Lucky Lindy, The Kidnapping and The Secret Spy Mission!

Known primarily for his flying hero status in the 1920's and 1930's, Charles Lindbergh was an A-list celebrity of the times. While most people today remember his exploits with the Spirit of St. Louis, many do not know of the kidnapping of his child or his coup of intelligence information that he picked up on his whirlwind tours of the German aircraft industry in the pre-World War II years.

The Hero!

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More than anything else, the Spirit of St. Louis has come to symbolize the roaring of the American nation on the world stage of the 1920's. The first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris, Lindberg sealed his destiny in aviation forever as well as winning $25,000! Coming from this flight were major advances in aeronautics, including:

"...Lindbergh is recognized in aviation for demonstrating and charting polar air-routes, high altitude flying techniques, and increasing aircraft flying range by decreasing fuel consumption. These innovations are the basis of modern intercontinental air travel...." (2)


Disaster Strikes!

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After his famous flight, Lindbergh married and had children, still continuing his flying career. However, in 1932 disaster struck, as one of his children, Charles Augustus Lindbergh was kidnapped. The nation was stunned with the event soon turning into a media circus with theories, supposed details and shady characters. As an interesting note, one of the principles in the story was none other than Wild Bill Donovan, future head of the OSS in World War II. Al Capone offered help as well. In the end, results were futile as the body of his son was found and indentified, however, the criminal, Bruno Hauptmann was convicted of the crime.

Lucky Lindy, Secret Agent?

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While it was a known fact that Germany was building up the armed forces in the 1930's, the extent to which that was happening was not concrete. American officials as well as the British, however, scored a coup when Lindbergh was invited to Germany by top Nazi officials, including Goering. While there, he learned much about the top line aircraft in the German inventory, with the information soon flowing back to the appropriate intelligence services. . In the pages above, located in NARA, we see Truman Smith's information on the tours taken by Lindbergh.


I've only just described the tip of the iceberg with the data and images available for these topics. Take a few minutes and hit the links below for more in depth information.

Have a great day, see you tomorrow!



Links:

FBI Files-Lindbergh Kidnapping Case
FBI Files II-Lindbergh Kidnapping Case
Wikipedia-Lindbergh Kidnapping
CIA-Information on Military Attaches-Truman Smith
Wikipedia: Main entry for Lindbergh
LOC-Search for Lindbergh

Sources:
(1)LOC-Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
(2)Wikipedia-TransAtlantic Flight
(3)FBI-Ransom Note
(4)NARA
(5)NARA

Shhh....don't say a word...remember, "loose lips sink ships..." There might be a spy!

I've always been intrigued by spy stuff. James Bond, OSS, real secret agent stuff. In doing some research this weekend about that, I stumbled across the FBI's FOIA site and found out about the Duquesne spy ring case during World War II.

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Huh?

Spies....in the good old USA. That's right, in fact, there were several well documented incidents of Axis spies in the United States during the Second World War.

Not the James Bond types, you know the suave, sophisticated type we've all come to know. Nope, these spies looked and acted just like you and me! The Duquesne Spy Ring consisted of over 30 active Axis spies working within the borders of the United States. Successfully investigated by the FBI, the members of the ring were captured with the help of a double agent, William Sebold (More on him in another post!).

Yet there were other events as well.


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While German U-Boats were ravaging shipping in the early parts of the war, there were also plans by Hitler and his spy agencies to infiltrate the United States by other methods, such as landing by U-boat. Traveling over to the Naval Historical center, we see evidence of these in an event called by the center:

The Amagansett Incident:

"...Shortly after midnight on June 13th, four trained German saboteurs landed on the beach near the Coast Guard Station at Amagansett, Long Island. They had made the voyage across the Atlantic in a German submarine and had rowed ashore in a collapsible rubber boat containing clothing, explosives, and several thousand dollars in cash. On June 17th, four other saboteurs were similarly landed from a submarine at Ponte Vedra Beach, south of Jacksonville, Florida...." (3)


While the ring was eventually caught, perhaps there were others that were not. Some information, we may never know! Don't you enjoy a mystery? For a more complete picture, try the links below for in-depth details. Great stuff!

Have a great day, see you tomorrow!

Links:

FBI Case Lin-Duquesne Spy Ring (PDF-FOIA)

Spy activities on the East Coast

Landings on the East Coast


Sources:
(1)Library of Congress
(2) National Archives
(3) Naval Historical Center