Silent Sentinels

They march, in an irregularly spaced line, from Fenwick Island, to the entrance of Delaware Bay at Cape Henlopen, in the north. The casual tourist may be forgiven for mistaking them for lighthouses for they share the same tall windswept, somewhat foreboding isolation. Closer inspection, however, shows bricked-up doors and windows, ending in a steel-railed parapet 40 to 75 feet on the topmost deck. These are coastal watch towers, their usefulness almost 70 years past, and abandoned to the elements, with the occasional historical plaque to tell half-interested readers exactly what they are and why they are there.

By 1942, the Battle of the Atlantic was going badly for the Allies; German U-boats, operating seemingly at will off the East and Gulf coasts, sunk an ever higher toll of shipping each month. While U.S. shipyards were building replacement ships at an accelerated pace and would soon catch up with and surpass the losses, the toll extracted by the wolf packs was fearful and went largely unanswered. U-boats lay in wait off coastal and resort towns, torpedoing ships as they passed silhouetted by the city lights. Burning tankers drew curious crowds of boardwalk spectators in much the same way a traffic accident would at rush hour. Bodies of merchant seamen regularly washed ashore along the Eastern Seaboard.

Delaware's coastal defenses construction began in 1939 and lasted for three years. Fort Miles, built at Cape Henlopen, was essentially a land-locked battleship sporting two 16-inch guns (the same as carried on the USS Iowa), two 12-inch guns, and a battery of four 6-inchers. The 16-inch battery could fire one-ton projectiles nearly 25 miles. Fort Miles also controlled a minefield, which could be turned off electronically for ships to pass, and stretched the width of Delaware Bay. Thirteen towers; eleven in Delaware and two near Cape May, New Jersey, manned by troops from the US Army's 261 Coast Artillery Regiment, were the spotters for the formidable guns at Fort Miles. Equipped with radios, fire control radar units, and various optics including azimuth sighting range finders, the soldiers kept vigil over the approaches to Delaware Bay. Azimuth sighting range finders visually determine a target's position using the measure along the horizon of the angle between the object and a fixed reference point. Sightings from two towers were triangulated and sent to the the fort to position the guns. At least that was the theory; the guns were never fired at a target.

Tower 7, located in Henlopen State Park has been restored and is open to the public. If you don't have a head for heights, don't visit, even though the steel ladder was replaced by a steel circular stair.

The towers were built on creosoted pilings hammered into the sand and a concrete base was laid on top. The towers themselves were constructed from reinforced concrete, strengthened by wire mesh and steel rebar. The concrete was poured into a hollow 16-foot diameter form, with walls a foot thick, in a singe 24-hour pour. After the concrete cured for about a month, steel ladders and wooden decks were added, and the tower was open for business. Beach sand was used to cut costs and the towers had a life expectancy of 20 years or less.

The towers continue to keep vigil after nearly 70 years, weatherng nor'easter storms and hurricanes, their footings washed by high tides. Pigeons roost on the rusted steel railings and rise in clouds when the odd falcon passes in migration. Pink at dawn and sunset, the Delaware towers have become as much a part of the landscape as the beaches themselves over which they loom.