During Delaware Defense Day, visitors were able to take a step back in time to see what life was like at Fort Miles, the most heavily fortified base in the country during World War II.
Located in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park, 32 guns, minefields and searchlights of Fort Miles played a key role in nation's coastal defense during World War II. The defense of Delaware Bay and Delaware River was critical to the war effort.
More than 75 re-enactors, including many from the Harbor Defenses of the Delaware Living History Association, set up a camp April 23, complete with a church, post office, mess hall, communications center, barracks, motor pool and news service unit.
One of the featured exhibits was a 1943 M18 Hellcat tank owned by Mike Hrycak from the Wheels of Liberation Museum in New Oxford, Pa.
The day's events included music, firing demonstrations and a re-enactment of the May 14, 1945 surrender of German U-858 submarine at Fort Miles. The Fort Miles Museum was open for tours, as was the ongoing Oil Still Bleeds: Delaware's Forgotten Heroes of Pearl Harbor exhibit.
The Hooked Up restaurant chain manned the Lee Jennings Mess Hall and donated proceeds to the event.
U-858 was part of a last-ditch effort by the German high command to attack the eastern United States coast. Thanks to Allied detection of the plan, four of the six submarines were sunk. When the war ended, the remaining two sub crews were ordered to report to the nearest Allied base.
U-858 was boarded off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J., where most of the crew was removed. A small crew to operate the submarine stayed on board and eventually ended up anchored at the breakwater in Delaware Bay at Fort Miles.
The remaining crew members were detained until 1946 and released.
![A 1943 M18 Army Hellcat tank attracts a lot of attention during Delaware Defense Day. The tank is on permanent display at the Wheels of Liberation Museum in New Oxford, Pa. The tank was used during World War II and the Korean War.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0441.jpg)
![Patrick O’Neill, a member of the Air Mobility Command Museum Living History team, talks about the life of a soldier during World War II. The museum is located off Route 1 at Dover Air Force Base.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0355.jpg)
![Re-enactors of an Army Special Services unit are (l-r) Matt Carroll, Vince Turner and Frank Sokolovic. The unit provided music, news and sports to soldiers in the field.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0374.jpg)
![It’s hard to resist a gentle horse. David Miller and Shelia Gladfelter of Winchester, Va., sit atop Sky Dancer and Sturmisch. The two are portraying members of the Coast Guard who conducted horseback patrols along the beaches between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach during World War II.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0491.jpg)
![A photo of a photographer. Re-enactor Jeffrey Batt has an authentic Graflex camera, the official camera of the U.S. armed forces during World War II.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0560.jpg)
![Members of the German U-858 submarine crew surrender to troops at Fort Miles during a re-enactment of an event that took place May 14, 1945.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0632.jpg)
![Re-enactor Cpl. John Henderson pats down a member of the German submarine crew prior to transporting the prisoners.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0710.jpg)
![In a scene that could be from a photograph taken in the early 1940s at Fort Miles, re-enactors talk shop around an Army Jeep.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0329.jpg)
![Re-enactor Sgt. Maj. Donald Hattier, of 261st Coast Artillery Battery C, is one of the organizers of the event.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0469.jpg)
![World War II-era trucks and Jeeps are ready for action in the 2nd Command Service Unit at Fort Miles.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0476.jpg)
![A USS Battleship Arizona relic is the centerpiece of the Oil Still Bleeds exhibit inside the Fort Miles Museum in Battery 519.](/sites/capegazette/files/2022/04/field/image/DSC_0520.jpg)