While the Great War raged across the trench-lined battlefields of Europe, a hidden conflict took place in the distant hinterlands of the turbulent Mexican Republic. German officials and secret-service operatives plotted to bring war to the United States through an array of schemes and strategies, from training a German-Mexican army for a cross-border invasion, to dispatching saboteurs to disrupt American industry, and planning for submarine bases on the western coast of Mexico. Bill Mills tells the true story of the most audacious of these operations: the German plot to launch clandestine sea raiders from the Mexican port of Mazatlán to disrupt Allied merchant shipping in the Pacific. The scheme led to a desperate struggle between German and American secret agents in Mexico. German consul Fritz Unger, the director of a powerful trading house, plotted to obtain a salvaged Mexican gunboat to supply U-boats operating off Mexico and to seize a hapless tramp schooner to help hunt Allied merchantmen. Unger’s efforts were opposed by a colorful array of individuals, including a trusted member of the German secret service in Mexico who was also the top American spy, the U.S. State Department’s senior officer in Mazatlán, the hard-charging commander of a navy gunboat, and a draft-dodging American informant in the enemy camp. Full of drama and intrigue, Treacherous Passage is the first complete account of the daring German attempts to raid Allied shipping from Mexico in 1918. "A lively read . . . not only a good cloak and dagger tale, but [ Treacherous Passage ] also throws further light on the still-not fully documented German efforts to carry on covert operations against the United States during the Great War."—A. A. Nofi,  Strategy Page "An excellent book casting light on one segment of the troubled relationship the United States has often had with Mexico."—Charles H. Bogart, Journal of America's Military Past "Mills presents the readers with a lively and compelling story about lesser known events on Mexico's southwestern Pacific coast. In so doing Mills alerts his audience to the significance of these events in the larger context of German and US intelligence operations in Mexico."—Thomas M. Leonard,  Latin American Research Review Published On: 2019-09-17 “Barbara Tuchman meets John Le Carré in Treacherous Passage, a gripping story of espionage and intrigue that reminds us that World War I truly was a global war fought on many fronts.”—Christopher Capozzola, author of Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen   Published On: 2016-02-24 “The Zimmermann Telegram is infamous. But the story of Germany’s World War I plot to launch sea raiders against U.S. commercial shipping from Mazatlán remains an episode almost as obscure today as it was in 1918. This book is a revelation.”—Alan Axelrod, author of Miracle at Belleau Wood and The Battle of Verdun  Published On: 2016-02-24 Bill Mills writes about twentieth-century clandestine operations and espionage history. He is the author of The League: The True Story of Average Americans on the Hunt for World War I Spies and Treacherous Passage: Germany’s Secret Plot against the United States in Mexico during World War I (Potomac, 2017). He lives in Concord, Massachusetts. Treacherous Passage Germany's Secret Plot against the United States in Mexico during World War I By Bill Mills UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS Copyright © 2017 William B. Mills All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61234-854-4 Contents List of Illustrations, Acknowledgments, Prologue: "The Morelos Will Be Ours", 1. A Simple Business Transaction, 2. "I Will Shoot You Down like a Dog!", 3. The Alexander Agassiz, 4. For Honor and Fatherland, 5. "She Is an Outlaw and a Dangerous Enemy", 6. "If You Want to Get the Best of Uncle Sam, Get Up before You Go to Bed", 7. "The Germans Are After You", 8. United States of America vs. Alexander Agassiz, 9. Going For Broke, Notes, References, Index, CHAPTER 1 A Simple Business Transaction The harbor at Mazatlán was one of the busiest in the country in 1917. Even with a reduction in trade due to the war in Europe, Mazatlán remained the principal port of entry on the west coast of Mexico and business was still good enough to keep the dock workers busy from morning until dusk. The average depth in the harbor was only eighty feet, so arriving steamships were required to anchor offshore where they awaited an unusual offloading ritual. When the tide was out, passengers disembarked from the steamers into gasoline-powered launches, which took them to rowboats that beached onshore. The first passengers from each rowboat that landed were carried on the backs of "boteros," or boatmen, until the rowboat could be fully dragged out of the water to enable the remainder to exit. Their luggage came onshore the same way. Meanwhile, a fleet of launches, rowboats, and lighters would descen