TWO NAZI SPIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 2, 3 January 1945, Page 5

TWO NAZI SPIES

CAUGHT IN AMERICA

Young Student's Suspicions

Lead To Arrests

Rec. 11 a.m. NEW YORK, Jan. 2. Two German agents, William Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel, who landed in Maine on November 29 in a rubber boat from a German submarine, have been arrested. The chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, said the men brought ashore more than 50,000 dollars in American currency. In the month before their arrest they lived in the best hotels in Boston and New York.

They bought parts for a shortwave radio, and frequented cocktail bars and public places, listening to servicemen and civilians. Both men were trained In the S.S. school at The Hague in radio work, sabo* tage, photography and the use of explosives on railway tracks. They carried fraudulent documents, loaded revolvers and secret ink, but they did not succeed in making contact with jthe German Government. Colepaugh was an American citizen, formerly in the United States Navy. He was honourably discharged in 1943 and later sailed as a mess boy on the Gripsholm to Europe. He deserted in Lisbon, where he told the German Consul that he wanted to join the German Army. From there he was sent to Germany. A 17-year-old high school student, Harvard Hodgkins, whose father is deputy sheriff at Hancock Point, Maine, was the first to spot the two Nazi saboteurs. He was returning from a dance on November 29 in a heavy snowstorm when he saw two men. He became suspicious when he observed that they wore topcoats (light rain coats) instead of warm overcoats, explaining that no one here wears a topcoat in winter. Harvard followed the pair until they disappeared in the woods. He then reported the incident to his father, and the latter telephoned the F. 8.1., who:. immediately^sent out investigators. Mr. Hoover" said the Nazi submarine which brought the saboteurs to America had lain off Maine for a week.