Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Poem ~ Bottle Bomb Plots - Thursday, 16 December 1915


Source: File: Von Papen; German Military Attaché in Washington, D.C..jpeg, [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Papen> Accessed: 16 December 2015].

For other details, see full text of 'German plots and intrigues in the United States during the period of our neutrality,' by Earl E. Sperry ... assisted by Willis M. West ... Issued by the Committee on Public Information, Washington, D.C."  Source: <https://archive.org/stream/germanplotsintri00sper/germanplotsintri00sper_djvu.txt>

In intrigues - as intrigues usually are -
Involved connections, various strands
And plots - may become stuff of novels.

With arrest of Captain von Brincken,
Early December 1915, preparations
For his trial involved others evidence.

Johannes H. van Koolbergen, Dutch
And naturalised Canadian - involved
In the case, was detained in Canada.

Van Koolbergen, German sympathiser,
Was employed by American Germans,
In order to construct certain bombs.

Costing $100, explosives were packed
Into Thermos flasks - that workers may
Take without suspicion, around docks.

In every success of an allied boat
Destroyed, van Koolbergen would
Be paid a bonus for his good work.

In addition van Koolbergen had also
Gained expenses in his part, to blow
A trestle rail bridge, within Canada.

This was to hinder supply trains;
The proof of result being in paper
Clippings - yet without any witness.

After that pretend explosion made
On the Canadian-Pacific Railroad,
Van Koolbergen met von Brincken.

In a discussion at a hotel, devised
A flask bomb - pre set to explode
At a particular time - could he do this?

Working as longshoremen on docks
Of San Francisco, were 15 German
Men, who could easily place bombs.

Constructing an example dummy
Device, von Koolbergen showed
Von Brincken - to place it in a safe.

Von Koolbergen was then given
Orders to proceed into production -
But the request was later rescinded.

Reasons were to await calmness,
After bomb plots made in Eastern
United States - before proceeding.

Another string involved a Captain
Von Papen, attached to German
Embassy in Washington DC.

Papen swayed, by likes of intrigue,
To be involved in plans in costs
To destroy munitions factories.

A Captain of steamer, Sacramento,
Previously the German Steamer
Alexandria, also made his surrender.

The accusations that Captain T.A.
Anderson had violated neutral
Laws, to supply German ships.

Anderson had conveyed cargos
To warships; recorded in the ships 
Log, of goods destined for Valparaiso.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. German Plots in the United States - Bombs From Bottles. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 16 December. P.11. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12052362/Daily-Telegraph-December-16-1915.html [Accessed: 16 December 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 16 December 2015). 




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