At nighttime hours of June 13, 1942, a German U-boat surfaced off the coast of Long Island.
4 saboteurs, under the leadership of 1 George Dasch, buried explosives beneath the sands of Amagansett as a part of an elaborate plan to explode Astoria’s Hell Gate Bridge, together with chemical plants getting used within the American war effort.
Naval intelligence Lt. Gen. Charles Radcliffe Haffenden had gotten word that 4 men had been spotted and sped out to Long Island’s East End.
But his investigation didn’t follow standard military protocols. Haffenden stopped at Millie’s Inn by Napeague Beach for dinner with just a few known organized crime associates. They were essential to a top secret surveillance network he had created with the assistance of the Mafia.
The mob played a vital, secret role in World War II, using its power and control over Recent York City ports, dock employees and fishermen to maintain a watch out for U boats and other suspicious characters. The Mafia even employed its leverage to get the Navy inside an off-limits foreign consulate believed to have crucial information on the Nazis.
“The Navy realized that they didn’t have full security control over the Port of Recent York … They couldn’t get into the unions, they couldn’t get next to the shopkeepers, the longshoremen. No person was talking to them.” Matthew Black, creator of “Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed As much as Win World War II,” out Tuesday, told The Post. “The Navy was surprised to learn that not only would the Mafia be able to help, but they might be completely happy to. Lots of them were loyal. They loved america of America.”
In early 1942, months before the U boat landed on Long Island, Haffenden concocted a top secret plan to unofficially deputize a known enemy of the state to protect Recent York from the Nazis.
Through a series of lawyers, Haffenden organized a “cloak and dagger” midnight meeting at Riverside Park between Frank “Socks” Lanza — a k a the czar of the Fulton Fish Market, who answered to the notorious Lucky Luciano — and a district attorney.
Socks was was a bona fide “patriot” who hated each Hitler and Benito Mussolini, so he was easily convinced to sign on. Along with his help, deep-water fishing captains who previously pretended to not know a word of English began singing to Naval officials.
“Inside a brief period of time, you had America’s fishing fleet as the primary line of defense in search of for German U boats,” Black said. “As the connection progressed, [the Navy] was capable of get access to increasingly more places on the waterfront. Contacts led out to Long Island and all around the East Coast, especially in Recent England.”
As helpful as Socks was within the war effort, there have been still an incredible deal of ports and piers the mafioso didn’t have leverage over. It was time for Operation Underworld to leap a pay grade as Socks recruited Luciano himself. There was only one problem: He was doing 30 to 50 years behind bars and arranging a gathering with him was complicated.
“[The Navy] didn’t want the FBI to learn about what they were doing. In order that they needed to provide you with all types of measures to transfer him to a unique prison and make it appear like it wasn’t the a part of any form of major deal. Luciano was kept at nighttime for lots of it,” Black explained.
Unlike Lanza, Luciano wasn’t entirely operating as a bleeding-heart patriot. He used the military technique to run his empire from inside the can, getting orders out to his major bosses — Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Willie Moretti — during military-sanctioned meetings behind bars.
“He had 20-something visits along with his bosses,” Black said. “So he’s form of using operation underworld to form of further his criminal goals.”
Underworld in motion
A 12 months after the Dasch affair, Operation Underworld evolved from port protection and espionage to helping allied troops invade and occupy Sicily — Luciano’s former home. It was a campaign codenamed Operation Husky.
“The US was in a nasty position to fight a war in Europe. All of the maps, all of the charts, all the information, all of the intelligence that had been collected from World War I had been destroyed,” Black said.
“So, the target shifted to finding details about Sicily. The Mafia was really helpful in developing contacts, individuals who had been to Sicily recently, who had worked within the harbors there, they usually were capable of bring this to Naval intelligence.”
Mob contacts ended up instrumental to the primary wave within the 1943 Sicilian invasion. Recent York mobsters acted as ambassadors of the armed forces to natives — including the local Mafia — in efforts to point out that the Americans were a friendly force throughout the occupation.
“The massive objective was to get the Italians to activate the Germans and that’s exactly what happened,” Black said. “The Mafia was a real ally to the Allies in World War II.”
At nighttime hours of June 13, 1942, a German U-boat surfaced off the coast of Long Island.
4 saboteurs, under the leadership of 1 George Dasch, buried explosives beneath the sands of Amagansett as a part of an elaborate plan to explode Astoria’s Hell Gate Bridge, together with chemical plants getting used within the American war effort.
Naval intelligence Lt. Gen. Charles Radcliffe Haffenden had gotten word that 4 men had been spotted and sped out to Long Island’s East End.
But his investigation didn’t follow standard military protocols. Haffenden stopped at Millie’s Inn by Napeague Beach for dinner with just a few known organized crime associates. They were essential to a top secret surveillance network he had created with the assistance of the Mafia.
The mob played a vital, secret role in World War II, using its power and control over Recent York City ports, dock employees and fishermen to maintain a watch out for U boats and other suspicious characters. The Mafia even employed its leverage to get the Navy inside an off-limits foreign consulate believed to have crucial information on the Nazis.
“The Navy realized that they didn’t have full security control over the Port of Recent York … They couldn’t get into the unions, they couldn’t get next to the shopkeepers, the longshoremen. No person was talking to them.” Matthew Black, creator of “Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed As much as Win World War II,” out Tuesday, told The Post. “The Navy was surprised to learn that not only would the Mafia be able to help, but they might be completely happy to. Lots of them were loyal. They loved america of America.”
In early 1942, months before the U boat landed on Long Island, Haffenden concocted a top secret plan to unofficially deputize a known enemy of the state to protect Recent York from the Nazis.
Through a series of lawyers, Haffenden organized a “cloak and dagger” midnight meeting at Riverside Park between Frank “Socks” Lanza — a k a the czar of the Fulton Fish Market, who answered to the notorious Lucky Luciano — and a district attorney.
Socks was was a bona fide “patriot” who hated each Hitler and Benito Mussolini, so he was easily convinced to sign on. Along with his help, deep-water fishing captains who previously pretended to not know a word of English began singing to Naval officials.
“Inside a brief period of time, you had America’s fishing fleet as the primary line of defense in search of for German U boats,” Black said. “As the connection progressed, [the Navy] was capable of get access to increasingly more places on the waterfront. Contacts led out to Long Island and all around the East Coast, especially in Recent England.”
As helpful as Socks was within the war effort, there have been still an incredible deal of ports and piers the mafioso didn’t have leverage over. It was time for Operation Underworld to leap a pay grade as Socks recruited Luciano himself. There was only one problem: He was doing 30 to 50 years behind bars and arranging a gathering with him was complicated.
“[The Navy] didn’t want the FBI to learn about what they were doing. In order that they needed to provide you with all types of measures to transfer him to a unique prison and make it appear like it wasn’t the a part of any form of major deal. Luciano was kept at nighttime for lots of it,” Black explained.
Unlike Lanza, Luciano wasn’t entirely operating as a bleeding-heart patriot. He used the military technique to run his empire from inside the can, getting orders out to his major bosses — Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Willie Moretti — during military-sanctioned meetings behind bars.
“He had 20-something visits along with his bosses,” Black said. “So he’s form of using operation underworld to form of further his criminal goals.”
Underworld in motion
A 12 months after the Dasch affair, Operation Underworld evolved from port protection and espionage to helping allied troops invade and occupy Sicily — Luciano’s former home. It was a campaign codenamed Operation Husky.
“The US was in a nasty position to fight a war in Europe. All of the maps, all of the charts, all the information, all of the intelligence that had been collected from World War I had been destroyed,” Black said.
“So, the target shifted to finding details about Sicily. The Mafia was really helpful in developing contacts, individuals who had been to Sicily recently, who had worked within the harbors there, they usually were capable of bring this to Naval intelligence.”
Mob contacts ended up instrumental to the primary wave within the 1943 Sicilian invasion. Recent York mobsters acted as ambassadors of the armed forces to natives — including the local Mafia — in efforts to point out that the Americans were a friendly force throughout the occupation.
“The massive objective was to get the Italians to activate the Germans and that’s exactly what happened,” Black said. “The Mafia was a real ally to the Allies in World War II.”
