“Bumblebee” UFOSThe Cape Henlopen area provided a

military-maritime defense dating back tothe 1700s, but Fort Miles, as such, startedlife at the beginning of World War II. Itsmission: to protect the entrance to theDelaware Bay and access to Philadelphiaand the Delaware Valley’s chemicalindustries so vital to the war effort. Bylate 1943, however, the War Departmenthad determined that a German invasionwasn’t coming to America and severalmonths later began transferring hun-dreds of artillerists to the European andPacific Theaters. The fort’s coastaldefense mission remained, but it alsotook on a new role as a research anddevelopment proving ground for allkinds of secret weaponry and militarytechnology.During the war, the Navy’s Bureau of

Ships established a Naval Test Station atFort Miles, conducting classified experi-ments with infrared voice communica-tions and night-vision devices. Two ships, the USSCallao and PCR-852, were speciallymodified for thistesting andassigned to the station, where theexperiments con-tinued until theoperation wasmoved to NewLondon, Conn., in September 1947. In the early days of the Cold War, a

Naval Ordnance Test Station was estab-lished at the fort. Johns Hopkins Univer-sity’s famed Applied Physics Laboratory,working for the Navy, began testingramjet-powered rockets, eventuallydeveloping guided missiles for use infleet defense. Dubbed “Operation Bum-blebee,” the research had begun in NewJersey, but that location lacked sufficientinfrastructure, so officials decided torelocate the program to Topsail Island,N.C. While constructing facilities there,a temporary launch site was establishedat Fort Miles’ Herring Point in Decem-ber 1945. For the next 13 months, atleast 83 ramjet rockets — capable ofspeeds of 1,500 mph — were launched,establishing several important advances.This testing ultimately resulted in the

development of the Talos and Terriermissiles, progenitors of today’s AegisStandard missile system and also instru-mental in the development of enginesfor the XB-70 experimental bomber andthe famed SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft.(One of the Bumblebee test rockets wasactually reported as a UFO and investi-gated by Project Blue Book, the AirForce’s investigation in the 1950s and’60s of aviation anomalies.)

VIPs and spiesPresident Harry S. Truman visited

the shores of Fort Miles twice aboardthe presidential yacht Williamsburg,once in 1946 and again in 1948. On oneoccasion he swam to shore and rested. A Truman Library photo shows thecommander in chief taking a dip, surrounded by protective escorts. Cold War spies came to the installa-

tion, too. When the Soviet Unionreturned the World War II lend-lease

cruiser Mil-waukee to theU.S. in March1949 — thefirst such war-ship to be repa-triated — thehandover tookplace at CapeHenlopen, witha special dele-gation from the SovietEmbassy thereto effect the

transfer. It included Gen. Ivan Aleksee-vich Bolshakov, a “military attache” whoin reality was chief of Soviet army mili-tary intelligence operations in NorthAmerica. (Bolshakov stayed at the HotelRodney in Lewes.) The Soviet naval offi-cer in charge of the transfer was RearAdm. Evgeni Glinkov, who may havebeen Bolshakov’s naval intelligence coun-terpart at the time. Both went to FortMiles several times, and on at least oneoccasion ate at the Officers’ Club.In 1958, the fort gave use of its mine

casemate — a concrete bunker that hadhoused control systems for offshoreminefields — to the Sussex CountyOffice of Civil Defense to use as its head-quarters. By autumn of that year, Sussexwas one of only five U.S. counties chosento carry out a civil defense pilot program

August 2021 � D e l aw a r e B e a c h L i f e 6 9Photograph courtesy of the Applied Physics Laboratory, John Hopkins University6 8 D e l aw a r e B e a c h L i f e � August 2021

Best of Beach Life Compelling stories from our archive

Secrets of Fort Miles During the Cold War, the Cape Henlopen installation played a vital security role.

B y M i c h a e l A . H a m i l t o n a n d G e o r g e W . C o n t a n t

A Bumblebee rocket launchedsometime in 1946 from Herring

Point at Fort Miles leaves a trail ofsmoke and flame as it screams

skyward at upwards of 1,500 mph.

TThe role of the iconic concrete towers along Dela ware’s coast andthe artillery gun emplacements at Fort Miles on Cape Henlopenduring World War II is well known to most residents of the area.Spotters in the towers helped direct gunners on the cape in aim-ing the giant cannons during firing exercises that kept themready to protect the vital entrance to the Delaware Bay and River.(The guns were never fired in combat.)But few residents and visitors know that Fort Miles continued

to play an important role — though a more secret one — in theyears after World War II, during what is called the Cold War.Thanks to the Fort Miles Historical Association, and ongoing

research by volunteers and Delaware State Parks historical staff, asmorgasbord of historical information is coming to light. Indeed,it turns out that the fort virtually embodied the Cold War inminiature.

Previously published in the June 2012 issue, see editor’s note below.

EDITOR’S NOTE This is a shortened ver-

sion of a story from our extensive archive

that dates back to 2002, the year Delaware Beach Life

was launched. Rather than updating archived stories

to reflect what has changed since they were first pub-

lished, we are letting each story stand as a snapshot in

time under the “Best of Beach Life” heading, so please

keep this “time capsule” factor in mind.

Fort Miles took on arole as a research anddevelopment provingground for secretweaponry and militarytechnology.

purpose was “oceanographic research,” but the actual mission wasto detect and track Soviet submarines using secret technologydeveloped by Bell Laboratories. Within several years, it was clearthat beach erosion would force the relocation of the Cape Mayoperation, and Herring Point at CapeHenlopen was deemed the successorsite. The infamous Great Storm of 1962,which wreaked havoc on Mid-Atlanticshorelines, hastened the move. OnceNAVFAC Lewes was established, FortMiles was the only site in the world thatwas simultaneously scanning the skiesfor Soviet bombers and the ocean forSoviet submarines. In 1977, anotherdistinction occurred: Lt. Cmdr. PeggyFrederick took charge of the operation,becoming the first female NAVFAC com mander. Four years later,the facility was decommissioned.In the early 1960s, defense planners were giving additional

thought to “continuity of government” protections in the event ofa nuclear war. Along with evacuating the president and key staffto under ground bunkers or taking to the skies aboard Air ForceOne, a third option was added: moving them to sea. Known asNational Emergency Command Post Afloat, the heavy cruiserUSS Northampton and the light aircraft carrier USS Wright were

converted to contain state-of-the-art communications equipmentand thus became presidential command ships. At first, the vesselsalternately cruised the Chesapeake Bay and along the East Coast,always prepared to receive their most important passengers. They

were known by several monikers, includ-ing the “Ghost Ships,” the “FloatingWhite House” and the “DoomsdayShips.” In order to track and exchangemessage traffic between them and theJoint Chiefs of Staff, Naval Radio StationLewes was established at Fort Miles inJune 1963. For years, the public wouldmarvel at the two gigantic tropospheric-scatter communications dishes atop Bat-tery 519, which the media and publicassumed were just giant radar antennas.

In fact, these dishes were used to facilitate communicationbetween the Pentagon and the ships, wherever they went. Today, the Fort Miles Historical Association and the Delaware

Division of Parks and Recreation [has established] a museuminside Battery 519 to preserve and interpret the military pastoutlined here. �

August 2021 � D e l aw a r e B e a c h L i f e 7 1

on home preparedness. Such readiness was demonstrated atthe fort, where the public could learn how to prepare foremergencies. The old bunker also served as the alternateState Emergency Operations Center in case the main facili-ty at Fort DuPont went out of action.

‘Bear’ huntersFort Miles also played a vital part in the nation’s early

Cold War air defense system. By the mid-1950s, the Armyset up an experimental radar dish atop a fire-control tower.By 1959, a Missile Master radar, known as Radar-1, wasplaced atop another tower. It was then moved to the top ofBattery 519 (a bunker that housed two 12-inch guns dur-ing World War II), possibly the first Army “Gap-Filler”radar to scan the skies for Soviet bombers. If it detectedenemy aircraft, the crew would send tracking data to acommand center at Fort Meade, Md., which would thenpass it on to the 35th Air Defense Artillery’s Nike-Herculesand Hawk missile batteries. Radar-1 operated at Fort Milesuntil November 1963.Personnel at the fort were not just watching for “Bears,”

as Soviet aircraft were called, but listening for their navalcounterparts. In 1955, the Navy established a SOSUS(Sound Surveillance System) facility at Cape May. Publiclyreferred to as a Naval Facility (or NAVFAC), its purported

70 D e l aw a r e B e a c h L i f e � August 2021 Photograph courtesy of U.S. Army and Delaware State Parks

Best of Beach Life

U.S. Army experimental radar sits atop Fire Control Tower 12 at Fort Miles in the1950s. The sign on the building reads, “Surveillance Radar, 35th AA Brigade,AAA Defense Experimental Facility.”

Personnel at the fort werenot just watching for“Bears,” but listening fortheir naval counterparts.

ONLINE For an overview of the Fort Miles Museum and Historic

Area, as well musuem events and other info, visit fortmilesha.org.