Sabotage at Black Tom: Imperial Germany's Secret War in America, 1914-1917

by Jules Witcover

Book Overview

At eight minutes past two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, July 30, 1916, a thundering explosion at the Black Tom munitions depot sent sleeping residents of New York City and surrounding areas... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0912697989
• ISBN13: 9780912697987
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 339 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Black Tom - a scholarly contribution

In a recent research visit to New York, I was amazed that no one I spoke to had heard of the Black Tom disaster. In scale, it was bigger than 9/11. Deliberately, however, the German saboteurs chose to blow up the ammunition and explosives terminal in 1916 early on a Sunday morning when there were few workers round. The explosion took out most of the glass on the rising buildings of the east side, peppered the Statue of Liberty and laid waste to everything about a mile around on the New Jersey waterfront. Officially, there were only four or five casualties. Unofficially, the figure is about 200, taking into acocunt the illegals and day-paid workers who lived on barges on the Hudson. Witcover was able to access original sources and made good use of them. I note that now the CIA has published its own account of the disaster, pointing out that 9/11 was not alone - and could happen again in some other form. Will it be long before 9/11 also slips the public mind ? A truly excellent - but neglected - contribution from Jules Witcover. John Stackhouse