Yea, and they were big 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.920 on getting Germans back to Germany, right, ones that had 0:07:55.960 --> 0:08:00.480 emigrated to the United States work out. Yeah, okay, So 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.600 specifically the ones who were looking he was looking for 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.000 ones who had been in the United States, yeah, in 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.080 this case, and a lot of these people had been 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:09.880 in what was called the boond or is it the 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:15.200 bund I would say, it's a booned, the American boond, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:19.280 which is like the basically the Nazi sympathizers in the 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.640 United States, right, And they would set up little shops 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.680 all over the country. Yeah, and they would speak out 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:30.040 against m. Franklin Roosevelt or speak in favor of fascism. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.840 And apparently they managed to get twenty thousand people at 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.960 a rally at Madison Square Garden once by holding a 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.320 Knicks game. Pretty much, I don't think the Knicks could 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.120 even get twenty thousand people that come out in Madison Square. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:48.160 But they were so unpredictable and radical here in the 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.640 United states that even the Nazi Party officially distanced itself 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.800 from these guys. Yeah, officially. Unofficially they recruited from their 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:02.000 ranks specifically for Operation Pestorious. Yeah, so what he found 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.640 some some blue collar dudes. All but two of them 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.400 had been Nazi Party members, which was a good start. 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.320 Ford dropped off right off the bat, and that left 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:15.320 him with what would be eight dudes, which they divided 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.200 up into two teams of four, one leader on each 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:23.040 side and the three dopes below them, with Cap at 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.559 the head of the whole thing. Yeah, even though he 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.480 didn't come over to the United States for the operation, 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.120 he was just sort of running the training initially. Yeah, 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.160 and he was watching him do jiu jitsu, I guess. 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:38.720 So so here in the hilarious Germans doing jiu jitsu 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.760 in that really I don't think so. It just seems 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:46.400 a little like, you know, neighborhood ninja camp kind of stuff. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.360 You know, Well, they had to train in some sort 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.960 of hand to hand combat. Now they're saboteurs. They're not. 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:55.920 They don't need to know that they're not. They're supposed 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.080 to know how to blow up a bridge. Yeah, but 0:09:58.160 --> 0:09:59.560 what if like it caught in the middle, they got 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.800 to like turn and run away jiu jitsu somebody down. Now, 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.160 you just run if you're a saboteur. Well that's some 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.800 foreshadowing right there. So I hear the players on one 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:14.080 on Team one, we'll call it Team US. How about that? 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.920 Is that one? Sure? Okay? On Team eints, you had 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:21.040 the leader, George John Dash and he was thirty nine. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.600 He was the oldest guy and he I know, thirty nine, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.440 and he was picked because he was he was a 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.760 smooth talker, and he was apparently just seemed very American, 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.880 which was if you're gonna stick some Germans over there 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.000 to to be saboteurs, it's probably good if they can 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.560 pass themselves off as just regular good German Americans. Right. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.199 Plus also you have the added benefit of not having 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:49.280 to teach them to speak colloquial English. Sure, um, and 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.600 they already know the terrain, they know the culture. Where's 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.839 Coney Island? Right? Ivanta hotdog? Exactly? Yeah? So they were 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.480 all good, right? Yeah? Was that Count Dracula? Oh no, 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:05.680 that was that was my German sabatur. So that's why 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:07.840 they went with the guys who had already spent time 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:12.120 in America. Plus they it also showed, um, a pretty 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:16.600 significant loyalty to your homeland, the fatherland in this case. Yeah, 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.920 where when war breaks out, you go back to where 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.800 the war is being fought. Sure supported, Yeah, you know 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.320 what I mean. Yeah, so they're like selecting from the 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.920 Ostlands Institute roles of emigrants who were also boond members. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.480 It seemed like a a just a knock it out 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.920 of the park group of guys. Yeah. So, um, josh, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.040 he was. He actually did, like you said, served in 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.680 the German Army in World War One, came to America, 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.520 worked as a waiter, and then in nineteen thirty nine said, 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.200 you know what duty calls, I'm going back home. The 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.679 second guy on the first team, Ernest peter Berger. He 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.840 was supposedly a smart guy, and he had an interesting 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.680 story because he was he had long been a Nazi, 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.959 since they said, as you know, as long as Hitler 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:05.640 himself had been a Nazi. Yeah, he was part of 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.040 the beer hall push. Yeah, he was a what you 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.960 call as early adopter. He was a Nazism. Yeah, he 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:16.320 really was. And he actually had fled Germany for the 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.120 United States because he was afraid he was gonna get 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.280 brought up on brawling charges. That's right. He liked to fight. Yeah, 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.400 And he stayed there for about six years and then 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.400 worked as a machinist in the Midwest, even joined the 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.440 National Guard, the US National Guard, yeah, and became an 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.079 American citizen yep. And then he went back after Hitler 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.000 game power. Right. Well, he went back mainly because of 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.560 the Great Depression, because oh is that right? Yeah, but 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.680 I mean it coincided. But he was like, yeah, this 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.120 place stinks now, yeah, and Hitler's in power, I'm gonna 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.200 go become a brown Shirt and rough up people on 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.360 the street, which is what he did pretty much because 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.080 he really did love to fight. And the brown Shirts 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.120 were purged in the Night of the Long Knives by 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:04.640 Hitler and his cronies. Yeah, and um Burger was it 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:10.440 was Burger right. Yeah. He managed to not be killed 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.600 during that purge. Yeah. So he was working with his 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:19.920 buddy um Ernst room of the Stormtroopers like serious business. Right. 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:24.360 Rome was actually killed during the purge. Oh yeah, they 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.760 put apparently they put a pistol in his cell with 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.480 him and gave him ten minutes to kill himself. Yeah, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.640 and he said, if if you want me dead, Adolph's 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.600 gonna have to do it himself. And they came back 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.559 and he was staying there, right, and Hitler's like, what 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.600 is going on here? Um? And the guy was standing 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.080 there with the shirt off, with his chest beard to him. 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.280 Yeah supposedly, and they just shot him in the chess 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.440 point blank. Yeah. And the head of the brown shoots 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.480 went down. So that didn't work out for him, No, 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.720 But Burger did survive this. Yeah, he did survive and 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.320 went off to college. But then he wrote a a 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.240 paper about the Gestapo that was not too favorable and 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.280 he got sent to a concentration camp for his efforts 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.400 for seventeen months. Right, And then when he was released, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.360 they said you can come out, but you have to 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.120 go off with the army. Yeah, they harassed his wife. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.920 It was I don't know that he was the best 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:22.960 pick right now that I think we've antagonized, yea, put 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.720 thrown in prison and then forced into the army. Sure 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:30.480 we also killed his boss, Yeah, harassed his wife. We'll 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.160 trust him as a sabbitude as a team of one 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.720 of eight, right, so Burger is the right hand man 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.680 to dash his team on team team mites e I 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.560 n z e I n z okay, and then there 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.360 were other There were two other dudes, Heinrich heink right, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:52.000 it's a great name, and Richard queerin Yes, And they 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.200 were a couple of machinists who, um, were a couple 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.000 of machinists. They've been in America for a while, came 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.920 back and and we're selected for this team. Yeah. Basically 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.400 they went back to Germany started working at Volkswagen and um, 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:10.480 you know, I guess we're probably eager to leap on 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.640 a top secret job like this. It's probably appealing to 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.640 these guys, you know. So that was Team ICE. We'll 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:37.080 talk about Team It's yeah, right after this, you know, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.840 so Chuck tell us about the smiling faces on TEAMSVI, well, Josh. 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.000 Teams FY was led by a man named Edward Curling 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:49.760 or Edward. I guess who is I take it as 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.120 the only competent person in this entire mission. Yeah, he 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.120 seemed like it, right, kind of a little more than 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.680 the rest. Yeah, comparatively speaking, he seemed like a criminal genius. Yeah, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.520 that's a good point. So he was also one of 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.120 had gone to America in nineteen twenty nine to work, 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.920 married a German woman there and then they worked together 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.240 as butler butler and cook for a little while, and 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.840 then he said, you know what, I don't like you anymore. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.200 I think I wanted an American woman. So he did that, 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.800 and then when the war broke out, he tried to 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.840 sail to Germany. Right, So I'm not sure if he 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.080 was a mastermind either, now that they think about it. Well, 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.720 he showed a lot of initiative. Well, good point, and 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.200 he was turned back by the coast Guard. But he 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.960 finally made it to Germany in nineteen forty and he 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.160 ended up working at the Ministry of Propaganda. Yeah, I 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.000 guess with Girdels huh. Yeah, sure. And when he tried 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:50.120 to sail to Germany that one time, he actually had 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.680 a guy with him named um, was it Hermbert new Bauer. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.200 I believe I was a new Bauer on his boat. Yeah, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.840 he was on that crew, and so he would have 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.400 been turned back as well. So he was a natural fit, right, 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:07.320 and he knew each other and Curling actually recommended Herman 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.960 Neubauer to be part of the team. He's like, he 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.880 can hoist a sail. Yeah, what else do you need 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.639 to know? He was in the boond who Cares that 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.440 was the youngest member of his crew at twenty two 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:23.200 was Herbert helped and he moved to the US when 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.200 he was just five years old. And so I don't 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:27.879 know that he was a great choice because he was 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:33.159 practically American. Yeah, and you know he was also not 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.639 so smart, or put it this way, experienced. He was 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.480 not experienced, right, A little, a little green, a little 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.600 wept behind the ears. And then the last guy, Werner Thiele, 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.240 he surprised surprise as a member of the boond and 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.480 he was working in a war plant. So just this 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:59.359 weird hodgepodge rag tag group of guys were selected. Only 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:01.720 two people well out of the whole original twelve or 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:04.560 had been in the military. Yeah, this sounds like a 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.320 movie in the making. Oh yeah, but it just if 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.320 it would have had a great third act, it probably 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.960 would already be a movie. Oh yeah, you know what 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.879 I'm saying. Yeah, it is lacking a third act. I 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.439 imagine like when if someone had tried to develop this 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.359 or like, this sounds great so far, it's going great, 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:24.600 and then oh that's how it ends. Yeah, shelf it. Yeah, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.000 so these guys are put together, they're sent to the 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.200 obver school, Yeah, to learn jiu jitsu, and the oldest guy, 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.320 George Dash is like low kick, low kick, oh my hip, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.520 yeah you know. Yeah. They were also studying like explosive 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:43.280 techniques and right wiring, not just explosive jiu jitsu technique, right, 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:48.199 but real explosive right yeah, wiring, detonation timers, all of 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.960 this stuff. They got to go on field trips to 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.080 power plants and bridges and canals and see like where 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.960 the weak points were. And all of this took place 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.320 over an intensive eighteen days of training. That's it. They 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.320 got eighteen days of training. Yeah, and apparently Josh, the 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.480 leader of Team EZ, wasn't even I read one account 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:11.959 this said he basically kind of snoozed through most of it, 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:14.680 which would go on to explain a few things later. 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.920 It's hilarious. Yeah, eighteen days and you can't even stay 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:23.400 awake to learn how to blow something up. Seriously, all right. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.359 On May twenty third, they were given their assignment and 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.440 these were I mean, this was pretty smart. The assignments were. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:32.359 They had a good they had a good plan in place, 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:37.280 small teams of dudes. Josh's team was assigned to destroy 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:42.640 quite a few things hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls makes sense. 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.760 The Aluminum Company of America, the factory in Illinois, Tennessee, 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.840 New York. Yeah, three plants, and the Philadelphia Sault Company's 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.879 crylite plant, which apparently supplies raw materials for aluminum. Right. 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.320 And the reason they wanted to go after aluminum was 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.840 because aluminum production in the United States, that output was 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.520 greater than all of Europe's both sides access hands or no, 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.240 I'm sorry. All of the axis is aluminum production put together. 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.960 And aluminium is a very very valuable thing. During war. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.000 You used to make aircraft frames. You use it to 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:21.600 make the interiors of ships. Apparently you use it for 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:26.040 everything from like MRIs like the field ration, tin hands 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.480 or well not tin cans, aluminum can. Yeah, but all 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.919 of the stuff comes in handy and wheels. If you 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.640 can sure pinwheels like the good ones. Yeah, if you 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:37.440 put those, man, you can cut your finger off with 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.360 one of those things. Yeah. If you can cripple aluminum production, 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.200 you can put a serious thing in the wartime effort. Yeah, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.959 it was. It was a smart play. And then they 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:51.280 are also told to bomb locks on the Ohio River 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.560 between Louisville Kentucky and Pittsburgh. Yes, so disrupting transportation, sure, 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:58.600 that would have been a huge deal. They would just 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.439 strap a bomb a pack mule that was supposed to 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.480 be pulling a boat along the canal and kaboom. So 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:11.560 that's team mines. Yeah, team spy curling steam. They said, 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:13.600 all right, you guys, we want you to concentrate on 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.560 railroads because we saw during the American Civil War destroying 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.680 railroads is a great way to crippling army. Sure, they blew. 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:23.880 And I don't think that's where they got the idea. 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:27.320 You know, it's long been a wartime thing to destroy railroads. 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:34.840 I see Pennsylvania Railroad station at Newark, right, the Horseshoe 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:39.320 Bend section of railroad track near Altoona, Pennsylvania, Chesapeake and 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.639 Ohio Railroad parts of it, the New York Central Railroads, 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:47.600 hell Gate Bridge locks and canals, and Saint Louis Cincinnati, Ohio, 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.399 and the water supply system of New York right. And 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.200 they were also told to carry out acts of general 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.400 terrorism to scare people in general. Yeah, bombing Jewish own 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:04.320 department stores, UM locker rooms at um train stations, just 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.840 basically just foment like real fear and make Americans feel like, wow, 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:13.600 America is being struck. Yeah, we're vulnerable, right, um. And 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:17.399 so the guy said, okay, let's do this, and they 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:22.480 they they shipped out on two different subs from Lorient France. 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:28.200 U boats baby, this is Germany. Yeah, okayts U boats yeah. Um. 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.960 They left on U five eighty four and U two 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:37.439 O two and um they had each team had four boxes, 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.600 three of like dynamite and other explosives, and then a 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:45.480 fourth box of things like timers and um, detonators and 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.640 wiring and all that stuff. Sausages sure, just in case 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:52.560 they got a little hungry on the trail. Yeah, it 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:56.199 was Germans after all. They also had a lot of money, 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:00.760 roughly about a million dollars today um. At the time, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.960 each group had fifty grand and they needed this to 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:06.280 travel and to live and to bribe people and pay 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.160 folks off, right in cash. So they had yeah, what's 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.520 equal to about a million dollars today in cash on 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.200 them in nothing greater than a fifty dollar bill. It's 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.600 a lot of money, yeah, like physically a lot of money. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.200 Each member was given nine thousand and five of which 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.480 which is very funny. Like team leader is going to 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.440 hold on to this and you can keep for yourself 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.600 and your money belt and only carry like four hundred 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:34.560 and fifty in your pocket, and that should be enough 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:36.880 dough to carry out this plan, was the idea. Yep. 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:41.680 And then the team leaders also got handkerchiefs. Yeah, that 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:46.879 had the names and addresses and things of contacts invisible 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:50.199 ink written on them. Yeah. So this is like a 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:56.240 bona fide spy. Yespionage terrorism operation. Again, great movie in 0:23:56.280 --> 0:24:00.760 the making so far. Yep. So the and again I 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.320 think you said before that like Hitler was planning on 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:07.880 sending several waves or wave after wave. Apparently the schedule 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:10.040 was every six weeks they were going to send one, 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:12.760 one or two teams to the United States. Yeah, I got. 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:16.200 I mean it was a really smart and scary plane 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:20.679 because catching, you know, a tiny team of four guys 0:24:21.280 --> 0:24:25.359 who can assimilate as Americans or at least good German Americans, 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:29.960 that's that's tough to catch. Yes, So Chuck, Yes, you 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:34.800 two O two, which actually left two days after U 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:39.000