The Sentinels of the Eastern Shore

The Fort Miles Towers of Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Delaware

“Unfortunately to some, Fort Miles is a huge secret whose story needs to be experienced.” — Glenn Rolfe, Sussex County Post

It was the winter of 1942, and the United States had entered World War II only weeks prior. Most of her citizens were scrapping cans, conserving fuel, canning foods — doing what they could to support their men and women overseas — but few realized the very real threat posed at the Homefront.

Operation Drumbeat

Three days after the United States called war on the Empire of Japan, Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States, prompting President Roosevelt to respond in kind.

After this proclamation, Karl Dönitz, commanding officer of the German submarine fleet, implemented Operation Drumbeat (Unternehmen Paukenschlag), a first-wave attack against American shipping on the East Coast.

On December 18, 1942, the first of five long-range military submarines, also called U-boats, was ordered from Lorient, France, to a then-unknown location west. Soon after, other waves of German U-boats joined the original “Drumbeaters” in their campaign against the East Coast. The British Y service was alerted as the U-boats exited the Bay of Biscay. British judge and Royal Navy intelligence officer Rodger Winn, the man in charge of tracking German U-boat operations, informed Admiral Ernest King, commander-in-chief of the U.S. fleet, with this…