Within weeks of Pearl Harbor, German U-boats arrived off the Delaware coast and attacked numerous ships along the vital shipping lanes to Philadelphia and Wilmington. On February 28, 1942, two German torpedoes hit the destroyer Jacob Jones, which was carrying more than one hundred American sailors. It sank in less than an hour. A center for military activity, Lewes became a refuge for many survivors from such attacks. The dunes along Cape Henlopen hid the massive artillery batteries of Fort Miles. Residents of the beachfront communities rallied amid the blackout regulations and air raid drills with rationing and scrap drives. Spotters watched for enemy warships in concrete towers that still line the coast. Author Michael Morgan tells the remarkable story of a coast at war.
Michael Morgan is a weekly history columnist for Delaware Coast Press and the Wave whose work has appeared in numerous publications including Chesapeake Bay Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, World War II magazine and American History Illustrated. He is the author of eight titles on local history in Delaware and Maryland. Morgan is a member of the Lewes Historical Society, Milton Historical Society, Rehoboth Historical Society, Delaware Historical Society and New Smyrna Beach Historical Society.