Spying in America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War

18. The Double Agent: William Sebold

137 18 The Double Agent William Sebold Gestapo official: “We can use men like you in America.” William Sebold: “But I am an American citizen.” Conversation between William Sebold and a Gestapo official. Quoted by Sayers and Kahn, Sabotage Hermann Lang was the premier spy in a network of more than thirty sources reporting to Ritter from the United States. Ritter was pressured by his Abwehr superiors to establish better communications with the ring for more expeditious delivery of information. The Gestapo offered him a promising candidate in William Sebold, a German American who was visiting his family’s homeland in the Ruhr Valley.1 William Sebold was born Wilhelm Debowski in Germany, where he served as a machine gunner in the army during World War I. After military service, he traveled to the United States as a sailor in the early 1920s and jumped ship in Galveston, Texas. He changed his name to Sebold, got married , and found a job as a mechanic in the Consolidated Aircraft Company in San Diego. In 1939 Sebold returned to Germany to visit his family, a decision that altered the course of Germany’s prewar espionage in America. A German American working at a US aircraft plant was clearly of interest to the Gestapo, who summoned him for an interview. Since he was now 138 Espionage during the World Wars, 1914–45 an American citizen, Sebold ignored the summons, but the Gestapo would hardly be deterred. After surveilling Sebold throughout his visit, Gestapo officers confronted him and demanded his cooperation. Sebold demurred until the Gestapo reminded him of his brief imprisonment in Germany years beforeonasmugglingcharge,atrivialmatterhehadnotlistedonhisapplication for US citizenship. If Sebold refused to cooperate, the Gestapo warned him, they would ensure the information reached the Americans. For good measure, the Gestapo had also stolen Sebold’s passport, thus preventing his travel back to the United States.2 His only other option was to be thrown into a Nazi concentration camp. As the Gestapo blackmailed him, Sebold heard loudspeakersonthestreetblaringoutnewsabouttheNaziinvasionofPoland on September 1, 1939. Desperate, Sebold agreed to cooperate. The Gestapo sent Sebold to the Abwehr where he was interviewed by Ritter. The Abwehr spymaster realized he should perform some security checks on Sebold, but the Gestapo had already interviewed the émigré and Ritter was sorely in need of a communicator. The war had started with the invasion of Poland and Ritter wanted to deliver intelligence from his American spies in the defense industry as rapidly as possible. Ritter advised Sebold he would be trained in communications for a few months and then dispatched to the United States. Sebold agreed to the task but told Ritter that, to avoid arousing any suspicions over his lengthier stay in Germany, he had to visit the US Consulate in Cologne to wire money to his wife. After his training at a Nazi spy school, Sebold entered the United States in late January 1940 under the alias William Sawyer and set himself up as an engineering consultant in an office on Forty-Second Street in Manhattan . His front company, Diesel Research, was soon frequented by a row of Nazi spies with intelligence on the US defense industry. Sebold bought equipment to build a radio transmitter at his home in Centerport, Long Island, so he could forward the information immediately to Berlin. The Abwehr was so pleased to receive the timely intelligence that Sebold would eventually be used by more and more Nazi agents in the United States as the primary conduit to Berlin. Among the agents Sebold met was Hermann Lang. Sebold suggested that Lang could provide invaluable information to Germany about the Norden bombsight. Lang looked at him quizzically. “Well, you work in the Norden works, don’t you?” Sebold asked. Lang blurted out “Steal the Norden 139 The Double Agent • William Sebold sight? Steal it—what do you mean? Why, man, I have already given the bombsight to Germany. . . . I’m a true follower of Der Führer.”3 Lang was proud to admit the achievement to his fellow German spy but he had committed a grave error. Sebold was a double agent working for the FBI. Sebold had used the visit to the US consulate as a ruse to reveal the Abwehr operation to American officials. He agreed to play along with the Nazis and follow the FBI’s direction. The FBI, in fact, had assisted him in establishing his office in New York...