In the aftermath of
this week’s despicable acts of terrorism in Boston, we should note that history
truly has a habit of repeating itself. Significant are the number of
terrorists, who we welcomed into the bosom of American Life.
History shows us; it is often the children of second or third generation immigrants,
who respond to rallying cries from the old country.
WWI provides a good
example of just how groups of young German-Americans were mobilized, often by
tenuous links to Imperial Germany, to conduct acts of terrorism with
devastating consequences.
Although unparalleled
in loss of life, 9/11 was not the first time terrorists had struck at the heart
of America. Even while the United States remained neutral in WWI, small groups
of immigrants launched attacks on the very fabric of American life.
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| A photo from the Aftermath |
Black Tom Pier
During the night of
July 29th 1916, a group of German saboteurs blew up an area of New
York harbor equivalent to five blocks. At the center of the explosion was a
warehouse holding artillery shells and ammunition destined for the Allies.
Shells lit up the night sky over Manhattan as people were blown from their
beds. Remarkably only five fatalities were reported, one a baby boy thrown from
his cot with the sheer force of the blast. Geologists calculate the blast as
having registered 5.5 on the Richter scale.
The Black Tom
Explosion.
Bio Terrorism in
the US.
In 1915, just six
miles from the White House in the affluent suburb of Chevy Chase, a young German-American
doctor cultivated and distributed anthrax for the infection of horses and mules
destined for the WWI Allies.
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| Surviving photo of Dr Anthrax, Anton Dilger |
Anton Dilger was the
son of an American Civil War hero. Awarded the Medal of Honor at
Chancellorsville, his father Hubert Dilger, an American patriot was one of the
finest artillery officers in the Union Army.
Unconcerned at the
possibility of general contamination among the population, Dilger conducted his
deadly work in the basement of his home and distributed the spores via a web of
German-Americans based in the Baltimore area. In 1916, Dilger found himself
under suspicion by the Bureau of Investigation, forerunner to the F.B.I. and
escaped through Mexico under an assumed name. Ironically he met his end in the
Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. He was hiding in Spain.
It was some time before
the US intelligence services got to grips with domestic terrorism in WW1. The
Government of the day believed that espionage and sabotage were European
problems. Many instances of terrorism were simply ignored.
Although most
instances of the terrorism of WW1 are unlike the cowardly acts that we have
witnessed these past years, there is a common thread. America should never assume when she repeats the famous words "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free....." that she is not enabling abuses of the nation.
The stories of Black Tom and the Anthrax threat in WWI will be featured in our new WWI four part
series, Over There Doughboys in The Great
War.
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