Remembering three heroes who helped thwart attacks on U.S.

During World War I, the German government was prodding Mexico to stir up trouble on the U.S. southern border. To find out how Germany was communicating with Mexican officials, the U.S. Army Signal Corps dispatched a young radio expert, Kenneth Hance of Fargo, to southern Texas.

Early in 1917, the United Kingdom intercepted a telegram that outlined a plan "to incite war between Mexico and the U.S." To monitor the messages and find the exact location of the German transmitter in Mexico, Hance was assigned to McAllen, Texas.

One night, Hance picked up suspicious coded signals. Shortly thereafter, a German transmitter of 150,000 watts was discovered in the heart of Mexico, and taken over." Thanks to Hance, the German efforts of subterfuge on our border were exposed and eradicated. After the war, Hance, along with two of his friends, Earl Reineke and Lawrence Hamm, established WDAY, North Dakota's first radio station.

During the early part of the U.S. involvement in World War II, the German high command devised a plan of sabotage and terror that would take place in the U.S. The man the Nazis chose to lead this operation was George John Dasch, a 39-year-old German who had spent 19 years in the U.S.

Dasch had become "disillusioned with the Nazis and intended to reveal the terrorist plot to American authorities once he was inside the U.S." He met with Duane Traynor, a Devils Lake native who was in charge of a special sabotage unit within the FBI, and told him about the plot. Although J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, initially pooh-poohed Dasch's information, Traynor took it very seriously and uncovered all of the needed information to capture seven other saboteurs.

Six received the death penalty after a military tribunal, and Dasch and one of the other conspirators who had cooperated received 30-year sentences. Traynor was furious with the way Dasch was treated by Hoover and the court, and he resigned from the FBI. He later said, "Dasch got a raw deal."

During World War II, Germany planned to sink critical American military and commercial sea-going vessels off the coast of New York. To carry out this plot, they sent spies to identify the targeted ships and the cargo they might be carrying.

Dave Elman, a North Dakota native who had lived in Fargo, had a suite of offices directly across from a hotel in New York City. One night, he and his wife noticed that the light in one of the hotel rooms was being turned off and on repeatedly. At first they thought it must have been a child playing with the light switch, but as it continued, Elman believed it might be a coded secret message. Elman called the FBI, and "agents arrived within minutes." The FBI later informed him that the hotel occupants were Nazi spies who were sending signals for the sinking of U.S. ships that sailed off the New York coast.

"Did You Know That" is written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen of  Fargo.  Send your comments, corrections, or suggestions for columns to the Eriksmoens at cjeriksmoen@cableone.net