William Curtis Colepaugh was an American traitor of World War II who, following his 1943 discharge from the US Naval Reserve ("for the good of the service", according to official reports), defected to Nazi Germany in 1944. When the Merchant Marine ship he was a crewman on stopped off in Lisbon, Colepaugh defected at the German consulate. He was described as "unstable" by his American interrogators following his eventual capture; he seems to have been something of a lost soul and drifter with a long-running interest in Nazism that had already brought him to the attention of the FBI during the early 1940s. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A ship is a large, usually decked watercraft. ... Lisbon (in Portuguese, Lisboa) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. ... The term Consulate can refer to: the office or the period in office of a consul a diplomatic consulate the French Consulate which governed between 1799 and 1804 a brand of menthol cigarettes Consulate This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Years: 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 Events and trends Technology First nuclear bomb First cruise missile, the V1 flying bomb and the first ballistic missile, the...

He was given extensive firearms and espionage training at a spy-school in German-occupied The Hague. With the German agent Eric Gimpel he was tranported back to the USA by the U-boat U-1230, landing at Hancock Point in the Gulf of Maine on 29 November 1944. Their mission was to gather technical information on the Allied war effort and transmit it back to Germany using a radio they were expected to build. Together they made their way to Boston and then by train to New York. Before long Colepaugh abandoned the mission, visiting an old schoolfriend and asking to turn himself in to the FBI, which which already searching for two German agents following the sinking of a Canadian ship only a few miles from the Maine coastline (indicating that a U-boat had been nearby) and suspicious sitings by local residents. The FBI interrogated Colepaugh, which enabled them to track down Gimpel. A firearm is a kinetic energy weapon that fires either a single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced by action of the rapid confined burning of a propellant. ... Spy and secret agent redirect here; for alternate use, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation). ... This article is about the city in the Netherlands; there is also a region known as (the) Hague in France. ... Spy and secret agent redirect here; for alternate use, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation). ... U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ... Unterseeboot 1230 (U-1230) was a German Type IXC/40 U-boat of World War Two. ... Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the northeastern coast of North America, roughly between Cape Cod in Massachusetts on the south and Cape Sable Island on the southern tip of Nova Scotia on the northeast. ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Boston is the capital of and the largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. ... This article is about trains in rail transport. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ... Interrogation is the professional police and military technique of interviewing people, often without their consent, in order to obtain information regarding crimes or military operations. ...

After their capture, they were handed over to US military authorities on the instructions of the Attorney General. In February 1945 they stood trial before a Military Commission, accused of conspiracy and violating the 82nd Article of War. They were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, although this was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment by the President of the United States. The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Alternate uses: See Conspiracy (disambiguation) Conspiracy, in common usage, is the act of working in secret to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations. ... Guilty is a Anarcho-punk album, by the band Oi Polloi. ... Hanging to Music. ... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... President of the United States - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Gimpel and Colepaugh are believed to be the last German spies of WWII to have reached the United States.

External links

• Article on Colepaugh and Gimple (http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci2/2ch1_a.htm#cole) at fas.org
• Allied report on the interrogation of Colepaugh and Gimple (http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep/U-1230/) at ibiblio.org
• Contains a report on Colepaugh and Gimple (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq114-1.htm#anchor641128) at navy.mil