Felix A. Sommerfeld and the Mexican Front in the Great War

The German government decided in the fall of 1914 to corner the U.S. arms and ammunition market to the detriment of England and France. In New York German Military Attache Franz von Papen and Naval Attache Karl Boy-Ed could not think ofanyone more effective and with better connections than Felix A. Sommerfeld to sell off the weapons and ammunition to Mexico. A few months later, Sommerfeld received orders to create a border incident. Tensions along the U.S. - Mexican border suddenly increased in a wave of border raids underthe Plan de San Diego. When Pancho Villa attacked the town of Columbus, NM, on March 9, 1916, virtually the entire regular U.S. Army descended upon Mexico or patrolled the border. War seemed inevitable. Federal agents could not prove it, butsuspected German involvement. Felix A. Sommerfeld and fellow agents had forced the hand of the U.S. government through some of the most intricate clandestine operations in the history of World War I.