January 2nd - Duquesne Spy Ring

On this day, in 1942, a German spy ring was was brought to justice by the FBI. Thirty three Germans were sentenced to a combined total of over three hundred years of prison. Thirty two received sentences of one day, and the last German was sentenced to 299 years and 333 days. He is still a little bitter about the whole thing.

The spies had been placed in strategic jobs throughout the United States so that in the event of war they could supply information to the German military. Of course, the event of war occurred, and not just any war. It was World War 2, The Rematch.

One spy ran a restaurant and got information by talking to customers. Another spy worked in an airline and had access to shipping information for some reason. Several of the spies worked as couriers so they could transport secret messages between the spies. Spies delivering messages to spies form other spies, this story was to become the basis of every made-for-TV spy movie filmed in the next sixty years.

One silly spy worked as a dog-walker. He thought he could teach the dogs to retrieve secret papers from their master's homes. As a result, he sent more chewed up shoes to the German top brass than he cares to remember. Upon returning to Germany, he was executed.

This spy network, also known as "the underground, ruined shoe train", was mostly undone by a single man; William G. Sebold, a double agent. He was recruited by the Germans as a spy, but he also worked for the Americans, as a dog-walker and spy.

Sebold was a German, but this didn't stop him from doing the right thing. He worked in the US for a many years in the aircraft industry. On returning to Germany to visit his mother he was approached by a Gestapo agent. This fact hasn't been confirmed but someone in a full-length leather coat approached him, so it was either a Gestapo agent or an extra from the Matrix.

Sebold agreed but his double crossing was about to begin. His passport had been stolen in Germany, so he took a nonchalant stroll to the US embassy to get a new one. While there, he proposed co-operating with the US when he arrived in America. The Americans were interested in this, and issued him with a new passport without the usual six weeks waiting time. Maybe it was Sebold's ploy to get a passport really quickly.

In the US, he helped the FBI identify German spies. Also, he helped the FBI set up a shortwave radio station that sent and received hundreds of messages to the Germans. These secret messages always started "Hello. How are you? I'm fine."

It was with Sebold's help that the ring of German spies was brought down. Then a great movie was made about his story, which goes to show that the war was worth it.