1918 Events
January 3, 1918 - Guatemala
Sylvanus Morley and Captain Frank H. Brumby met Guatemalan President Manuel Estrada Cabrera at the dictator's La Palma estate to offer humanitarian relief from USS Cincinnati (C-7) after several powerful earthquakes jarred the nation. Brumby had witnessed the devastation as he traveled overland from his ship at Puerto San Jose. Morley, a renowned archaeologist and brilliant naval intelligence officer, was not impressed by the paranoid dictator. |
January 15, 1918 - Mexico City
Dr. Paul Bernardo Altendorf, a Polish mercenary in the Mexican Army, slipped into the American embassy and informed an astonished military attaché that he was an undercover agent of the U.S. Military Intelligence Division and would be departing for the borderlands soon with a pair of diabolical German operatives. The Germans were Kurt Jahnke and Lothar Witzke, both of them experienced saboteurs. Lieutenant Witzke had served on SMS Dresden until its sinking in March 1915. Altendorf's MID handler was Byron S. Butcher, a capable intelligence officer assigned to Nogales, Arizona. |
January 24, 1918 - Guatemala City
The last of a devastating series of earthquakes terrorizes Guatemala, leaving the city in ruins, thousands dead, and even the tyrant president Manuel Estrada Cabrera shaken.
The last of a devastating series of earthquakes terrorizes Guatemala, leaving the city in ruins, thousands dead, and even the tyrant president Manuel Estrada Cabrera shaken.
February 1, 1918 - Nogales, Sonora / Nogales, Arizona
German lieutenant Lothar Witzke is apprehended after crossing the border into the US on an assassination mission carrying a .38-caliber revolver given to him by Mexican General Plutarco Elías Calles. MID intelligence officer Byron Butcher made the arrest while his agent Paul Altendorf watched from a distance. Witzke was sentenced to death by hanging in August, but would survive the war and be repatriated to Germany.
German lieutenant Lothar Witzke is apprehended after crossing the border into the US on an assassination mission carrying a .38-caliber revolver given to him by Mexican General Plutarco Elías Calles. MID intelligence officer Byron Butcher made the arrest while his agent Paul Altendorf watched from a distance. Witzke was sentenced to death by hanging in August, but would survive the war and be repatriated to Germany.
February 11, 1918 - Mexico City
First Chief Venustiano Carranza received the credentials of Baron Fujitaro Otori as Japan's minister plenipotentiary to Mexico.
First Chief Venustiano Carranza received the credentials of Baron Fujitaro Otori as Japan's minister plenipotentiary to Mexico.
February 14, 1918 - Cartagena, Spain
German submarine U-35 landed two agents off Cartagena, Spain with a secret consignment of anthrax and glanders germs destined for Buenos Aires via the German naval attaché in Madrid, Korvettenkapitän Hans von Krohn. British Naval Intelligence intercepted and decrypted German messages about the shipment, and even purloined one of the twelve cases of biological warfare material and warned the Spanish. Meanwhile von Krohn convinced his French mistress, Marthe Richard (alias Regnier), to unwittingly smuggle some of the material into Argentina onboard SS Reina Victoria Eugenia. Although Marthe Richard/Regnier was herself a French agent, she did not realize that tubes of anthrax and glanders were concealed in the lid of her trunk.
German submarine U-35 landed two agents off Cartagena, Spain with a secret consignment of anthrax and glanders germs destined for Buenos Aires via the German naval attaché in Madrid, Korvettenkapitän Hans von Krohn. British Naval Intelligence intercepted and decrypted German messages about the shipment, and even purloined one of the twelve cases of biological warfare material and warned the Spanish. Meanwhile von Krohn convinced his French mistress, Marthe Richard (alias Regnier), to unwittingly smuggle some of the material into Argentina onboard SS Reina Victoria Eugenia. Although Marthe Richard/Regnier was herself a French agent, she did not realize that tubes of anthrax and glanders were concealed in the lid of her trunk.
March 1918 - Buenos Aires
A US naval intelligence officer, J.P. Duhn, successfully penetrated the inner circle of German intelligence operations in Argentina.
A US naval intelligence officer, J.P. Duhn, successfully penetrated the inner circle of German intelligence operations in Argentina.
March 4, 1918 - Caribbean
USS Cyclops is last heard from before disappearing into the sea with 293 people. It remains the largest US Navy vessel to vanish without explanation, however, evidence suggests that German saboteurs may have been responsible.
USS Cyclops is last heard from before disappearing into the sea with 293 people. It remains the largest US Navy vessel to vanish without explanation, however, evidence suggests that German saboteurs may have been responsible.
March 18, 1918 - Atlantic Ocean (360 miles west of Cadiz, Spain)
German submarine U-157 makes a bold rendezvous with Spanish ocean liner Infanta Isabel de Borbon on the high seas. German naval personnel board Infanta Isabel, shower, dine and relax, then interview passengers and remove the Uruguayan Military Mission which was bound for observer duty with the French Army on the Western Front. The Uruguayans were given a choice: execution or promise not to continue to France. They chose the latter. |
April 23, 1918 - Guatemala
Guatemala declared war on Germany.
Guatemala declared war on Germany.
May 8, 1918 - Managua
Nicaragua declared war on Germany and Austro-Hungary.
Nicaragua declared war on Germany and Austro-Hungary.
May 23, 1918 - San Jose
Costa Rica declared war on Germany and Austro-Hungary.
Costa Rica declared war on Germany and Austro-Hungary.
May 24, 1918 - Mexico City & Havana
Mexico severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. Cuban President Menocal rightly suspected that Spanish vessels, the Mexican government and German intelligence were engaged in a cabal to move covert communications, money, goods and people between the Central Powers and the Americas. Interrupting the Spanish ships' routine not only prevented spies in Mexico from communicating with Berlin but also limited German and carrancísta intrigue with Cuba’s anti-Menocal opposition. In April 1918, the U.S. War Trade Board representative in Havana began refusing coal to Spanish ships bound for Mexico. The next Spanish steamer to arrive in Cuba, SS Alfonso XIII, did not have enough coal to continue west, and had to leave mailbags bound for Veracruz in the hands of Cuban and US censors (...and counterintelligence officials). German and Mexican officials were furious.
Mexico severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. Cuban President Menocal rightly suspected that Spanish vessels, the Mexican government and German intelligence were engaged in a cabal to move covert communications, money, goods and people between the Central Powers and the Americas. Interrupting the Spanish ships' routine not only prevented spies in Mexico from communicating with Berlin but also limited German and carrancísta intrigue with Cuba’s anti-Menocal opposition. In April 1918, the U.S. War Trade Board representative in Havana began refusing coal to Spanish ships bound for Mexico. The next Spanish steamer to arrive in Cuba, SS Alfonso XIII, did not have enough coal to continue west, and had to leave mailbags bound for Veracruz in the hands of Cuban and US censors (...and counterintelligence officials). German and Mexican officials were furious.
SS Alfonso XIII and other Spanish steamers were key links between Latin America and Europe for German intelligence. Dr. Gehrmann, Anton Dilger's trusted courier, took this ship to Spain in October 1917. The Upmann network in Cuba coordinated a sophisticated underground mail service between Mexico, Europe and the United States.
June 1918 - Washington & Veracruz
An anti-Carranza exile informant waiting tables in a Washington restaurant overheard Mexican diplomats discussing logistics support for U-boats and toasting the German-Mexican alliance. The informant's report complemented several others from Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Progreso (Yucatan), etc. The US Military Intelligence Division sent intelligence officer Paul Altendorf to investigate around Veracruz, but he came up empty-handed.
An anti-Carranza exile informant waiting tables in a Washington restaurant overheard Mexican diplomats discussing logistics support for U-boats and toasting the German-Mexican alliance. The informant's report complemented several others from Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Progreso (Yucatan), etc. The US Military Intelligence Division sent intelligence officer Paul Altendorf to investigate around Veracruz, but he came up empty-handed.
July 13, 1918 - La Paz, Bolivia
A tragedy shocked the US diplomatic community, then took a bizarre turn. The US Minister to Bolivia, a political appointee from Missouri named John Davis O’Rear, succumbed to smallpox, according to official records. His sudden loss stung the legation--O’Rear was just 48 years old, and knew Bolivia well (having served there since 1913). Owing to the highly contagious nature of smallpox, O’Rear’s burial arrangements were carried out with haste, and he was interred in a “a hermetically sealed coffin” in La Paz. Rumors quickly spread that O’Rear had secretly made a fortune supplying blacklisted German firms with contraband American goods. Fearful that he was about to be discovered, O’Rear feigned his own death by smallpox and escaped, or so it was said… Bolivian authorities exhumed his coffin on July 23 to disprove whispers that it was empty. O’Rear’s wife and toddler soon left the country. Yet German intelligence officer Hans von Riedel repeated the tale to a double agent in 1922, as if it were true…
A tragedy shocked the US diplomatic community, then took a bizarre turn. The US Minister to Bolivia, a political appointee from Missouri named John Davis O’Rear, succumbed to smallpox, according to official records. His sudden loss stung the legation--O’Rear was just 48 years old, and knew Bolivia well (having served there since 1913). Owing to the highly contagious nature of smallpox, O’Rear’s burial arrangements were carried out with haste, and he was interred in a “a hermetically sealed coffin” in La Paz. Rumors quickly spread that O’Rear had secretly made a fortune supplying blacklisted German firms with contraband American goods. Fearful that he was about to be discovered, O’Rear feigned his own death by smallpox and escaped, or so it was said… Bolivian authorities exhumed his coffin on July 23 to disprove whispers that it was empty. O’Rear’s wife and toddler soon left the country. Yet German intelligence officer Hans von Riedel repeated the tale to a double agent in 1922, as if it were true…
July 14, 1918 - Port-au-Prince
Haiti’s Council of State declared war on Germany. The Council of State had replaced the National Assembly months before when the latter was dissolved by US Marines and compliant gendarmes. Days later, President Phillippe Dartiguenave was given powers to expel or detain enemy aliens, take their property and requisition whatever he needed for national defense. Accordingly, he sequestered eight German trading firms in late July. Haiti even went through the motions to assemble a military contingent for the Western Front. |
July 18, 1918 - Veracruz
"Valdez Proposal" is submitted to German Embassy in Mexico by Guatemalan revolutionary Isidro Valdez. The plan proposes to invade British Honduras and overthrow pro-Allied governments in Central America. An army of rebel Guatemalan and Honduran Liberals, backed up by German U-boats, would first infiltrate Petén and Alta Verapaz from Mexico, take over Guatemala, then invade Honduras and British Honduras. “With the revolution of Belíce,” Valdez suggested, “the German government, with the help of Guatemala, can establish a naval base and install points of supply.” Valdez mused that German long- range submarines could establish a base on the Mosquito Coast to conveniently assault US ships in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Valdez’ Liberal liberators would instigate popular revolt that would extend from Guatemala and Honduras into Nicaragua and Costa Rica, installing revolutionary governments that would withdraw support from the Allied cause and return confiscated German property. Germany would become the patron of Central American liberation and unification. Then, wrote Valdez, this union would pursue a “close entente” with Mexico, “forming a block of nations which will check the tendencies of Yankee Imperialism.” Berlin approved in September, but it was too late...
"Valdez Proposal" is submitted to German Embassy in Mexico by Guatemalan revolutionary Isidro Valdez. The plan proposes to invade British Honduras and overthrow pro-Allied governments in Central America. An army of rebel Guatemalan and Honduran Liberals, backed up by German U-boats, would first infiltrate Petén and Alta Verapaz from Mexico, take over Guatemala, then invade Honduras and British Honduras. “With the revolution of Belíce,” Valdez suggested, “the German government, with the help of Guatemala, can establish a naval base and install points of supply.” Valdez mused that German long- range submarines could establish a base on the Mosquito Coast to conveniently assault US ships in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Valdez’ Liberal liberators would instigate popular revolt that would extend from Guatemala and Honduras into Nicaragua and Costa Rica, installing revolutionary governments that would withdraw support from the Allied cause and return confiscated German property. Germany would become the patron of Central American liberation and unification. Then, wrote Valdez, this union would pursue a “close entente” with Mexico, “forming a block of nations which will check the tendencies of Yankee Imperialism.” Berlin approved in September, but it was too late...
July 19, 1918 - Tegucigalpa
Honduras declared war on Germany.
Honduras declared war on Germany.
August 9, 1918 - Lima, Peru
Colonel Fred Case, US Military Attaché to Peru, informed the US War Department’s Military Intelligence Division that he had positively identified the elusive Japanese agent in Lima who had been associating with German intelligence officer Hans von Riedel and had delivered secret German communications to couriers on Japanese merchant ships. The mystery man was none other than Japanese Consul Kadzu Saito. Japanese collusion with Germany was a major discovery because Japan was an allied nation in WWI. |
August 27, 1918 - Nogales, Sonora & Nogales, Arizona
The Battle of Ambos Nogales erupted around the US Customs post in the center of town and raged for days between carrancista Mexican Army soldiers and detachments of the US Army's 10th Cavalry and 35th Infantry Regiments. Two of the Mexican dead appeared to be German advisors or mercenaries.
The Battle of Ambos Nogales erupted around the US Customs post in the center of town and raged for days between carrancista Mexican Army soldiers and detachments of the US Army's 10th Cavalry and 35th Infantry Regiments. Two of the Mexican dead appeared to be German advisors or mercenaries.
July-August 1918 - Magdalena River, Colombia
Charles Waite, intelligence agent of the US Military Intelligence Division, cruised inland from Barranquilla through clouds of mosquitoes down the muddy, crocodile-infested Magdalena River. He noted the tonnage, capacity and ownership of every major vessel on the shallow 612-mile passage to La Dorada where he hiked into the Choco region to search for German enterprises.
Charles Waite, intelligence agent of the US Military Intelligence Division, cruised inland from Barranquilla through clouds of mosquitoes down the muddy, crocodile-infested Magdalena River. He noted the tonnage, capacity and ownership of every major vessel on the shallow 612-mile passage to La Dorada where he hiked into the Choco region to search for German enterprises.
September 1918 - Chilean ports
The Chilean public was angered when German agents sabotaged several of the 84 interned German ships. The operation was directed by intelligence officer Hans von Riedel.
The Chilean public was angered when German agents sabotaged several of the 84 interned German ships. The operation was directed by intelligence officer Hans von Riedel.
September 27, 1918 - London
The British War Office promulgated Army Order No. 1067 to recognize more than 10,000 volunteers from Latin America: "The King has been graciously pleased to approve of a special badge to be worn by those officers and soldiers who were residing in South America (including Central America and Mexico) at the outbreak of the war and who voluntarily came to this country to join the Army. The badge consists of the letters B.V.L.A. (British Volunteer Latin America) in a diamond worked in yellow on a blue ground." The descendant of one Royal Army captain wrote, "This award did not fill the grantees with any enthusiasm, according to family lore and supposedly no one from Valparaiso, Chile claimed theirs. This may have had roots in the War Office refusing to reimburse the expense of steamship tickets home which amounted to 40 shillings [each]..."
The British War Office promulgated Army Order No. 1067 to recognize more than 10,000 volunteers from Latin America: "The King has been graciously pleased to approve of a special badge to be worn by those officers and soldiers who were residing in South America (including Central America and Mexico) at the outbreak of the war and who voluntarily came to this country to join the Army. The badge consists of the letters B.V.L.A. (British Volunteer Latin America) in a diamond worked in yellow on a blue ground." The descendant of one Royal Army captain wrote, "This award did not fill the grantees with any enthusiasm, according to family lore and supposedly no one from Valparaiso, Chile claimed theirs. This may have had roots in the War Office refusing to reimburse the expense of steamship tickets home which amounted to 40 shillings [each]..."
October 4, 1918 - Rio de Janeiro
SS Dannemara disgorges passengers from Lisbon and Dakar who are carrying the Spanish Flu virus. By October 22, the virus is raging so fiercely in Argentina that President Irigoyen orders schools to close until further notice. Theatres cancel performances, and even bars close early as fear permeates the streets.
SS Dannemara disgorges passengers from Lisbon and Dakar who are carrying the Spanish Flu virus. By October 22, the virus is raging so fiercely in Argentina that President Irigoyen orders schools to close until further notice. Theatres cancel performances, and even bars close early as fear permeates the streets.
November 11, 1918 - Buenos Aires, La Paz, Philadelphia, et al.
The Armistice silenced the guns on the Western Front on November 11, 1918, but the intelligence war did not have a clean-cut ending. US intelligence operatives were scattered across Latin America. Naval intelligence officer Sylvanus Morley was in Honduras, and his colleague John Duhn was undercover penetrating the German network in Chile. Military intelligence operative Charles Waite was stalking German smugglers deep in the Colombian Andes, and State Department Special Agent Lee Christmas was in Guatemala. There was little jubilation among the dozens of US agents throughout the Western Hemisphere—they were skeptical that the Armistice would hold. But celebratory parades by Allied expatriates and their supporters were not daunted by skepticism, the Spanish Flu or threats of German sabotage. Artist George Luks' "Armistice Night" conveyed Philadelphia's joy on November 11. |
November 12, 1918 - Liverpool, England
Armistice Day was a tremendous disappointment to a group of volunteers who had just arrived in Liverpool from Argentina one week before. The 52 young idealists had lobbied the British Embassy in Buenos Aires for months for permission to join the 38th Battalion of Royal Fusiliers, one of 5 British Army battalions that formed the unofficial Jewish Legion. The first British unit of Jewish volunteers, the Zion Mule Corps—made up of 562 deportees in Egypt from Ottoman Palestine— had distinguished themselves carrying ammunition to front lines at Gallipoli in 1915. In August 1917, the 38th Battalion was created in London around a core of Gallipoli veterans, and quickly blossomed into several battalions with Jewish volunteers from the US, Palestine (then partially occupied by General Allenby), Great Britain, Canada and Ottoman POWs. They fought the Turks in the Jordan River Valley and the Battle of Megiddo in summer 1918, motivated by the same spirit of nationalism that inspired Bedouin, Syrians, Czecho-Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Montenegrins and others. Many of the South American volunteers had grown up in Argentina and Brazil, though their birthplaces dotted the map of the Jewish diaspora in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bessarabia, Morocco, Syria and other places in the Balkans and Central Europe.
Armistice Day was a tremendous disappointment to a group of volunteers who had just arrived in Liverpool from Argentina one week before. The 52 young idealists had lobbied the British Embassy in Buenos Aires for months for permission to join the 38th Battalion of Royal Fusiliers, one of 5 British Army battalions that formed the unofficial Jewish Legion. The first British unit of Jewish volunteers, the Zion Mule Corps—made up of 562 deportees in Egypt from Ottoman Palestine— had distinguished themselves carrying ammunition to front lines at Gallipoli in 1915. In August 1917, the 38th Battalion was created in London around a core of Gallipoli veterans, and quickly blossomed into several battalions with Jewish volunteers from the US, Palestine (then partially occupied by General Allenby), Great Britain, Canada and Ottoman POWs. They fought the Turks in the Jordan River Valley and the Battle of Megiddo in summer 1918, motivated by the same spirit of nationalism that inspired Bedouin, Syrians, Czecho-Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Montenegrins and others. Many of the South American volunteers had grown up in Argentina and Brazil, though their birthplaces dotted the map of the Jewish diaspora in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bessarabia, Morocco, Syria and other places in the Balkans and Central Europe.
November 21, 1918 - Beirut, Lebanon
Private Eric Maxime Couturier of Buenos Aires succumbed to pneumonia and was buried in the Beirut War Cemetery. He had enlisted in August 1914, and served in the British Army's Machine Gun Corps 54th Company. He was 19 years old. No accurate tally of killed and wounded volunteers from Latin America was every calculated, but there were certainly hundreds who gave their lives in the War to End All Wars... |
November 26 (?), 1918 - Monterrey, Mexico
Expatriates of Allied nations celebrated with a small parade shortly before Thanksgiving. As they neared the house of the governor of Nuevo Leon, who had amicably assigned a band to the parade, a hostile crowd began chanting “Death to America!” and “Vive Alemania!” The mood grew ugly as agitators sliced flags off cars in the procession and chased celebrants down side streets. The mob took over the parade and kidnapped the band, proclaiming a celebration in the name of peace for all nations. Festivities concluded with speeches by German and Mexican propagandists at the Club Aleman. The unruly mob and the generous tequila that inspired it had been supplied by German provocateurs at the Monterrey Iron & Steel Plant.
Expatriates of Allied nations celebrated with a small parade shortly before Thanksgiving. As they neared the house of the governor of Nuevo Leon, who had amicably assigned a band to the parade, a hostile crowd began chanting “Death to America!” and “Vive Alemania!” The mood grew ugly as agitators sliced flags off cars in the procession and chased celebrants down side streets. The mob took over the parade and kidnapped the band, proclaiming a celebration in the name of peace for all nations. Festivities concluded with speeches by German and Mexican propagandists at the Club Aleman. The unruly mob and the generous tequila that inspired it had been supplied by German provocateurs at the Monterrey Iron & Steel Plant.
November 1918 - Rio de Janeiro
USS Pittsburgh (Armored Cruiser No. 4) makes a lengthy port call at Rio de Janeiro in October and November. Captain George Bradshaw failed to implement quarantine procedures which led to the spread of a deadly strain of Spanish influenza aboard his ship. Eighty per cent of Pittsburgh's crew (663 sailors) fell ill and 58 of them died.
USS Pittsburgh (Armored Cruiser No. 4) makes a lengthy port call at Rio de Janeiro in October and November. Captain George Bradshaw failed to implement quarantine procedures which led to the spread of a deadly strain of Spanish influenza aboard his ship. Eighty per cent of Pittsburgh's crew (663 sailors) fell ill and 58 of them died.
Copyright 2021, Jamie Bisher.