This is a first-hand report by a top German intelligence agent sent to the still-neutral United States in World War I. Official German records, captured by British and American forces at the end of World War II, show the memoirs of the German naval officer to be accurate. Rintelen's orders in Berlin had called for measures to prevent the shipment of American war material to Germany's enemies. In the US, this meant buying arms to keep them from being purchased by the Allies, but it could also mean placing bombs in the hulls of ships sailing for Eurpoe and fomenting strikes among the labour force of American ammunition manufacturers.