On January 30, 1918, Lothar Witzke, the most dangerous German agent in the western hemisphere had reached his destination. His mission: to destroy American defense plants, organize strikes in critical industries, and at a time of intense racial unrest, to incite an insurrection among the southern black citizenry. He was to begin the campaign of terror by murdering a U.S. intelligence officer in cold blood. On January 16th Witzke and several confederates departed Mexico City for the U.S. border. After crossing 1500 miles of rugged territory, encountering bandits and other hazards along the way, Witzke reached Nogales. But unknown to the saboteur-assassin, the German espionage network in Mexico had been penetrated by Allied intelligence and one of his companions was a double agent. Captured by U.S. Army intelligence and tried before a military court-martial, Lothar Witzke became the only enemy agent sentenced to death in the United States during World War 1. The Witzke mission was the intelligence game played at its highest level - a plan for destruction on a massive scale, violent insurrection, and assassination, complete with master spies and double agents, diabolical sabotage devices, secret codes, and invisible ink. Meticulously researched and written in the style of an adventure novel, Agent of the Iron Cross is the first detailed account of this legendary espionage operation.
Author/historian Bill Mills writes about twentieth-century clandestine operations and espionage history. He is the author of The League: The True Story of Average Americans on the Hunt for World War I Spies, Treacherous Passage: Germany's Secret Plot Against the United States in Mexico during World War I, and The Estrada Plot: How the FBI Captured a Secret Army and Stopped the Invasion of Mexico. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife and daughter.
This is the story of Lothar Wtzke, a German spy and saboteur, sent to the US during a desperate time in Germany's World War I conflict. His mission: to destroy American defense plants, organize strikes in critical U.S. industries, and at a time of intense racial unrest, to incite an insurrection among the southern black citizenry. He was to begin the campaign of terror by murdering a U.S. Army intelligence officer in cold blood. The hope was that this would create chaos in the U.S., thus undermining the Allied war effort. Witzke's German intelligence network was penetrated by Allied intelligence and one of his travelling companions was an American double agent. Witzke was captured in Nogales by Byron Butcher, the same man he had been sent to kill. Tried by a military court-martial, Lothar Witzke became the only enemy agent sentenced to death in the United States during World War 1. The Witzke mission was the intelligence game played at its highest level - a plan for destruction on a massive scale, violent insurrection, and assassination, complete with master spies and double agents, diabolical sabotage devices, secret codes, and invisible ink. Meticulously researched and written in the style of an adventure novel, Agent of the Iron Cross is the first detailed account of this legendary espionage operation.
This story could not be made up. That is how bizarre it is, and the reader will not be able to put this book down. Most impressive is the author's easy-to-understand description of the highly complicated deciphering process of Witzke's code, not a small feat. Agent of the Iron Cross is a masterpiece of a historical tale. It reads like a novel, while uncovering hitherto unknown history, and satisfying highest scholarly standards. -- Heribert von Feilitzsch, Author of the Secret War Council Book Series This is the brilliantly told, fast-paced story of "the most deadly sabotage team in history" as they carried out a campaign of terror on America and the exploits of the men brave enough to stop them. It's a story as compelling and relevant today as it was then. -- Michael Digby, Author of Burn, Bomb, Destroy
