During the summer of 1944, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt pro-
posed that he work abroad, specifically in the United States, under its
auspices. To complete his training, Gimpel was sent to the A-School
West located near The Hague, where he was introduced to his future
partner, William Colepaugh, an American of German descent. Their
short-term mission in the United States, code-named elster, was
to gather technical data from open sources and not to develop a spy
network. Outfitted with forged identity papers as well as special pho-
tographic and radio equipment, they crossed the North Atlantic in a
U-1230, a new class of submarine with a reduced crew of 36 men. On
29 November 1944, the submarine passed undetected by the naval
base at Bar Harbor, Maine, into Frenchman Bay, where the two men
disembarked that evening in a rubber raft and made their way first to
Boston, then to New York City.
On 3 December, a British freighter was torpedoed eight miles from
Mount Desert Island, raising the possibility that spies might have
been deposited on the coast, yet the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) found nothing when agents searched the Maine coast. Cole-
paugh, however, conflicted in his loyalties and fearful that Germany
was losing the war, went to the FBI with a fabricated double-agent
story and provided a detailed description of Gimpel. A massive
manhunt ensued throughout the country. Arrested at a Times Square
newsstand on 30 December by the FBI, Gimpel proved outwardly
cooperative and stood trial before a military tribunal at Governor’s
Island. Members of the Office of Strategic Services visited him while
he awaited trial, but he refused any offer that could be construed as
betrayal of his country.
Although both Gimpel and Colepaugh were found guilty of espio-
nage and sentenced to be hanged, the death of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt prevented the execution from being immediately carried out.
The capitulation of Germany in May 1945 spared them a second time.
Stating that “it is customary to hang spies during a war, but it is also
customary to pardon them when the war is over,” President Harry S.
Truman decided to commute both sentences to life imprisonment. In-
carcerated in a series of American facilities—Leavenworth, Alcatraz,
and Atlanta—Gimpel was eventually paroled in 1956 and returned to
West Germany before resettling in South America. His memoir—Spion
für Deutschland (Spy for Germany and Agent 146: The True Story of
GIMPEL, ERICH • 139