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A FASCINATING STORY

  

Category:  History & Sociology

Via:  buzz-of-the-orient  •  8 years ago  •  10 comments

A FASCINATING STORY

A FASCINATING STORY

 

This was really difficult to copy and load onto the Forum site – it left huge spaces between paragraphs so it is necessary to scroll prodigiously to get to the end where it says in red “So now you know”.

When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included.  Although he played with five major-league teams from 1923 to 1939, he was a very mediocre ball player.  But Moe was regarded as the brainiest ballplayer of all time.   In fact Casey Stengel once said:  "That is the strangest man ever to play baseball."

 

When all the baseball stars went to Japan, Moe Berg went with them

and many people wondered why he went with "the team" . . .  

384

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth

 

The answer was simple: Moe Berg was a United States spy, working undercover with the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of today's CIA).

 

Moe spoke 15 languages - including Japanese.  And he had two loves: baseball and spying.

 

In Tokyo, garbed in a kimono, Berg took flowers to the daughter of an American diplomat being treated in St. Luke's Hospital - the tallest building in the Japanese capital.

 

He never delivered the flowers.  The ball-player ascended to the hospital roof and filmed key features: the harbor, military installations, railway yards, etc.

Eight years later, General Jimmy Doolittle studied Berg's films in planning his spectacular raid on Tokyo..

 

384

 

His father disapproved and never once watched his son play.  In Barringer High School, Moe learned Latin, Greek and French.  Moe read at least 10 newspapers everyday.

 

He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton - having added Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit to his linguistic quiver. During further studies at the Sorbonne, in Paris , and Columbia Law School, he picked up Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Arabic, Portuguese and Hungarian - 15 languages in all, plus some regional dialects.

While playing baseball for Princeton University, Moe Berg would describe plays in Latin or Sanskrit.

 

384

Tito's partisans

 

During World War II, Moe was parachuted into Yugoslavia to assess the value to the war effort of the two groups of partisans there.  He reported back that Marshall Tito's forces were widely supported by the people and Winston Churchill ordered all-out support for the Yugoslav underground fighter, rather than Mihajlovic's Serbians.

 

The parachute jump at age 41 undoubtedly was a challenge.  But there was more to come in that same year.  Berg penetrated German-held Norway , met with members of the underground and located a secret heavy-water plant - part of the Nazis' effort to build an atomic bomb .

His information guided the Royal Air Force in a bombing raid to destroy that plant.

 

384

The R.A.F. destroys the Norwegian heavy water plant targeted by Moe Berg.

 

There still remained the question of how far had the Nazis progressed in the race to build the first Atomic bomb.  If the Nazis were successful, they would win the war.  Berg (under the code name "Remus") was sent to Switzerland to hear leading German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a Nobel Laureate, lecture and determine if the Nazis were close to building an A-bomb.  Moe managed to slip past the SS guards at the auditorium, posing as a Swiss graduate student.  The spy carried in his pocket a pistol and a cyanide pill.

 

If the German indicated the Nazis were close to building a weapon, Berg was to shoot him - and then swallow the cyanide pill.  Moe, sitting in the front row, determined that the Germans were nowhere near their goal, so he complimented Heisenberg on his speech and walked him back to his hotel.

 

384

Werner Heisenberg - he blocked

the Nazis from acquiring an atomic bomb.  

Moe Berg's report was distributed to Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and key figures in the team developing the Atomic Bomb. Roosevelt responded: "Give my regards to the catcher.”

 

Most of Germany's leading physicists had been Jewish and had fled the Nazis mainly to Britain and the United States.  After the war, Moe Berg was awarded the Medal of Freedom - America 's highest honor for a civilian in wartime.  But Berg refused to accept it because he couldn't tell people about his exploits.

 

After his death, his sister accepted the Medal. It now hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown .

 

384

 

Presidential Medal of Freedom: the highest award given to civilians during wartime.

 

Moe Berg's baseball card is the only card on display at the CIA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

 

384

 

So now you know!


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Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
link   seeder  Buzz of the Orient    8 years ago

Sorry to wear out your scrolling finger, but the story is worth it.

 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
link   Nowhere Man    8 years ago
(deleted)
 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
link   seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Nowhere Man   8 years ago

This was the worst experience I've had on NT to post an article with photos. If I post it exactly as I copied it, there are huge spaces left between the paragraphs and photos. When I tried to rewrite the article and copy the photos, you can see the result - the photos would not post, only a formula for them. I will try to post all 7 photos on this comment and I apologize for the mess:

Gherig and Ruth

384

Moe Berg

384

Tito's Partisans

384

The R.A.F. destroys the Norwegian heavy water plant targeted by Moe Berg.

384

Werner Heisenberg - he blocked

the Nazis from acquiring an atomic bomb.

384

 

Presidential Medal of Freedom: the highest award given to civilians during wartime.

320

384

 

 
 
 
Robert in Ohio
Professor Guide
link   Robert in Ohio    8 years ago

Buzz

What a great story and beautiful pictures to go with it

Thanks for sharing

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika     8 years ago

Great story Buzz. I first heard of Moe in reading about the ''Tito Front'' in Yugoslavia. I had no idea that he accomplished all that he did. Certainly a ''Hero'' in anyone's terms.

 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika     8 years ago

I'm bumping this up, since members could actually learn something from the article if they could leave politics for a scant minute or two.

A true American Hero.

 
 
 
Petey Coober
Freshman Silent
link   Petey Coober  replied to  Kavika   8 years ago

Thanks for bumping it KAV . This story is an eye opener ...

 
 
 
LynneA
Freshman Silent
link   LynneA    8 years ago

 Buzz,

Thanks for your diligence is getting this story posted!  A hero I was unaware of, now fascinated by all he accomplished in his life.

 
 
 
Dowser
Sophomore Quiet
link   Dowser    8 years ago

Thanks for sharing this, Buzz!!!

I'm sorry it was so much trouble to do it, but for us, it was worth it!  We all appreciate articles like this!

 
 

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