Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America | Michael Dobbs

Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America | Michael Dobbs | Amazing Nonfiction

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Saboteurs: The Naz...

	Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America Michael Dobbs Vintage, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In 1942, Hitler's Nazi regime trained eight operatives for a mission to infiltrate America and do devastating damage to its infrastructure. It was a plot that proved historically remarkable for two reasons: the surprising extent of its success and the astounding nature of its failure. Soon after two U-Boats packed with explosives arrived on America's shores?one on Long Island, one in Florida?it became clear that the incompetence of the eight saboteurs was matched only by that of American authorities. In fact, had one of the saboteurs not tipped them off, the FBI might never have caught the plot's perpetrators?though a dozen witnesses saw a submarine moored on Long Island.
As told by Michael Dobbs, the story of the botched mission and a subsequent trial by military tribunal, resulting in the swift execution of six saboteurs, offers great insight into the tenor of the country--and the state of American intelligence--during World War II and becomes what is perhaps a cautionary tale for our times.

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Excellent book

I'm still not quite sure why I liked this book so much. Let me just say Dobbs does a terrific job (aided by some very detailed sources) of outlining a story that is bizarre, funny, and strangely compelling. It's one of those books where you keep coming across events so strange you have to tell someone about them. Also, it's quite timely, as some of the legislation that came out of the Operation Pastorius trials is currently being used to the hilt by the Bush administration, even though the key Supreme Court justice in those decisions later said he regretted them.

If you like it, I would also recommend "In Harm's Way" by Douglas Stanton, about the Indianapolis disaster. That's more of a horror story than a comedy, but it also is filled with historical ironies and well-delineated characters.

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Amazing Nonfiction

One of the first actually enjoyable nonfiction books I have ever read. A moving, suspenseful, accurate tale by Michael Dobbs - totally worth reading no matter what!
After reading it, I changed the subject of my paper to Operation Pastorius because of the wealth of knowledge I had about it from reading this enjoyable book!

Timely, well told, well documented drama...and it's all true!

Truth is certainly stranger and more entertaining than fiction in this case. This fast paced account of the 8 man team of Nazis sent to sabotage the US railyway system during WWII is so colorfully told, it's like a movie. The fact that it's a true story makes it all the more fascinating.

Famous figures like FDR and J Edgar Hoover and not so famous ones like Atty General Biddle and the German conspirators, all come to live and the stories (in this age of the Patriot Act, public paranoia and prisoner abuse scandals) are especially relevent in today's political climate.

Thoroughly enjoyable and informative read for buffds of both history and spy stories.

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Much ado about almost nothing

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."

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Tight, concise, fast-moving narrative

Well-written cautionary tale of eight amateurish Nazi saboteurs sent to the US by submarine in 1942. One of the two groups landed on Long Island, and were immediately spotted by a Coast Guard watchman. Not to worry, both the would-be spies and the Coast Guard botched events so royally that the spies got away, but then the spy leader called the FBI to turn the group in the next day!

The second group of four faired somewhat better, landing in Florida and making their way to Chicago and New York before being captured based on the rambling 250-page confession the Long Island leader gave to the FBI. Within two weeks all eight were in custody.

Dobbs writes a tight, concise, fast-moving narrative, that frames the bizarre and unusual aspects of the planning, capture, and trial, while dealing with the contemporary and current legal and political issues of how to deal with plain-clothes spies trying to cause pain and suffering in the United States.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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