The German Spy Story: Supplying Information to the Enemy

A German Spy Is Caught with the Almanac

In 1942, the FBI apprehended a German spy on a train going into New York City’s Penn Station. The spy had landed on Long Island, New York, from a U-boat the night before.

The impact of this event was felt all the way to Dublin, New Hampshire, because The Old Farmer’s Almanac was found in the German’s coat pocket. It was the 1942 edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The U.S. government speculated that the Germans were using the Almanac for weather forecasts, which meant that the book was indirectly supplying information to the enemy!

Perhaps he just picked it up in the train station and liked the jokes? Robb Sagendorph, the eleventh editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, was always of the opinion that it was the tide tables the Germans had used. “Then again,” he’d usually add, “maybe it was the forecasts. After all, the Germans went on to lose the war.”

How Did We Save the Almanac?

In any event, Sagendorph managed to get the government to agree that there would be no violation of the “Code of Wartime Practices for the American Press” if the Almanac featured weather “indications” rather than forecasts.

It was a close call that almost ruined the Almanac’s perfect record of continuous publication.

Enjoy another “best of Almanac” story from the archives: Predicting Snow for the Summer of 1816.