Vic Socotra

03 September 2009

The Ponte Vedre Bunde

(# 279 Edward John Kerling)

The Coast Guard had already found the boxes of munitions and uniforms on the Long Island sand. The FBI had been alerted; a nation-wide man-hunt under the tightest security had been launched when U-584, a type VIIc submarine, surfaced off the empty beaches of Ponte Vendre, south of the sleepy little north Florida town of Jacksonville.

I used to live there, when assigned to World Famous Carrier Air Wing SIX, and got down to the beach at the mouth of the St. John’s River often. It was a glittering and glamorous place then, and they had just completed the magnificent Tournament Player’s Course for the golf professionals and the fat-cat wannbees.

I saw the historical marker that commemorates the surfacing of Kapitanleutnant Joachim Deecke’s boat, along with Crew 33 and four saboteurs.

The landing was uneventful, and Edward Kerling was in charge of the landing party. His three men were Hermann Neubauer, Werner Thiel and Herbert Haupt, the youngest man in both of the sabotage groups. He was 22, and he was close to getting another number he would keep forever.

Kerling watched the rubber boat paddle back to sea, where it was hoisted back onto the waiting submarine. With a salute, Kapitan Deecke bade them farewell, and turned his boat to the east, safely returning to Brest on the 22nd of July.

Kerling watched as his group changed out of uniform and into civilian clothes. He had $50,000 to pay for living expenses, travel and expected bribes. The men themselves were then given $9,000, and Kerling had an extra $5,000 in his wallet for contingencies. This was all real the real deal, and not one of Himmler’s SS forgeries. It was all as good as gold. In addition to the cash, the Ponte Vedre Bund each had a handkerchief that carried the names of contacts and mail drops in America written in invisible ink.

They buried four waterproof crates, each about twice the size of a shoebox. Three contained explosives and one the fuzing, wires and acid detonators. The evening had that gentle feel of the Florida coast, the air soft and sound of the surf soothing.

# 279 Edward John Kerling was born in Wiesbaden, Germany on June 12, 1909. He joined the Nazi Party in 1928, and left Germany later that year for a job in a packing house in New York City. He was restless, and turned some time as a chipping clerk, but preferred movement. He served as a chauffeur for Eli Culbertson, a bridge expert, in Hicksville, Long Island. On October 31, 1931, he married Marie Sichart, and changed employers to W. J. Hoggson, a banker in Greenwich, Connecticut. Traveling with his employer to Florida, he met another German emigrant named Hedwig Engemann, who became his mistress. In 1939, when Germany went to war with Europe, Kerling and several friends, including Hermann Neubauer, bought a boat, which they intended to sail to Germany. The U.S. Coast Guard, fearing the group might be attempting to supply U-Boats, prohibited the voyage. The yacht was sold in Miami, and in June 1940, Kerling sailed via passenger ship to Germany, leaving his wife and mistress behind In August, he joined the German Army and was assigned to a listening post in Deauville, France. That is what he was doing when Major Kappe approached him about a job in the sabotage business back home. He jumped at the chance.

#278 Herbert Hans Haupt was born in Stettin, the son of a World War I veteran who came to Chicago to find work in 1923. He sent for his wife and son in 1925, and “Herbie” became a US citizen when his parents were naturalized in 1930. He attended Lane High School and later worked at Simpson Optical Company as an apprentice optician. In 1941, sensing that his homelands would be at war, Herbie and two friends began a world-wide trek that ended in Germany after brief sojourns in Mexico, Japan and France. He won a medal for helping his passenger ship run the British blockade, and was visiting his grandmother in Stettin when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

# 280 Hermann Otto Neubauer was born February 5, 1910 in Hamburg. After completing school he apprenticed as a cook, and plied that trade in the States at a variety of hotels when he got there in 1931. Darkly handsome, he worked on a shipping line and traveled to England, Australia and South America. In 1936 he returned to the USA and joined the German-American Bund and the National Socialist Party. In 1940 he married Alma Wolf. That year he also became friends with Edward Kerling and was a part of the yachting scheme. He returned with Kerling on a commercial liner, and after visiting his parents in 1941, got drafted by the German Army. He was part of the great campaign in Russia, and was decorated for wounds to his right eye and leg.

# 281 Werner Thiel was born in Essen on March 29, 1907. As an adult he was a machinist and a bicycle maker. He was out of work in 1927, and took off for the States, where he found work at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit as a tool and die maker. After the crash in 1929, he was laid off and went from job to job in Indiana, California, Pennsylvania and Florida. He was dissatisfied politically, and joined the German-American Bund. In March 1941, he traveled home via the trans-Siberian railroad, one of the last times a German would voluntarily pass that way. After the war started, one of his two brothers was killed in action, and the other lost an eye. He also was more than happy to take an all-expense paid trip back to the USA.

By the time Kerling was satisfied that everything was in order, the hours were getting short before dawn. He and his men silently walked inland for the long hike to the train station in Jax. There they boarded trains north. Kerling and Thiel were headed direct to Cincinnati, where the two teams were scheduled to rendezvous on the 4th of July. Haupt and Neubauer were headed for Chicago, where Herbie could see his folks, and his girlfriend.

In Chicago, Herbie told Neubauer on the train, the beer was good and served much colder than they did in Germany. Neubauer grunted in response. Either way was just fine with him.

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