Nazi Germany's plan to blow up American infrastructure in 1942 collapsed within days when the lead saboteur walked into an FBI office and turned everyone in.
Operation Pastorius was a Nazi German sabotage mission launched in June 1942, named after Franz Daniel Pastorius, the first organized German immigrant to America. Its goal was to cripple U.S. war production by destroying hydroelectric plants, aluminum factories, railroads, and chemical facilities.
Eight German agents — all former U.S. residents, two of them American citizens — were trained at a secret estate near Berlin in explosives, incendiaries, and forged identities. They were equipped with roughly $175,000 in cash and buried their sabotage equipment in waterproof boxes upon landing.
The first team landed by U-boat on a beach at Amagansett, New York on June 12, 1942 — and almost immediately ran into a young Coast Guard patrol officer. The leader, George Dasch, bribed him with cash and let him go, confident the mission was still intact. It wasn't.
Within days, Dasch had a change of heart. He traveled to New York City, called the FBI, and — when they didn't immediately take him seriously — traveled to Washington and turned himself in personally, bringing along $84,000 in cash to prove his story. The second team, which had landed in Florida, was arrested shortly after.
All eight men were tried before a secret military tribunal authorized by President Roosevelt. The proceedings lasted just three weeks. All eight were found guilty and sentenced to death.
Roosevelt commuted the sentences of Dasch and Burger, the two men who had cooperated with authorities — Dasch received 30 years, Burger life imprisonment. The remaining six were executed by electric chair on August 8, 1942, just 56 days after their arrival on American soil.
Dasch and Burger were quietly deported to West Germany in 1948 under President Truman. Dasch spent the rest of his life trying, unsuccessfully, to rehabilitate his reputation in Germany, where he was widely considered a traitor. In the U.S., the operation was used as justification for expanded wartime military tribunals.