Throttled! The Detection of the German and Anarchist Bomb Plotters — Context and Discussion

Case-by-Case Architecture

The book is organized not by chronology alone but by discrete investigations, each with its own cast of suspects and informants. Tunney introduces the Kirkoswald bomb, then the Fay bomb materials, then the ship fires—each case a self-contained episode that nonetheless feeds into the larger pattern of German and anarchist activity. The narrative moves from the discovery of a bomb to the tracing of its components, then to the surveillance of suspects, and finally to arrests. This structure mirrors the detective’s own method: follow the material evidence, then the people. The reader is given a series of puzzles, each solved in turn, with the squad’s persistence as the constant thread.

The Harbor as a Theater of Suspicion

Tunney repeatedly returns to the waterfront, where ships become both targets and hiding places. The description of the “Chenango” laborers—hired for a day, speaking many tongues, their faces rarely seen twice—captures the anonymity that frustrates surveillance. The squad watches them “to all points of the compass” and checks for suspicious packages, finding only flasks. This setting recurs: the harbor is a liminal zone where national borders blur, and where the squad must track movements between ship and shore. The image of the harbor as a space of constant, unremarkable transit becomes a key obstacle in the detection of plotters.

Chemical Trails and Paper Trails

The investigation of bomb plots relies heavily on tracing the sale of chemicals. Tunney describes examining “reams of sales’ records” from explosive manufacturers and drug stores, searching for purchases of chlorate of potash and sulphuric acid. The difficulty lies in the mundane uses of these substances—they are “widely and harmlessly used.” The narrative dwells on the tedium of this work, the false leads, and the moment when a new tip (from the French Government) “blew our sugar theory into many and small pieces.” This emphasis on the materiality of evidence—the bomb ingredients themselves—grounds the detective work in the physical world, even as the plotters remain elusive.

The Informant’s Role and the Chain of Custody

A recurring structural element is the chain of intermediaries that connects the bomb squad to the plotters. In the Fay case, the explosive passes from Wettig to Siebs to Breitung to Kienzle to Fay—a “little game of ‘passing the TNT.’” Tunney’s narrative traces this chain step by step, showing how each link is a potential point of surveillance or betrayal. The informant Wettig, introduced by the French attaché, becomes a crucial tool, but the squad must verify each transaction. This focus on the chain of custody—of both evidence and people—reveals the collaborative, often precarious nature of undercover work, where trust is parceled out in small increments.

Readers approaching Throttled! should attend to the way Tunney balances the episodic case structure with the recurring motifs of chemical traces and harbor surveillance. The narrative does not offer a single dramatic arc but a series of interconnected investigations, each revealing a different facet of the bomb squad’s methods. The book’s value lies in its granular detail—the reams of records, the daily routines of watching laborers, the careful tracking of explosive ingredients—rather than in grand revelations. It is a document of procedure, patience, and the slow accumulation of evidence.

Reading Tunney’s account of tracing bomb fragments through harbor fog, I found myself thinking of the quieter, grimmer wait in the trenches across the Channel. That same year, 1917, held its own patient horrors. Somewhere between the chemical traces and the mud, both books share a peculiar stillness—the pause before the fuse burns down, which I carry with me. The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1917 — Context and Discussion feels like a distant echo of that same heavy air.