In June, 1942, the Na-zis dropped off 8 saboteurs- what would be called terrorists today- by submarine onto the shores of the eastern U.S. Four were dropped in New York, 4 in Florida. As part of Operation Pastorius, they were to sabotage several key, industrial targets. Among those targets were Horsehoe Curve, the PRR shops in Altoona, PA, Hellgate bridge and Penn Station.
The agents were rounded up in short order, and nothing became of their mission. Supposedly, this mission was dreampt up by none other than Hitler himself. It’s kind of funny to think that Hitler thought 8 agents could do much damage in a place as big as the US.
Given the time frame, 1942, and the characters involved, 8 Nazis, could they really have accomplished much against railroad targets in the US?
One of the goals was to shut down power to aluminum plants for a long enough time for the reduction pots to solidify (aluminum reduction is like a high temperature battery in reverse). They may have had a slim chance at that. Not sure how much damage could have been done to Hell Gate Bridge, but Penn Station might have been put out of commission if the saboteurs could have breached the Hudson River tunnel.
This was reported on one of the 2001 issues of Classic Trains, ironically about the same time as the 9/11 attacks. The would be saboteurs were tried in secret military tribunals, convicted and executed.
A guy I used to work with was called out of the torpedo test facility at Montauk, LI to look for them. Seems a beach patrol saw foot steps coming out of the water up the beach. I think the suspects (alleged in todays terminology) were caught at a LIRR station.
This has been written about numerous times, especially in histories of the LIRR and espionage and spying. Of course any breach of security could be disasterous and when this story was finally told out there was much more than just the pair from the sub buying a ticket from Amagannset to Penn Sta in New York City…and acting on this sighting stopped what was thought to be a whole network of spies and sabatours who had arrived in this country at that time with a huge map of targets.
The Junkers Ju 390 was a German aircraft intended to be used as a heavy transport, maritime patrol aircraft, and long-range bomber, a long-range derivative of the Ju 290. It was one of the aircraft (along with the Messerschmitt Me 264 and Focke-Wulf Ta 400) submitted for the abortive Amerika Bomber project.
An author of “Boys’ novels”, Stephen W. Meader, wrote a couple of books on the premise that these spies had managed to land successfully, only to have their plots thwarted by the young heroes of the stories. He wasn’t familiar with railroads, but The Long Trains Roll was nonetheless an interesting read–they were going to dynamite the cliff above “The Big Curve” at “Gaptown”, Pennsylvania, and close the line for a long, long time.
Not to belittle the seriousness of the plots or the damage that could be caused.
The one thing all these plots overlook is the ability of railroaders (be they US or in other countries) to overcome damage to the line in very short order. Civil engineering personnel associated with the railroads can and do perform seeming miracles in restoring damaged lines back to operation; or implementing routes around damaged sections of line to keep the flow of freight & passengers moving.
I believe some of the key infrastructure points was guarded by soldiers or civil defense folks 24 x 7 during the war years. And places like Penn Station were so crowded and busy - including lots of military personnel - that it would be hard to pull off that kind of sabotage without being seen, detected, and stopped.
But even if they had been successful in setting off explosives, there is so much size and redundancy in some of those structures - such as Hell Gate Bridge - that bringing them down is not credible. A minor landslide is the worst thaey could have done at Horseshoe Curve. Even Penn Station has dual tunnels under the Hudson River.
And there were also alternate routes: the “Muleshoe” parallel to Horseshoe Curve, the ferries of the other railroads to cross the Hudson River at New York City, other routes around and into the city such as to Grand Central Terminal instead of Penn Station, or via the Poughkeepsie Bridge and other routes from the northern counties which are now abandoned so long that many of us never knoew or can’t remember them - this was almost 70 years ago.
BaltACD, you have belittled the seriousness of the threat and the damage and the possible loss of life. Especially so because we did not have the Eisenhower Highway System and other multilane roads nor did we have the airline system we have today and the Stl Lawrence Seaway project to avoid land from the Atlantic Ocean to Superior, WI. The crippling effect, as well as the mental/peace of mind effect, should any part of the plot have been successful, could have actually been tremendous. The nation moved about 90% (exaggeration, yes) by rail whether freight or passenger at that time.
And, CShave, you mentioned an author who made a big impression on me back in grade school as my 5th grade teacher, Craig Bissell, used to read Stephen W. Meader books aloud to us. In fact, much later in life, I went in search of Blueberry Mountain, a search that lasted about a dozen years…but in that search it led me to hundreds of rail fiction books and a collection I treasure. I also remember Boy With A Pack as one of Meader’s books…which one(s) are you referring to? Blueberry Mountain, incidently, was set in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and referenced my beloved Lackawanna Railroad’s coal trains slowly grinding up the hills!
I think I’m with BaltACD on this one. The idea of 8 bad guys doing much serious, let alone high impact damage to the railroad system seems unlikely to me. Consider two things, to start: during the Civil War, the lines were repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt in a hurry, and the fact that in 1942 there were probably section men checking the lines frequently.
How big of a stick of dynomite would you need to make much impact on Horseshoe curve?
But Murph, you cannot compare the US Civil War with an espionage mission when there is no war. 1942 was before WWII, we weren’t in a war mode and not prepared. The Civil War as an active war on our own soil which, over its course, brought railroads into the theater of war for the first time. You are comparing apples to oranges. What ever those German spies were up to, if carried out, would have caused lots of damage and possibly could have taken lots of lives. Rebulding, maybe, quick, but, not in the same way as in the civil war.
The rail network of the war period was multiply redundant on all major routes and many secondary and tertiary routes; that is where all the plant rationalization mileage came from during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s as today’s carriers ‘right sized’ their physical plant. The personnel involved in normal maintenance of that property was many fold the personnel that are involved today.
Yes, successful saboteurs could have created some dam
Last I read, WWII for the US began six months earlier, Dec. 7, 1941. US forces surrendered in the Philippines in May, 1942. The Battle of the Coral Sea was also in May, 1942, and the victory in the battle of Midway was on 4 June, 1942. By November, US forces had landed in North Africa.
The British railways regularly suffered quite heavy damage in bombing raids, but managed to get them re-open for traffic in quite short order. And for them (and Canada) the war started in 1939.
Possibly an initial saboteur attack on the US network might have caused a slightly longer outage, but only because the railroads were not already mobilized and ready to repair damage. And as others have noted, the incredible web of railroads that existed in that era would have allowed more routing options around a temporarily blocked line.
I’m not sure our enemies of the time necessarily comprehended the size of this country, much less its redundant rail network or its ability to cope and restore.
Those six sabateurs wouldn’t be enough to bring an average county to its knees, much less the entire country. The chief effect would be propaganda - “see what we did to you?”
Yes, my bad…US declared war on Japan in late 41 but not on Germany until later. Still, the damage to property, life, and minds would have been great at that time and not something to belittle today.
December 11, 1941. Hitler delivers speech to Reichstag two hours after Germany delivers note to American Ambassador declaring war upon the United states.
Hitler delaring war on the US before we delared war on him, historians are still trying to figure that one out. You see, Hitlers “Pact of Steel” was a mutual defense pact, not a mutual agression pact. If one of the parties involved was an agressor the others were under no obligation to help. One thing’s certain, next to invading the Soviet Union declaring war on the US was one of the dumbest things Adolf ever did. Not smart to start a fight with someone who can hit you from bases in an allied country when you can’t hit back at HIS country.
Other than 1 really big, steep, and apparently only marginally stable fill above the Curve near the top in the Allegrippus-Bennington Curve area, quite a lot would be needed.
After reading the history of the grading of that the line in the late Charles Roberts’ book “Triumph I: The PRR from Altoona to Pitcairn” (or similar; Barnard, Roberts & Co., circa 1995), i think that setting off a blast there might have been just as likely to have aided the PRR by getting rid of some of the ledge rock obstacles that forced some of the curves and kinks into the alignment and limited the widening of the R-O-W . . . [:-^]