Operation Pastorius — The Nazi Saboteurs on American Soil

Eight German saboteurs were landed on U.S. soil by U-boats in June 1942 — four near Amagansett, Long Island, New York, and four near Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida — as part of a sabotage plan code-named Operation Pastorius. They carried high explosives, incendiary devices, and detailed plans to target aluminum factories, hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls, key railroad facilities, and water purification plants. One saboteur, George John Dasch — who had lived in America before the war — had a crisis of conscience, changed into civilian clothes, walked into FBI headquarters in Washington, and exposed the entire operation. All eight were convicted by a military tribunal personally convened by FDR. Six were executed in the electric chair at the D.C. jail. Dasch and one other were given prison sentences (Dasch spent 26 years in prison before eventually being pardoned). The FBI covered their landing site and planted evidence to suggest the Germans had come by a captured boat.