Before 9/11 there was July 30, 1916. On that day, German saboteurs
lit up the skies around New York Harbor with a massive explosion at
the Black Tom munitions depot in the shadow of the Statue of
Liberty near what is now Liberty State Park. The fiery detonation,
which could be felt as far away as Maryland, blew out the windows
of lower Manhattan buildings as far north as the main New York
Public Library branch on 42nd Street. It was the most spectacular
(though far from the only) act of sabotage carried out by Germany's
well-placed network of spies and bombmakers, determined to halt the
shipment of ammunition from the still-"neutral" United States to
its World War I Allies in Europe. Millman (Pickup Artists: Street
Basketball in America, 1998), a career sportswriter, deftly
narrates the story of the brazen German agents who planned the
sabotage, then turns to the exhausting legal battle that ensued to
get Germany to admit its guilt and pay for the damage. The effort
wouldn't end until Hitler was in power and the Second World War had
begun. Initially, the Black Tom explosion was branded an accident,
and none of the German saboteurs was ever arrested for the crime.
It wasn't until 1924 that the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which owned
Black Tom, brought suit against Germany before the Mixed Claims
Commission, a legal entity created to hear claims against Germany
following the war. The exhausting legal case would consume the
lives of both American and German lawyers, locked in a struggle to
uncover or suppress the truth about Germany's role. In a clear,
cogent narrative, Millman does a good job of navigating the complex
issues and behind-the-scenes politics that fueled this marathon
legal battle. He also proves adept at fleshing out the human
stories of the main characters involved. Those include John McCloy,
who risked his legal career to take on the case; John Larkin, a
fiery Irish labor leader whose 11th-hour revelations proved
crucial; and Fred Herrmann, an American citizen turned German spy
who was tracked to Chile and talked into confessing his role. An
intriguing, bracing tale, and not just for history buffs. (Kirkus
Reviews)
In 1916 a group of German saboteurs blew up Black Tom Island, a
spit of land in New York Harbour. The brazen attack destroyed the
harbour and the ammunition housed there - and the subsequent hail
of missiles and gunpowder devastated much of lower Manhattan. The
attack - so massive that as far away as Maryland people could feel
the ground shake - had been shockingly easy. America was littered
with networks of German agents plotting further, more deadly,
attacks. Twenty years later the German government had still managed
to evade responsibility for the crime - and probably would have
continued to, were it not for the determination of three lawyers
named McCloy, Peaslee, and Martin. These men made it their mission
to solve a mystery that began during the first World War and barely
ended before the second. They were litigators, spies, historians
and, ultimately, defenders of the truth. THE DETONATORS is a
fascinating portrait of these men and their time; the dramatic love
story of John and Ellen McCloy; and the first full accounting of a
crime and a cover-up that resonates strongly in a post-9/11
America.
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