Evening Star Newspaper, June 18, 1933, Page 71

_— GERMAN WAR-TIME SABOTAGE LAID BARE Capt. Friiz von Rintelen of the Imperial German Navy, who carried the war into @ neutral country . . . and landed in Atlanta Penitentiary. T is afternoon of August 4, 1914. Capt. Pranz von Rintelen of the Imperial Ger- man Navy is ordered to go from the Ad- miralty Building in Berlin to the foreign office to receive an important piece of news. He reaches the foreign office, is shown into a big room where sit Sir Edward Goschen, British Ambassador, and James W. Gerard, American Ambassador. Mr. Gerard has ccme to the foreign office to explain that he will take over the representation of British interests in Germany Sir Edward sits erect, much distressed; Ger- ard is at ease, coolly remarking, “Perhaps the only peaceful country in the world will soon be Mexic Then, as Capt. von Rintelen watches the two diplomats at this fateful moment, Foreign Minister von Jagow enters and hands him a sealed envelope. Back to the admiralty hurries Von Rintelen to hand the envelope to his senior. The senicr reads it, then calls the great wire- less station at Nauen. A moment later, to every ship in the German Navy, goes the message—: “War with England!” APT. VON RINTELEN knew that this would mean active service for him; but he expected, paturally, that it would mean active service afloat, clad in his country’s uni- form. He had not an inkling that fate was to put him far from the scene of carnage, in a peaceful country; clothe him in civilian garb and compel him to direct one of the most as- tounding espicnage plots yet recorded. For Capt. von Rintelen was sent to America to direct the campaign by which, before Ameri- ca entered the war, Germany sought to break down American shipments of munitions to the allies. Capt. von Rintelen has told his adventurous story, at last, in a book, “The Dark Invader.” In this book, just published by the Macmillan Co, he tells how his agents used torch and bomb in a neutral country in an effort to bring vic- tory to the Fatherland. Por a time Von Rintelen was at work in Berlin. largely in intelligence and propaganda jobs. But at the dawn of 1915 the Kaiser's government received this telegram from army headquarters on the western front: THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHIN Capt. Franz von Rintelen, Sent to the United States in the Early Days of the War, Destroyed Cargo After Cargo of Ammunition Intended for His Enemies,. but Eventually Landed in Prison. “We are at our wits’ end to defend ourselves against American munitions.” Not cnly were American munitions reaching the allies in vast quantities, so that German Victoriani Huerta, one-time Mexican dictator, with whom Von Rintelen plot- ted for a war between Mexico and the United States. batteries were being badly outclassed, but the shells themselves were of an uncommonly deadly type, far more effective than those made in Europe. European munitions makers used cast iron for shell casings; the American manufac- turers used steel, ribbed and grcoved so that when the shell burst the casing flew into thou- sands of razor-edged pieces. Purthermore, the use of steel increased the explosive force of the shell. Army leaders urged the navy to use sub- marines to prevent shipments of muniticns frcm crossing the Atlantic. The navy pointed out that the government had refused, at the oui- break of the war, to build enough submarines to make such a move effective—a surprising disclcsure, in view of the use Germany was to make of submarines later on! HUS, at last, the German government de- cided to take active measures in America to interfere with the munitions export—and Capt. von Rintelen, who traveled in America and spoke excellent English, was sent over to take charge of the campaign. Efforts were to be made to buy up large quantities of munitions, if possible, so as to keep them out of the hands of allied agents, and the captain was supplied with large amounts of money to accomplish this. But it was understood that other measures were to be adopted, too, and before leaving Berlin Capt. von Rintelen remarked, “I'll buy what I can and blow up what I can't.” Disguised as a Swiss commercial traveler, Von Rintelen got across the Atlantic and reached New York in the Spring of 1915. He began by going to representatives of munitions manufacturers to see if he could buy enough shells and powder in the open market to crip- ple the allies. The rate of production, however, made this quite impossible. “Within a few days,” he wrote, “I was satis- fled that it would be quite impossible to buy up the vast quantities of explosives that were now available in the American market. The daily production was so great that if I had bought up the market on Tuesday there would still have been an enormous fresh supply on Wednesday. There remained, then, the other course of action—sabotage, Capt. von Rintelen speedily took it. As a blind for his operations he opened an export office in New York under the name of E. V. Gibbons, and invited market quotations on all kinds of raw materials from various American producing firms. At the same time he got in touch with the German merchant sailors from the German liners which had been interned in New York—men who were idle and who could be relied on to strike a blew for the Patheriand. Sir William Reginald Hall, Englands famous spy catcher, through whose ef- forts Capt. von Rintelen was finally caught. HORTLY after this, Capt. von Rintelen met a German chemist, Dr. Scheele, who had devised an ingenious bomb. It was made of a hollow tube of lead about the size of & cigar, divided into two compartments by a thin copper wall in the middle. One compartment was filled with picric acid, the other with some highly inflammable liquid, and the ends were then sealed with lead caps. Within a few days—the length of time de- pending on the thickness of the copper wall— the acid would destroy the barrier between the compartments. The two liquids would then mix and an intense hot flame would shoot out for a foot or so from each end of the tube, setting fire to whatever was nearby. Further- more, the resulting heat would melt the lead cylinder, so that no trace of the bomb would remain. Von Rintelen set Dr. Scheele to work to make quantities of these. He also enlisted a number of the German merchant sailors to help smuggle the bombs abroad ships which were to carry munitions to France, England and Russia, They, in turn, put him in touch with a number of Irish stevedores on the New York water- front—men who hated England passionately and were eager to do anything that would hamper her war efforts. So the work began. The bombs were smug- gled into the holds of munitions ships. To avert loss of life, the captain had his men place the bombs, not in the holds where the explosives were carried, but in other parts of the ships, such as the coal bunkers. This really did just as much good, since when fire broke out the ship’s captain would instantly flood his munitions cargo to prevent an exe plosion, and the cargo would be ruined. The work went on rapidly. Ship after ship mysteriously caught fire at sea. In no case, says Capt. von Rintelen, did these fires cause loss of life, due to the pree caution of putting the bombs elsewhere tham in the holds where the ammunition was stored; but in no case did a ship on which one of the incendiary bombs went off deliver hesg cargo. Branch “offices” were established im Boston, Philadeiphia, Baltimore and Southerm NE of Capt. von Rintelen’s oddest experie ences came when he got in touch with§ a Russian government agent. This agent, nod dreaming that Von Rintelen was other tham