By Bob Davidsson
World War II came to the home front of Palm Beach County by way of U-boat attacks at sea, a POW internment camp in the Glades, and numerous unverified reports of espionage by enemy spies along its coastline.
A total of 122 soldiers, sailors and airmen from the Palm Beaches were casualties of war, including 62 killed in action (KIA) and 43 deaths not in battle (DNB), as recorded in the June 1946 "World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing" for Palm Beach County.
While this casualty list may seem small, keep in mind the total population of Palm Beach County was just 79,989 in 1940, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Small cities from Jupiter to Boca Raton still hugged the coast, while the agricultural range line extended east of Congress Avenue.
The war began badly in the home waters of the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast. The German Kriegsmarine unleashed a second wave of U-boats as part of Untermehmen Parkenschlag (Operation Drumbeat) on Jan. 11, 1942. Their destination included the southeast coast of Florida.
Three "Ace" undersea boats - U-504, U-564 and U-333 - sank eight ships off the Gold and Treasure coasts during the first nine months of war. They were joined by the Italian Regia Marina Calvi-class submarine "Enrico Tazzoli (TZ)" which claimed four allied ships in the Bahamas Channel.
The U.S. Navy was unprepared for this "Second Pearl Harbor" in our coastal waters from January through August 1942. An "Official Blackout Order" was not issued for the Palm Beach County coastline until April 11, 1942.
The State of Florida responded by establishing the quasi-military "Florida Defense Force" consisting of civilian volunteers. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) wooden "Watch Towers" were constructed on Boca Raton's beach and elsewhere along the coast to report U-boat sightings, while small single-engine airplanes spotted surfacing submarines by air.
Morrison Field in West Palm Beach, and new Boca Raton Army Air Corps field west the city, became training centers for thousands of Army airmen and communication technicians. The Lantana Airport opened in December 1941 as an auxiliary field for the Florida Defense Force and CAP anti-submarine flights.
A secret submarine monitoring "Station J" was established at the Jupiter Inlet military
reservation as early as April 1940 to intercept U-boat transmissions to and from Germany. With the outbreak of World War II, this "Strategic Observation Post" was expanded to track both German and Japanese naval units.
By the autumn of 1942, the "Second Happy Time" for U-boat captains in southeast Florida coastal waters was over, but fears among the uninformed civilian population grew as the actual threat by enemy submarines dissipated.
With U-boats lurking just a few miles offshore, rumors of nocturnal visits and spy missions by German Kriegsmarine crews spread throughout the county, and were even reported in newspapers after he war. None were verified and no arrests were made by the FBI for spying.
The Enemy Spies NOT Among Us
At Boca Raton's Palmetto Park Beach Pavilion, located near the round-about at the end of Palmetto Park Road, visitors will find the bronzed "Sanborn Wall Historic Marker." The marker presents the strongest case for the belief that German espionage teams landed from their U-boats in Palm Beach County.
The Sanborn Wall memorial states, "On this spot in World War II, spies from German U-boats landed an occupied Dr. William Sanborn's home built on this spot in 1937. "
"The sailors deployed during World War II, as part of Hitler's Operation Drumbeat, torpedoed tankers and freighters traveling the east coast shipping lane carrying vital supplies to the U.S. and England." The marker summarizes, "The Germans sank a total 397 ships and killed 5,000 people. Twenty-four ships were sunk off the coast of Florida, 16 between Cape Canaveral and Boca Raton."
Doctor Sanborn was in his home state of Michigan when apparently several unknown persons entered his winter residence, using the clothing, shower, bedding and food supplies found in the residence. Neighbors reported unusual activity at the home. Military police entered the home in June 1942 in search of a signaling device.
They discovered a telescope and signs of recent activity in the home, but neither spies nor local vagrants were found. Neighbors were questioned "if any shining lights were cast out to sea" at the Sanborn residence.
The case file remained open, but no arrests were made. Today, "Sanborn Square" in downtown Boca Raton is named for the doctor and is a reminder of this unresolved World War II mystery.
For several years, local legends were told, and reported by the news media, of German sailors frequenting restaurants and bars in the Town of Palm Beach. Apparently, when not sinking allied shipping, U-boat crews took time off and came ashore to get hot meals and a beer in an enemy city.
Another popular myth claimed U-boat crews operated out of a secret base in the Jupiter Inlet. A second version of the tale was spread of the Germans actually capturing the inlet. The source of this local legend was probably misinformation about the top secret U-boat monitoring station at the inlet, operated by the U.S. military.
There were rumors of a German family using the George Washington Hotel in downtown West Palm Beach as a spy base of operations to signal U-boats using lights on the roof. A German butler also supposedly operated a short wave radio from a seaside Palm Beach estate to signal U-boats.
The unnamed butler allegedly was killed in gun battle with FBI agents, although the federal agency has no reports to support this rumor or any of the other faux espionage incidents in the Palm Beaches.
In truth, German and Japanese resident aliens living in Palm Beach County during the war years were not spies, but instead targeted by law enforcement under tight restrictions placed on foreign nationals by the federal government.
The FBI often entered the homes of German and Japanese nationals in search of propaganda books, firearms and U-boat signaling devices. Enemy aliens could not travel outside of Palm Beach County without special FBI permits.
Permission also was required for foreign nationals to withdraw large amounts of money from their bank accounts. This created business hardships for German and Japanese residents and their employees.
While law enforcement agencies closely monitored enemy aliens, it should be noted no arrests for espionage were made in Palm Beach County.
One dark chapter in the county's history is the treatment of the few remaining Japanese Yamato agricultural colony farmers during World War II. The Yamato colony was established 1903 in the northwestern section of what is today the City of Boca Raton.
For three decades the farming community provided pineapples and other produce to local markets. The Great Depression made their farms unprofitable and many of the Japanese settlers quit farming and either returned to Japan or moved to California.
Henry T. Kamiya, one of remaining leaders of the Yamato colony, was detained at the beginning of World War II while visiting his daughter in California. He was warehoused against his will at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp throughout the war.
When he returned to Palm Beach County after the war, he discovered his land and that of several other former Yamato colony property owners was taken by the federal government in May 1942 for the construction of the Boca Raton Army Air Field.
Hideo Kobayasi, another Yamato colony member, was ordered to vacate his land for the airfield. Compensation for his property was deferred and payment received only after the land was vacated. After losing his property, he moved to Broward County.
Both Kamiya and Kobayishi were eminent domain victims of the "Second War Powers Act of 1942," a law passed by Congress to allow the "emergency condemnation" of land determined to be appropriate for military uses during World War II. The same law also placed the tight controls on activities by resident aliens.
POWS in Palm Beach County
Following the surrender of the German Afrika Corps in Tunisia during May 1943, an influx of 371,683 German prisoners of war were transported to America and placed in internment camps. They were joined by 50,273 Italian and 3,915 Japanese POWs during the war.
By May 1945, the number of POWs held in the U.S. peaked at 425,891. They were housed in 175 internment camps distributed throughout the country.
A total of 10,000 prisoners were assigned to Florida. The Belle Glade Camp was located near the Everglades Experimental Station site. It became one of 22 rural work camps in Florida housing German prisoners from March to December 1945.
German POWs were processed at Florida's Camp Blanding, where guards attempted to separate Nazi loyalists, often elite U-boat crews and Afrika Corps veterans, from the nonpolitical prisoners, most of whom were captured after the Normandy invasion.
A total of 250 prisoners of war were sent from Camp Blanding to the Belle Glade "branch camp" for the purpose of relieving labor shortages for agricultural harvesting and processing in Palm Beach County. The U.S. War Manpower Commission was the federal agency that determined the need and use of POW contracts to meet labor demands.
German prisoners at the Belle Glade Camp worked as sugarcane cutters, and in a local bean canning factory. Labor crews also were used to repair the Herbert Hoover Dike along Lake Okeechobee. German officers were exempted from work crews.
The treatment of POWs was governed and observed by the U.S. military under the Geneva Convention of 1929 guidelines. The international law required prisoners receive the same "food, shelter, medical care and clothing" as garrison troops.
The U.S. Department of War hoped good treatment of German prisoners in the U.S. would influence Germany to abide by convention rules for American POWs held in their military concentration camps.
POW work crews at the Belle Glade Camp worked from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. They earned 80 cents a day in camp coupons for their labor. The camp commissary included writing supplies, soap, censored newspapers and magazines, soda, tobacco, and occasionally beer.
Roll call and breakfast began at 5:30 a.m. Lunch was usually served at the worksite. After dinner, the POWs had free time until lights out by 10 p.m.
"Firm but fair" was the policy of camp guards and garrison troops in Florida. Due to a shortage of guards, camp administrators also relied on German officers and NCOs to maintain camp discipline.
The Belle Glade Camp made national news headlines when its POWs went on strike on April 4-5, 1945 and refused to report for work assignments. The strike was sparked by a reduction in the camp's ration of cigarettes.
Camp supervisors responded to the strike by limiting POW food rations to bread and water until they returned to work. The new "no work, no eat" policy was successful and the German prisoners ended their strike after just two days.
As an aftermath of the strike, 39 "troublemakers" were shipped back to the main POW stockade at Camp Blanding. Cigarette distribution from Morrison Field was restored and life returned to normal at the work camp.
POWs were detained at the Belle Glade Camp until December 1945, when transport and conditions in a defeated Germany allowed the return its soldiers and sailors. The camp was closed and its flagpole was later donated to the American Legion Post No. 20 in Belle Glade.
(c.) Davidsson. 2017.
NOTE: See also "Battle of the Atlantic Comes to the Palm Beaches" archived in Older Posts.
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