Operation Pastorius was a failed plan for sabotage via a series of attacks by Nazi German agents inside the United States. The operation was named by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the German Abwehr, for Francis Daniel Pastorius, the leader of the first organized settlement of Germans in America.
The plan was fairly complex as it involved sabotage on major industrial and economic targets throughout the US, including hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls and aluminum plants in Illinois, Tennessee and New York. Two German-American citizens were involved, as well as 6 others who would arrive on shore via two different U-boats.
While there were many failures in the plot, the scheme was ultimately foiled by a would-be defector (George John Dasch), who turned himself in and revealed the whole plan to the authorities.
This operation was ultimately unsuccessful and those involved were executed, or in the case of the two conspirators who cooperated with the authorities, returned to Germany six years later in 1948.You can read more about this on Wikipedia.
So ... How did I come to be reading about this tidbit of history?
Well, I was looking up the definition of "potter's field". Wikipedia listed the location of where the six executed conspirators were buried as a potter's field. Basically, a potter's field is where deceased persons of a certain class or economic situation, warranting segregation from the general populous, might be interred.
As it turns out, the location where the six conspirators were buried was in Blue Plains, near Ferry Point, on the Anacostia River, in what is now Oxon Hill Farm (an interactive farm - mostly for kids - managed by the National Park Service. One source, dated July 2008, mentions that there is a marker at the burial site (erected by the American Nazi Party), but that it is very difficult to find. That is something I would like to try to find.
Try to learn something new every day.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
1 comment:
First I've heard. Thanks for the post.
Post a Comment