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Post by dans on Jul 31, 2022 12:27:17 GMT
What did they call organized groups of Axis spies in the US before and during World War II?
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Post by lawrenceliberty on Jul 31, 2022 14:47:23 GMT
The Friends of New Germany formed around 1933 w. the approval of Hess consisted of immigrants loyal to German causse. It replaced the earlier Free Society of Teutonia formed in 1924. It was followed by the Bund. not exactly what you asked but possibly the source of such spy rings.
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Post by redsycorax on Aug 1, 2022 1:07:58 GMT
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Post by redsycorax on Aug 1, 2022 1:44:23 GMT
Now, here's some background reading on specific cases of Nazi/Axis WW2 espionage in the United States: Clint Richmond: Fetch the Devil: The Sierra Diablo Murders and Nazi Espionage in America: Lebanon: ForeEdge: 2014. Peter Duffy: Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring: New York: Scribbers: 2014. Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones: The Nazi Spy Ring: Hitler's Agents, the FBI, and the Case that Stirred the Nation: Washington: Georgetown University Press: 2021. Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones: Ring of Spies: How MI5 and the FBI Brought Down the Nazis in America: Cheltenham: History Press: 2020. William Breuer: Hitler's Undercover War: The Nazi Espionage Invasion of the United States: New York: St Martins: 1989. Samantha Seiple: Nazi Saboteurs: Hitler's Secret Attack on America: New York: Scholastic Focus: 2019 Erich Gimpel: Agent 146: The True Story of A Nazi Spy in America: New York: Thomas Dunne Books: 2003. Robert Hutchinson: German Foreign Intelligence From Hitler's War to the Cold War: Flawed Assumptions and Faulty Analysis: University of Kansas Press: 2019 [Concludes that most Nazi espionage attempts in the United States were incompetent and hampered by anti-Semitic hysteria] J.Francis Watson: The Nazi Spy Pastor: Carl Krepper and the War in America: Santa Barbara: Praeger: 2014. John Sase: Peter Krug and Mark Stephan: Nazis, Espionage and Treason in Detroit: John Sase and Associates: 2017. Robert A Miller Rotarian: A True Story of a Nazi American Spy: William Curtis Colepaugh: Trafford Publishing: 2013. Francis MacDonnell: Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front: Guildford: Lyons Press: 2004. Tim Tate: Hitler's Secret Army: A Hidden History of Spies, Saboteurs and Traitors in World War II: New York: Pegasus: 2019 Christopher Vasey: Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories: Jefferson: MacFarland: 2016 Bill Yenne: Operation Long Jump: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill and the Greatest Assassination Plot in History: Washington: Regnery: 2015 Stephan/Krug incident: harris23.msu.domains/event/1942-detroit-restaurant-owner-convicted-of-being-nazi-spy/Carl Krepper: Newark Historical Society (2010): www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbWOxPwRvawI've restricted my list of references to contemporary work because as time has gone on, initially classified information and consquent historical scholarship has enhanced our understanding of those troubled times. |
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Post by dans on Aug 1, 2022 10:35:45 GMT
very thorough, thank you!
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Post by redsycorax on Aug 2, 2022 0:10:13 GMT
Always willing to do the research hard yards for my friends!  |
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Post by dans on Aug 6, 2022 2:34:40 GMT
What would be a good clever name for a novelty gift company owned by Axis secret agents in the years before WW2? Something all the readers will nod when they read the name and say "Better watch out for that company - it's owned by spies!" but which the characters in the story won't suspect?
The other possibility is to name it Acme...
I can name an FBI agent (or one of the Axis spies, if you prefer) after whoever comes up with a name - and have a special role for whoever suggests the name I choose...
Thanks!
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Post by redsycorax on Aug 6, 2022 2:43:11 GMT
Lili Marlene Products? Perhaps there was a "real-life" German UFA film star of the name on Earth-Two/S/X, something like Marlene Dietrich on our Earth?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Marleen |
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Post by dans on Sept 10, 2023 2:00:52 GMT
Different era now... is is around 1862 and you are living in London. You are a member of a noble family while growing up, and reached high ranking officer in the office of the Governor-General of India, but you were disgraced for your actions in India during the Sepoy Rebellion, and your noble family disowned you after your dishonorable return. Since your return in 1859 you have become the most successful burglar in English history, amassing great wealth and never being caught.
Now you wish to re-enter the ranks of the noble. You have more wealth than most nobles, and of course you know how to act properly from your upbringing. Would you act to establish a new identity or would you attempt to restore yourself to respectability?
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Post by dans on Sept 10, 2023 2:06:30 GMT
Now you wish to re-enter the ranks of the noble. You have more wealth than most nobles, and of course you know how to act properly from your upbringing. Would you act to establish a new identity or would you attempt to restore yourself to respectability?
So, I actually just had a thought about this... how about finding a noble family that is down on their luck, and offering them a bundle to claim that you are a relative long thought lost and you have just returned miraculously alive from an expedition that was lost years ago in the mountains of Tibet / jungles of Africa / the colonies /an around the world expedition / flight to the moon in the shell fired from a giant cannon?
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Post by dave on Sept 10, 2023 2:53:51 GMT
Parliament would love to be bought, But I don't Queen Victoria would accept you. Therefore you would need to establish a new identity.
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Post by reichsmark on Sept 10, 2023 13:38:54 GMT
Actually, because of all the political marriages between royal houses it might be fairly easy for her to accept them. During WWI, the British King, German Kaiser and Russian Emperor were all cousins.
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Post by dans on Sept 10, 2023 15:06:21 GMT
Anyone want to collaborate in designing a supervillain?
I plan to use him in a story featuring PD heroes in 1942, but he (she?) would be an open source character that anyone could use, and because I am giving him an extended lifespan, he could be used in 5EP stories if someone was interested... I’d like to know more about the bad buy. What is his US cover identity in 1942? What mystical artifacts has he created? What powers might he have? What is his underworld organization like?
Note this will become a Public Domain character for anyone's reuse, and although all comments will be considered, not everyone may immediately recognize his or her contribution to the final character. If you are not comfortable with possible public reuse (or maybe even misuse!) of your intellectual property, don't post anything you want to retain private.
Here is what I have so far...
The Unknown bad guy was born in the early 1800s in a family of minor nobility in England. He joined the British East India Company and worked his way up to a position in the office of the Governor-General of India, in India, during the Sepoy War. After the war, he was released and because a scapegoated for higher ups regarding the war. He was sent back to Great Britain in shame rather than being retained when the British government assumed control of the British East India Company. Still, he managed to bring back a LOT of loot he had collected over the years.
Back in England he ended up having to hock his hoard as he couldn’t find employment and his family wanted nothing to do with him, and he was removed from the nobility. A couple of years later, he was down to his last statuette, an ugly creature of some kind. One of the fingers of one hand, longer and skinnier than a human finger, was apparently made of obsidian, while the rest of the statue was ceramic. Because the statue was so ugly, no one would buy it.
In a fit of rage at his awful state, Unknown smashed the statue to smithereens, and was stunned to realize that the finger was attached to a necklace of fine gold chain which had been baked into the statue for some reason. He instantly donned the necklace and amulet, hiding it under his shirt. He soon discovered that his physical and mental abilities had become much enhanced (though not to superhuman levels). He used his enhanced abilities to become a successful thief. He thinks the amulet must be mystical so he starts snaring mystical artifacts and studying dark magic.
When he gets rich enough, he starts investigating noble families, looking for a specific situation – where a male member of the family, approximately his age, has been missing for years. Then he pays that family to claim he has miraculously returned from wherever and re-enters noble society. He maintains a private collection of mystical artifacts and starts to dabble in mysticism. And continues to secretly be a highly successful thief.
In about 1900 he discovers that Sherlock Holmes has been paid to investigate some of his thefts, so he fakes his death and moves to the ‘colonies’.
I’m not sure how he evolves from this point. However, in the early 1940s, he somehow learns that a mystical artifact has been discovered in India, and sets out to claim it. However, it is quickly misplaced and accidentally sold to a tourist family. He picks up the trail again in Georgia, where the elderly couple has gifted the artifact to one of their sons. The bad guy uses his connections to get someone to wreck the train, but once again the artifact is missing.
The artifact has in fact bestowed miraculous powers on a survivor of the train wreck, who has vowed to use his powers for the benefit of mankind – Master Mystic.
In the proposed story, another PD hero, the King of Darkness, is visiting North Carolina (where Master Mystic lives) and gets drawn into the bad guy’s continuing attempt to recover the statuette…
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Post by johnreiter902 on Sept 10, 2023 15:08:03 GMT
Money can't buy back a reputation in Victorian England. You would still be known as a rich scoundrel.
He would either need to create a false identity, or settle in one of the colonies where nobody knows him
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Post by dans on Sept 10, 2023 18:38:45 GMT
that's why he is going to establish a new identity by assuming the identity of a lost member of a minor family with a good reputation who has just returned after being missing for years and given up for dead...
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