11/04/2024
Lot's of history in St Augustine & NE Florida.
Florida's vulnerability became evident shortly after Pearl Harbor.
In early 1942, German submarines opened an offensive, code-named Operation Drumbeat, against the virtually undefended Allied shipping lanes along the east coast. Dozens of ships were torpedoed just off Florida's Atlantic coast, as were others in the Gulf of Mexico. German submarine captains used the light of coastal cities to silhouette their targets.
On the night of June 16, 1942, four saboteurs from a German submarine came ashore at Ponte Vedra Beach, just a few miles north of St. Augustine, carrying explosives and American money. Five days earlier, another submarine had put ashore four others on Long Island, NY. The German spies were captured before they could do any damage, but the entire Atlantic seaboard was alarmed. Coast Guard units in St. Augustine patrolled the beaches on horseback, in jeeps, and even using specially trained patrol dogs.
To learn more about Saint Augustine in World War II, please visit: https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/florida-in-world-war-ii.htm
Image: Soldiers using dogs on beach patrol.
