The infamously botched Nazi infiltration of Long Island in 1942 is detailed in newly released documents (below) from Britain's National Archive. Instead of trying to establish a Third Reich beach head in East Hampton, their mission was to sabotage American factories and hinder the war effort. But hings did not go according to plan, and the German agents in this declassified report come off like a bunch of bumbling Sergeant Schultzes.
The trouble started almost immediately when the submarine delivering the Germans ran aground. Then the rubber boat they were paddling to get to shore in Amagansett was intercepted by the Coast Guard. They were able to successfully bribe them with $300, but once they dispersed to carry out their missions, leader George John Dasch turned himself over to the FBI and ratted everyone out. Another would-be saboteur got drunk at a bar and told everyone he was a Nazi agent.
Ultimately, the knucklehead Nazis were rounded up before a single factory could be sabotaged. "It was only owing to the laziness or stupidity of the American coastguards that this submarine was not attacked by USA forces," wrote MI5 intelligence officer Victor Rothschild, a Brit whose country would have been living under Hitler's rule if not for USA forces.
