As a Jacksonville native, it was fascinating to dive a little deeper into the history of Jacksonville’s role in Operation Pastorius, Adolf Hitler’s scheme to wreak havoc in the U.S. during WWII.
Operation Pastorius: Bringing the War to America
Hitler’s plan was simple: to attack New York City to its core, striking fear in the eyes of American citizens. Whether that meant dropping bombs, sending kamikaze planes, or training spies to take out the homeland from the inside, he was determined to bring the violence of WWII to the states.
Landing in Ponte Vedra Beach
 | So on June 16, 1942, two groups of trained Nazi agents - two of them being American citizens - landed on the shores of Ponte Vedra Beach, just four miles south of the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. These particular agents went through extensive training in the use of explosives and delayed timing devices. Their mission was to destroy key economic targets, including bridges, railroads, defense factories, and water supplies. |
Aside from an overall national panic, a disruption in America's industrial production would stop us from being able to manufacture and transport supplies to our troops over in Europe.
Dropped off by the German submarine U-584 and coming to shore on a raft, "Both groups landed wearing complete or partial German uniforms to ensure treatment as prisoners of war rather than as spies if they were caught in the act of landing,” according to the FBI.
They buried their German uniforms and put on civilian clothes. They also buried boxes of explosives, cash, and other supplies in the dunes along the beach. They planned on retrieving these materials in the near future.
Dropped off by the German submarine U-584 and coming to shore on a raft, "Both groups landed wearing complete or partial German uniforms to ensure treatment as prisoners of war rather than as spies if they were caught in the act of landing,” according to the FBI.
They buried their German uniforms and put on civilian clothes. They also buried boxes of explosives, cash, and other supplies in the dunes along the beach. They planned on retrieving these materials in the near future.
Explosives and other equipment that were buried along Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
The group left the beach and asked for the bus schedule to Jacksonville from a local Ponte Vedra Beach store employee. The spies then took the bus downtown and caught a train to Cincinnati. They split up, two of them heading to Chicago and the other two to New York.
Little did these men know that Operation Pastorius was already falling apart.
Little did these men know that Operation Pastorius was already falling apart.
The Long Island Snitch
 | Just three days earlier on June 13, a separate group of four Nazi agents landed on a beach in Long Island, New York just past midnight. With the same objective as the group that landed in Florida, they too began burying their uniforms, incendiaries, and equipment when a Coast Guardsman on the beach suddenly spotted them. Describing the brief interaction between the Coast Guardsman and the four Nazi agents, the FBI states: |
He was unarmed and very suspicious of them, more so when they offered him a bribe to forget they had met. He ostensibly accepted the bribe to lull their fears and promptly reported the incident to his headquarters. However, by the time the search patrol located the spot, the saboteurs had reached a railroad station and had taken a train to New York City.
The equipment the men had buried in the sand was dug up, and the FBI was alerted. A search for the four Nazi agents began immediately.
FBI agents digging up the equipment in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
To speed up the search, George John Dasch, leader of the Long Island group of Nazi agents, may have felt the entire operation to be hopeless and ended up calling the FBI in Washington on June 14, confessing to their act of espionage. He gave his location, was taken into custody, and surrendered the identities and possible locations of the other saboteurs.
Those four agents who landed in Ponte Vedra Beach were found and arrested, two in New York City and two in Chicago.
Those four agents who landed in Ponte Vedra Beach were found and arrested, two in New York City and two in Chicago.
All eight men were sentenced to death, but only six of them were executed. Dasch received a 30-year sentence in a federal penitentiary while Ernest Burger, another Nazi spy who had desires to confess, received a life sentence. Both were eventually deported to the American Zone of Germany.