The Pittsburgh Press (September 13, 1941)
NAZIS PAY F.B.I. FOR BOGUS SPY RADIO REPORTS
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Counterespionage plan discloses attempts to find U.S. secrets
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New York, Sept. 13 (UP) –
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents received $13,825 over 16 months for broadcasting concocted information to a German radio station, the government charges today in the trial of 16 persons accused of spying.
The money, U.S. Attorney Harold M. Kennedy said yesterday, was sent through a courier system to William G. Sebold, a German-born American citizen, to pay the spies.
Mr. Sebold’s employers supposed he was a faithful spy, but he turned over his espionage plans to the government early in 1940 and, after that, worked for the FBI. The radio station at Centerport, NY, through which he sent his reports, was operated by FBI agents.
Seek aircraft data
Mr. Kennedy introduced 75 messages from the German station AOR, near Hamburg. They demanded detailed information on American aircraft production and even wanted “daily weather conditions,” down to data on wind velocity, barometric pressure, ceiling and temperature.
The demands for information on aircraft were insatiable, the messages showed.
A message received July 30, 1940, said:
Airplane carrier Saratoga said to have delivered large numbers of planes to Halifax. Tell all friends to get details about this and make all efforts to obtain more data regarding deliveries to England.
The FBI agents radioed back that the Saratoga had been last reported on the Pacific Coast and there was little likelihood it had delivered plans to Canada.
Gain bomb plans
It was revealed that, as late as last February, the German Gestapo had obtained from its spies in this country the plans and photographs of a new American bomb.
The messages sent to the United States during 1940 and 1941 by the Gestapo’s station AOR in Hamburg, disclosed Germany’s intensive and elaborate efforts to obtain information concerning Canadian and United States airplane production, air force and pilot training systems, secret defense materials, weather conditions, ship movements and methods of delivering American war aid to the Allies.
Ask strike effects
The Germans apparently received data on the American bomb in some manner and wanted more information about it. On Feb. 16, 1941, they radioed Centerport:
Who supplied plans and photos of new bombs sent us. Who produces it and where?
As late as June 11, 1941, the Gestapo asked “what is happening to air reports” and the effect of strike agitation on production.
The message said:
Especially desirous of obtaining information about American airplane production. Want detailed accounts of falling off in air force production, including factories and machine tool factories through strike agitation.