A Nazi plot to blow up a Pennsylvania Railroad, namely Altoona’s famous “Horseshoe Curve,” and a cryolite metals plant in Philadelphia, among other targets, failed thanks to one of the eight saboteurs, writes Jason Nark for The Morning Call.

The eight Germans who had all previously lived in the United States were dropped off by a Nazi U-boat along the East Coast under cover of darkness.

The “Operation Pastorius” was named by the Nazis after the German-born Quaker lawyer Francis Daniel Pastorius, the founder of Germantown.

“Based on the research I’ve done, I’m of the mind that these men had informants and contacts of some nature here,” said Jared Frederick, a history professor at Penn State-Altoona.

The FBI conducted a series of raids in the summer of 1942 and took around 100 people into custody in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for hearings.

However, the FBI received its most valuable information from the least likely source. Two of the eight saboteurs got cold feet. One of them, George John Dasch, reported the plot to the FBI.

Six saboteurs received the death penalty.

Read more about the failed plot to blow up a Pennsylvania Railroad’s Horseshoe Curve and a cryolite metals plant in Philadelphia, among other targets in The Morning Call.

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