A Delaware Military History Chronology
Twentieth Century
Mexican Punitive Expedition 1916
World War I, 1917-1919
World War II, 1941-1945
Korean War, 1950-1953
Vietnam War, 1965-1973
Gulf War, 1990-1991
1901
Sep 3, A monument was unveiled at Cooch's Bridge to the first claimed unfurling of the American flag
in battle September 3, 1777.
1904
Jan 14, Clement Reeves died in Delaware City. Formerly a 1st Lt, Co H, 5th Del Inf, he had guarded
Confederate prisoners at Fort Delaware. It was Reeves who sold his farm to the US Government upon
which Fort Delaware was eventually built.
Aug. 20, Local Delaware City folks objected to Sunday baseball by soldiers at Fort du Pont right next
door.
1908
Governor Preston Lea praised the 1st Delaware Infantry as it left Camp Hall in Rehoboth and traveled
by railroad to Fort du Pont in Delaware City to train with regular soldiers.
1910
Jul 23, The 1st Regiment, National Guard of Delaware, left Wilmington for its summer encampment in
Rehoboth Beach.
5 Oct, The battleship USS Delaware, carrying 827 sailors and 55 officers, sailed into Wilmington.
Governor Pennewill presented a silver tea set to its captain and crew after it docked in the Delaware
River off Deep Water Point.
1914
Aug. 4, Vacationing in Europe, Delaware Gov. Charles R. Miller and his wife were temporarily detained
when their German-American liner was impounded in England due to the outbreak of World War I.
1915
Nov. 29, The 2nd worst explosion occurred at the DuPont's Powder Mills along the Brandywine
killing 30 people and injuring 5.
1916
Jan 31, A war scare over Germany was heightened in Wilmington when a mysterious 'aeroplane' was
spotted flying over DuPont's gunpowder plants across the Delaware River at Carney's and Deepwater
Points.
Jun 30 Delaware National Guardsmen were sent to Deming, New Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa.
Jul 20, With World War I raging in Europe, the First Delaware Infantry was mustered into Federal
service at the State Rifle Range south of New Castle.
1917
Feb. 7, The Delaware National Guard arrived back in Wilmington from chasing Pancho Villa in
Deming, New Mexico.
May 13, Construction was underway on Fort Saulsbury at Slaughter Beach for protection of the
Delaware Bay during WWI.
Jun 15, William Cornish entertained at a school picnic near Harrington with war and patriotic songs
and playing Billy Sunday's hymns on his Victrola.
Jul 21, Pilot Allen Ashley Smith, a 25 year old Delaware Aeronautical School student from Brooklyn
died when his Thomas flying boat crashed in the Delaware River.
June 26, The Wilmington Aeronautical School flew a mock air attack on the City of Wilmington with
the dropping of leaflets. Pretending the leaflets could be German bombs, the feat sought to encourage
men from 18-45 to enlist in the military.
Aug. 19, The Delaware National Guard left for maneuvers at Camp McClellan in Anniston, Alabama.
Nov. 15, The Kent Co. draft board received a letter from a woman who thought her estranged husband
should be drafted.
Dec. 5, First Lt. Paris T. Carlisle, III, on returning home from military service, was shown the Milford
Fire Company's new fire truck. After he was killed in battle less than a year later in France, the
company was named after him.
Dec 6, Roy Rinard of Wilmington aboard the Von Steuben witnessed a gigantic explosion in Halifax,
Nova Scotia harbor resulting from the collision of an ammunition ship with another.
1918
May 28, U-151, a German submarine entered the Delaware Bay and laid mines.
Jul 3, Referred to as the "work or fight" law, new legislation required all men between the ages of 18-55
to be at some gainful employment at the height of World War I.
Jul 18, Aviator Lawrence Layton of Milford, nephew of former Secretary of State Caleb R. Layton, died
in aerial combat over France.
Jul 22, Delaware troops in the 77th Division, composed mostly of Jersey troops, fought the Germans in
the Aisne-Marne District in France.
Jul 27, The younger brother of later General John W. O'Daniel of Newark, Lieutenant James A.
O'Daniel, a flyer, was killed at the front over France.
Jul 31, The steamer Poseidon collided with a tanker carrying coal from Boston to Norfolk and sank off
the Delaware coast. Thirty-three men were brought into Lewes.
Aug. 26, Twenty-two year old Lt. Lawrence Roberts of Wilmington was killed in an aerial dogfight
over Cambrai, France while serving with the 17th Aero Squadron.
Aug. 29.With war raging in Europe, Delaware's 59th Pioneer Infantry embarked on the Leviathan at
Hoboken, N. J. for Brest, France.
Sep 7, The 59th Pioneer Infantry, Delaware Regiment, disembarked at Brest, France.
1918
Aug 5, Amanda M. Smyth, age 81, widow of General Thomas Smyth, one of the last general officers to
die in the Civil War, passed away at home at 1401 Rodney Street in Wilmington. She outlived her
husband 53 years!
Sep 12, Newark's Lt. John W. O'Daniel was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in
helping close the St. Mihiel salient in France. His younger brother, Lt. James A. O'Daniel, a flyer, had
been killed 6 weeks earlier over France.
Oct. 7, Ruth MacGregor, one of Delaware's few female casualties in World War I, died of influenza
enroute to France.
Oct 9, Cpl. Walter Fox died of wounds becoming the first casualty in WW I from Dover.
Oct. 17, Soon after reading his letter, James Swift's mother in Wilmington received a telegram stating he
had been killed in the war.
Nov. 9, The US Navy freighter Saetia was hit by a mine off Fenwick Island and sank.
Nov. 12, The Milford Fire Company changed its name to the Paris T. Carlisle Company in deference to
the Milford soldier killed in France in the last days of World War I.
Dec 23, Raymond Acker of Delaware City was one of the soldiers who accompanied President
Woodrow Wilson's peace mission to Paris.
1919
Jan 22, Wilmington soldiers in the 59th Pioneer Infantry Thomas Davis, Harvey Hadley, Howard
Johnson, and John Chandler were killed in a mine explosion in Rehon, France.
At the conclusion of “The Great War” on June 29, 1919, the 59th Pioneer Infantry Regiment, Delaware
National Guard, sailed from Brest France arriving at Hoboken on July 5.
Nov. 11, Town leaders in Middletown dedicated a monument at Four Corners, or Cochran Square
recalling four servicemen who died in World War I.
1920
Apr 17, Middletown planted trees in the yard of the Academy commemorating Jeremiah Jackson, Davis
Manlove, Rupert Burstan, and John Hoffecker who didn't come back home from World War I.
Sep 2, A 40 man crew was rescued from the US Navy S-5 231 foot submarine as it foundered in 170 feet
of water at the mouth of Delaware Bay.
1921
Dec. 23, The Washington Street Bridge, dedicated to Delaware's war dead, was opened in Wilmington.
1924
The Sussex County battalion of the old First Delaware Infantry was reorganized on March 24, 1924 as
the 261st Separate Coast Artillery Battalion (Harbor Defense), with Battery “A” stationed in Laurel.
1925
Feb. 23, Civil War cavalryman General James H. Wilson died at 87 and was buried in Wilmington's
Old Swedes Church Yard. He was credited with helping capture the escaping President Jefferson Davis
near Irwinville, Georgia in May 1865.
1926
Feb. 27, After Governor Robert Robinson called out the National Guard at 21 year old Negro Harry
Butler's trial, he was hanged in Georgetown prison yard before a crowd of 5,000 onlookers. He was
convicted for the murder of Eleanora Steinmetz of Bridgeville.
1927
April 27, The State purchased an undeveloped portion of Bethany Beach from William P. Short for use
as a National Guard Training Site.
Aug. 27, Henry B. du Pont and several of his kin purchased the Spring Garden Farm near New Castle
and began to lure the airplane builder Giuseppe Bellanca to town.
Oct 21, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis in Wilmington and gave a
speech in Baynard Stadium.
Oct. 27 Giuseppe Bellanca bought the Spring Garden Farm near New Castle from Henry B. du Pont
and friends for $37,215 and proceeded to build a factory to manufacture airplanes.
Nov. 29, At an auction in London, the Delaware Historical Society purchased a Delaware Militia flag
that had been captured by the British just before the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, 150 years before.
1928
The first National Guard encampment at Bethany Beach was held beginning on August 4, 1928,
hosting the 198th Coast Artillery Regiment.
Dec 27, The annual Christmas dance of the officers and their ladies at Fort du Pont in Delaware City
was held at the officers' club. It was the largest social event of the season on the post.
1929
Dec 19, Three Delaware Gold Star Mothers whose sons were killed in World War I accepted the
government's offer to visit their sons' graves in France.
1931
Oct. 15, The entire Delaware General Assembly and Governor C. Douglass Buck attended the Sesqui-
Centennial celebration of Cornwallis's surrender in Yorktown, Virginia.
1932
Apr. 1, A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp opened at Georgetown for mosquito control.
During WW II it was also used as a POW camp.
1934
Jan 25, A grass fire burned the Bellanca Hangar near New Castle and incinerated the world famous WB-
II Columbia airplane, the one Charles Lindbergh really wanted to fly, but didn't in his flight across the
Atlantic in 1927.
Apr. 12, Republican US Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota began hearings in Washington aimed
at alleged munitions sales profiteering in World War I. The DuPont Company, represented by Lammot
and Felix du Pont, was one of those called in, but Nye's findings were inconclusive.
1937
May 7, Ferdinand Lammot "Peter" Belin, Jr, 24 year old Yale graduate and nephew of Mrs. Pierre S. du
Pont, II, of Wilmington, dropped 30 feet to safety as the German dirigible Hindenburg burned on
landing at Lakehurst, NJ. Until he died in 1982, he rarely ever spoke of his miraculous escape.
Sep 30, With its work done on mosquito control, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp closed
on Savannah Road in Lewes, and later opened as a POW camp during WW II.
Oct 20, Admiral Purnell F. Harrington, son of the former Delaware Chancellor Samuel M. Harrington,
died as one of the last Civil War veterans at the age of 93.
1933
Aug. 19, S/Sgt. Harold E. McMahon of California crashed his plane in a marsh near Little Creek.
Having sunk to the bottom of a bog near Simon's Creek, neither he nor the plane were ever recovered.
1938
Jul 16, Rehoboth Airfield had its grand opening. Felix du Pont, a resident, and later town
commissioner, was instrumental in this project.
1940
Aug. 8, A new armory was opened in Georgetown on Pine Street.
Sep 16, Delaware's 198th Coast Artillery, Anti-Aircraft Regiment, National Guard was activated by the
Selective Service Act and sent to Camp Upton, N. Y.
Oct 17, With the passage of the Federal Selective Service Act, all male citizens in the state, ages 21-36,
registered for compulsory military training. Ernest R. Lynch of Lewes became the first draftee of World
War II in Delaware.
Nov. 26, Selective Service inductions began in Delaware with the quota of 120 recruits.
1941
May 5, The legislature enacted legislation allowing Sussex County Levy Court to build an airport in
Georgetown. During the war the air base was used by the US Navy as an auxiliary training facility for
the Cape May County Naval Air Station, NJ.
May 13, Lewes and Rehoboth residents were roused as practice salvos were fired by guns at Fort Miles
on Cape Henlopen.
Nov. 12, With the attack on Pearl Harbor less than a month away, Governor Walter Bacon inspected
gun emplacements in Fort Saulsbury at Slaughter Beach wherein were stationed 200 soldiers.
Dec 7, Lt. George S. Welch of Wilmington took off in his plane at Pearl Harbor in the Japanese attack
and shot down several enemy planes.
Dec. 17, Now that war had been declared against the Axis Powers, the City of Dover offered its
municipal airport of 587 acres to the Federal Government as a coastal patrol base. 1941 It later became
the Dover US Air Force base.
1942
Jan 8, 2nd Lt George S. Welch of Wilmington was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his
gallant efforts at Pearl Harbor in shooting down enemy planes.
Jan 11, The first of 5 German U-boats appeared off the US East Coast sinking ships oftentimes visible
from Delaware beaches.
Jan 27, Seven weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the Delaware National Guard sailed via
the Panama Canal for Bora Bora in the French Society Islands.
Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Joseph Rosevich of Wilmington became the personal secretary to General George S.
Patton and remained so all during World War II.
Feb. 17, Delawareans Major Hugh Sharp and Lt. Ed Edwards were honored in President Franklin
Roosevelt's office in Washington for a daring sea rescue with the Civil Air Patrol off Rehoboth.
Feb. 28, Named for the Delaware War of 1812 hero, the USS Jacob Jones was sunk off Delaware by U-578.
Mar 7, Ten crewmen were lost when the Navy tanker Mission San Francisco was cut into by the Liberian
freighter Elna II near Pea Patch Island.
Mar. 14, Delawareans were urged to plant victory gardens in the spring to help promote food
production for the war effort.
May 8, Delawareans, along with others on the East Coast, were rationed 3 gallons of gasoline per week
for non-essential driving as automobile traffic was cut 80%. Placed on the windshield was: "A" sticker,
3 gals; "B" sticker, essential war effort; "C" sticker, doctors, nurses; and "T", truckers.
May 11, Ens. William Yeates Conwell of Milton died from exposure adrift in the North Atlantic almost
3 weeks after his Merchant Marine ship Lammot du Pont was sunk by a U-boat.
May 25, 2nd Lt. George Welch of Wilmington, a flying hero at Pearl Harbor and a recipient of the
Distinguished Service Cross, was welcomed into President Roosevelt's Oval office.
May 27, In a simulated air raid test all employees of the Hercules, Atlas and Delaware Trust Companies
evacuated the building in 5 minutes at 9th and Market Streets in Wilmington.
Jun 5, Donnie Holzmueller, Jr. of Milford was killed when his patrol boat was sunk by a German
torpedo in the Atlantic Ocean.
June 11, Although Rehoboth Squadron Two of the Civil Air Patrol encountered the German U-boat
Commander Paul-Karl Loeser's U-373 laying fifteen 2,000 lb. mines off Lewes, they did not have the
military resources to stop it.
June 17, The first statewide Civil Defense blackout drill to avoid future possible air raids took place.
June 23, While patrolling the Aleutian Islands Lt. Commander William E. Pennewill of Dover was
killed when his plane crashed near Kodiak, Alaska.
Jun 24, The Tug John R. Williams hit an enemy mine laid by U-373, 7 miles off Rehoboth and sank
Jul 5, For the first time since 1920 there would be no Kent-Sussex Fair in Harrington due to World War
II.
Jul 6, In the first days of World War II the Civil Air Patrol operated out of the Rehoboth Airport being
equipped only with small depth charges and bombs for beach patrol.
Sep. 1, The Dravo Corporation in Wilmington produced LST 6, the first LST landing ship tank for the
war effort.
Oct. 30, The Federal Government made its first overture to the DuPont Company regarding the
Manhattan Project, the development of the atomic bomb.
Nov. 13, Charles Leonard Caulk, Jr, Seaman 2nd Cl. from Wilmington perished when his ship USS
Juneau was sunk off Guadalcanal in the Pacific.
Nov. 29, The first War Loan Drive of World War II was held in Delaware with the state providing $39
million of the $9 billion sought nationally. 2nd Lt. William J. McLoughry of Dover was killed when a
plane he was co-piloting crashed near Oran, Algeria.
Dec 5, Lt. James William Bishop of Laurel was declared missing in action between Tunis and Bizerte in
North Africa. Years later it was reported he had died in a plane crash.
Dec 28, Air raid wardens fearing enemy air attacks arrested Justice E. Wessells of Delmar for showing
lights during a coastal dim-out in Delaware.
1943
Mar 4, The bodies of the captain and 2 crew members of the Canadian Gypsum Prince, sunk by a U-boat,
were the only ones brought ashore at Lewes.
Mar 5, The Civil Air Patrol in Rehoboth began coastal patrols with Eddie Edwards and Major Hugh
Sharp, Jr. and spotted their first U-boat 5 days later off Cape May, NJ.
Mar. 16, An explosion occurred at the Sussex Ordnance Company on Cedar Beach Road in Milford.
Five people were killed and 25 were injured where 40 mm shells were being produced.
Mar. 29, Due to wartime shortages, the rationing of meats, cheese, and fats was begun.
Apr. 12, The Second War Loan Drive was held in Delaware as a captured 2-man Japanese sub was
exhibited in Georgetown, Dover, and Wilmington.
Apr 24, Sergeant William L. Nelson of Middletown, Co H, 60th Infantry Regiment, was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for gallantry in battle near Djebel Dardyss, Tunisia.
25 May, The Dravo Corporation Shipyard of Wilmington launched the first destroyer escort DE- 99,
USS Cannon and for the next 9 months production amounted to 2 vessels a month.
Sep 9 At the height of World War II the 3rd War Loan Drive opened with rallies and parades up and
down the state with $49,000,000 as the state's goal.
Sept. 12, Richard C. du Pont of Granogue, a civilian authority on gliders, was killed in California
when his parachute opened too close to the ground.
Sep 18, First Lt. Orlando Greenly of Lincoln who was blown from his cot at Scholfield Barracks during
the Pearl Harbor attack almost 3 years before, was killed in action in Salerno, Italy as a member of
Darby's Rangers.
Sep 30, With Americans' nerves already on edge, an air raid alert at 2:10 A.M. up and down the East
Coast proved to be a false alarm.
Oct. 3, Pfc. Lynn Ritter, Jr. of Lewes, 20, was killed in Rome by a land mine while picking up
wounded soldiers in his Jeep.
Oct. 22, Staff/Sgt George Guild of Wilmington, tailgunner on a B-24, was killed in action just after
takeoff when his entire crew perished in a crash in England.
Nov. 26, Blair Ellis of Laurel was one of 2,000 soldiers aboard the ship HMT Rohna when it was sunk in
the Mediterranean. With the loss of half the troops, including Ellis, the report was withheld from the
public for over 50 years!
Dec 12, Pvt. Edward Hampton Howell of Middletown, in the Army Medical Corps almost a year and
home on furlough, died in a car crash in Townsend.
Dec 16, Captain David R. Raub of the New Castle Army Air Base died as his P-38G plane crashed on
Pea Patch Island. The wreckage burned for 12 hours in 16 degree weather.
1944
Jan 11, Fourteen Delaware women helped in the war effort by driving Wilmington's Delaware Coach
Company buses.
Jan 13, Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey, USN, attended the capping ceremony at Wilmington's
Delaware Hospital for his daughter Mrs. Preston Lea Spruance of Greenville.
Jan 17, Kent-Sussex Fair Association decided to resume its annual fair in Harrington since its closing in
the early part of World War II.
Jan 18, The 4th War Loan Drive was held in Delaware as Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey made a
surprise appearance at the Du Pont Hotel Playhouse.
Feb. 11, Staff Sgt. George Murphy of Wilmington, a B-17 waist gunner, wrote home that he had been
on 40 missions and expected to be home in 5 months. Three days later he was killed over Italy.
Mar 5, Though not a Delawarean but scion of a distinguished Delaware family, Lt. Col. James W.
Bellah won acclaim in Burma operations. He later served in the Delaware State Guard. Bellah was a
fiction writer and had one of his stories, "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", made into a movie in 1949.
Apr. 8, From a family of four brothers who saw service in World War II, Sgt. Harold Krantz of St.
Georges became the second killed in action.
Apr. 16, Tech/5 Clayton Jones of Wilmington was killed in Italy when he attempted to douse the flames
of a heavily loaded bomber.
May 7, Sgt. Martin Eisenman of Wilmington, a survivor of the Bataan death march, died when an
American submarine sank an unmarked Japanese prison ship near the Philippines.
May 19, A waist gunner on board a B-17 bomber, Sgt. Gerald Francis Farren of Wilmington was killed
over Germany the day after he wrote a letter to his parents telling about his last flight.
June 1, The first German prisoners of war arrived at Fort du Pont in Delaware City. The total number
of prisoners eventually totaled 4,300. Later camps followed in Georgetown, Leipsic, Lewes, Harrington,
Bethany Beach, Bridgeville, and Fort Saulsbury in Slaughter Beach.
Jun 6, Col. Norman M. Lack of New Castle helped plan the D-Day invasion.
June 12, 1944 The 5th War Loan Drive of World War II was held in Delaware with such special guests
as band leader Paul Whiteman and movie star Lieutenant William Holden.
June 15, Pvt. William C. Fox of Dover, a navigator in an amphibious tank division, was killed in
action in the Marianas Islands in the Pacific.
July 3, Howard Wilkins of Milford, a copilot on a B-24 Liberator bomber, died when his plane was shot
down over the Ploesti oilfields in Romania.
June 30, Sgt. Warren H. Sheppard of Hartly, one of the first on the beaches of Normandy earlier on D-
Day, was killed in Southern France.
Jul 19, Sgt Kennard R. Wiggins of New Castle was credited with shooting down an ME-109 while on a
B-24 bombing mission with the 781st Bombardment Sqdn, 15th AF. He was awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross for his actions.
Jul 22, German POWs, captured in North Africa and stationed at the old Civilian Conservation Camp
(CCC) near Lewes, cheerfully helped clean up beaches despite not being permitted to talk to civilians.
Jul 26, Two Wilmington men, Harry First and Louis DiMartino, crew members on their 49th mission
in the same B-24, were killed when their plane was shot down over Austria.
Aug 16, Lt. Carl Herman Dorschel of Wilmington, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver
and Bronze Stars, was killed at Agay, Southern France.
Aug. 20, A German Prisoner of War camp was built in Georgetown with prisoners working in chicken
processing plants. In Harrington Libby McNeil & Libby contracted to house 300 German POWs on the
fairgrounds for the months of July and August.
Aug. 25, Capt. William L. Hollis, USMCR, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Hollis, Delmar, was awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross for 'extraordinary achievement' in the Solomon Islands and Bismarck
Archipelago areas.
Sept. 7, Pfc. John E. Adams, Jr. of Laurel, captured at Bataan and being transported to Japan on a
freighter as a POW, died when the ship was torpedoed.
Sep 18, Pvt. John W. O'Daniel, Jr, son of Major General John W. O'Daniel of Newark, was killed in a
paratroop drop in Holland. (General O'Daniel's brother was killed in World War I).
Sep 13, A hurricane passed 50 miles east of the state as the USS destroyer Warrington unsuccessfully
tried to stay afloat. Only 65 of 300 crewmen survived. Robert G. Kern, 1st Class, USN from Milford was
one of the lost.
Sept. 23, Sgt. Elmer T. Short of Dover, a gunner on a B-25 bomber, died when his plane was shot
down over Galliate, Italy.
Sep 30, Lieutenant Joseph Myers of Frederica died instantly in Holland when he threw himself upon a
grenade. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Oct 13, Sgt. Phillip Carlon, a B-24 turret gunner, wrote home to Wilmington that he had just returned
from a very dangerous mission over Germany. Next day he was killed.
Oct. 16, The mother of Pvt. Thomas Marando was notified in Delmar that her son, previously reported
as missing in action, was a prisoner of war in Germany.
Oct. 18, The ship of Josiah O. Wolcott, Jr,attorney and son of the late Chancellor and former US
Senator Josiah O. Wolcott, Sr, was lost at sea off the coast of France.
Oct 29, The Final War Loan Drive was held in Delaware with the Victory Train making appearances in
Dover and Wilmington. It featured war mementos such as Hermann Goering's $300,000 jewel-
encrusted baton.
Nov. 20, The 6th War Loan Drive of World War II, "Buy An Extra Bond", opened with rallies and
parades as Delaware exceeded its $48,000,000 goal.
Nov.21, Pfc. Robert B. Hayman, age 20, and voted the "best all-around boy" in Delmar High School
when he graduated, was killed in action in Germany.
Nov. 26, After 12 trips over Germany with the 8th Air Force, Wilmingtonian Lt. Chester Adkins of
Holly Oak perished when his plane was shot down.
Nov. 28, 1944 Pvt. Melvin A. Geiger of Harrington was killed in Germany just a day after his wife gave
birth to their third child in Dover.
Dec. 11, The US Army headquartered in Dover's Richardson Hotel, seized chicken trucks up and down
the state in order to guarantee adequate food supplies for armed forces still fighting around the world.
Dec 15, Major William Dunmyer, a West Point graduate from Wilmington and survivor of the Bataan
"Death March," was killed in an unmarked Japanese ship carrying American prisoners.
1945
Jan 12, Flight Officer Roy R. Aydelotte, a navigator on a B-24 Liberator bomber, was reported missing
in action. A graduate of Delmar High School, he was a former employee of the Seaford Du Pont plant.
Feb. 21, Pfc. Ralph Webber of Townsend wrote his parents from somewhere in Germany that he
thought the war would soon be over and he was looking forward to coming home. Two days later he
was killed in combat.
Mar. 11, Captain Robert Waller of Gordon Heights near Wilmington, winner of the Bronze Star and a
Japanese POW for almost 3 years, died of dysentery after dropping to 85 lbs.
Mar 26, Stewards Mate John Bryant of Wilmington was killed when a Japanese kamikaze plane hit his
destroyer. His body was buried at sea.
Apr. 2, Sgt. Bauduy Grier of Wilmington was rescued by a US sub after being adrift in a life raft for 24
days in the China Sea. He was the only survivor after his plane crashed on March 10.
Apr. 8, Sergeant Marshall Tyndall of Wilmington, formerly of Georgetown, helped inventory 100 tons
of gold bullion in a German mine placed there by escaping Nazis.
Apr 19, Mrs. Mildred Marando of Delmar was notified by the War Department that her son, Pvt.
Thomas C. Marando, was liberated from a German prison camp.
Apr. 28, A POW camp to house 300 Germans was constructed in Bethany Beach.
Apr. 30, Sgt. Philip Alden Beaman of Newark, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, was killed
in Luzon in the Philippines.
May 12, Pfc. Philip Volturo of Wilmington, veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and fierce fighting in
Germany, drowned accidentally two days after the war ended.
May 28, Chief Water Tender Richard Edward Prendergast of Camden, recipient of the Distinguished
Service Medal and Purple Heart, was killed off Okinawa during a kamikaze attack.
Aug 14, Delawareans celebrated the end of World War II and victory over Japan.
Oct. 28, The Eighth and final War Loan Drive was held in Delaware with the appearance of the Victory
Train featuring Nazi leader Hermann Goering's $300,000 jewel-encrusted baton.
Nov. 20, Pvt. Leo Shepherd of Wilmington pulled guard duty at the Nurenberg Trials and managed to
get autographs of 18 of the 21 Nazi officials.
Nov. 23, The rationing of meats, canned fish, and butter, banned for so long on the home front during
World War II, was ended.
28 November, German prisoners totaling 1,750 left Delaware for Boston with another 2,000 to follow.
Dec 5, Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island and Fort Saulsbury east of Milford were decommissioned and
returned to the state.
Dec. 20, The War Manpower Commission removed POWs from a Millsboro chicken processing plant at
the request of organized labor.
1946
May 4, 270 German prisoners, the last of 4,300 held in the state during WW II, left Fort du Pont in
Delaware City for Fort Dix, NJ. for their journey home.
May 26, American Gold Star Mothers placed a monument at Governor Printz and Philadelphia Pike in
memory of their fallen sons of World War II.
Aug. 3, With World War II ended, the New Castle Army Air Base came to an official end when the US
Government returned it to New Castle County.
Sept.6, Delaware Air National Guard holds its first muster at the Wilmington Armory
Sep 26, The Federal Government transferred Fort duPont in Delaware City back to the State of
Delaware.
1947
Jun 11, The last rationing item for the war effort, that of sugar, was discontinued.
Nov. 29, The Federal Government returned New Castle County Airport to the state as passenger,
express and freight service reopened.
1949
Jan 14, Spurred on by rampant vandalism on Pea Patch Island, a group of 20 people met in the Hotel
Du Pont and organized the Fort Delaware Society.
Feb. 25, Delaware accepted the boxcar 40 et 8 from France for our help during WWII. It's on exhibit in
Seaford.
Nov. 22, A portrait of Lt. Gen. Eugene Reybold of Delaware City, Chief of US Army Engineers, was
hung in Legislative Hall, Dover.
1950
The 336th Fighter Interceptor Squadron “Rocketeers” was posted to the recently re-named Dover Air
Force base for a brief period on August 13, 1950. Assigned to the 4th Fighter Group, they trained at
Dover until November when they were deployed to air combat in Korea flying F-86A Sabrejets.
On 8 September 1950, the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, equipped with the F-86A Sabre was reassigned
to New Castle, giving the airfield an air-superiority mission. The 4th FIW was deployed to Japan on 10
November 1950, with a mission to counter the MiG threat in the skies of Korea.
1951
February 1, The 142nd Fighter Squadron (J), Special Order No. 1 activated the Delaware Air National
Guard for federal service to serve for 21 months during the Korean War.
In July 1951, Newark Delaware native John Wilson "Iron Mike" O'Daniel went to Korea to command
1st Corps, 8th Army for his last combat assignment.
Delaware Air National Guard pilot 1st Lt Walter C. Stewart of Glenmore Pennsylvania was killed in
action in Korea on 23 April 1951 while attempting a low altitude ejection on returning to base for
emergency landing after an explosion in his F-84E Thunderjet.
Delaware Air Guard pilot 1st Lieutenant Charles D. Hogue of Philadelphia was listed as missing in
action in Korea, on 13 December 1951 twenty miles northeast of Sinanju.
1952
Jul 1, Chrysler's first production M48 rolled out of the Delaware Tank Plant in Newark and was
christened by Mrs George S Patton Jr.
Jul 20, Captain Irvin M. Tindall, a graduate of Laurel High School in 1949, was listed as missing in
action over Korea while flying his F 84 Thunderbolt jet fighter.
In November, 1952 the 46th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 4709th Air Defense Wing relieved the
demobilized Pennsylvania Air Guard 148th FIS, in the interceptor role at Dover AFB, also flying F-94
“Starfires”.
Nov. 22, A C-124 Globemaster disappeared 150 miles southeast of Anchorage, Alaska. One of its
passengers was Lt. Col. Eugene Smith, WW II veteran from Wilmington.
1953
Jul 27, The Korean War ended with Delaware having sent 12,000 men and women into that "forgotten
war". Forty-three Delawareans were killed and 185 wounded.
Sept 21, No Kum-Sok (later Kenneth Rowe) a lieutenant in the North Korean Air Force during the
Korean War defected to South Korea. He flew his MiG-15 to the Kimpo Air Base in South Korea,
claiming that he wanted to get away from the "red deceit.
1954
May 25, An Air Force C-45 crashed into the Newark Lumber Yard along Main Street. As the two pilots
parachuted to safety, the plane barely missed about 4 service stations in the area before crashing.
June 8, President Dwight Eisenhower landed at Dover Air Force Base to make a speech at Washington
College in Chestertown, Md.
1956
Jul 18, No Kumn Sok, a North Korean pilot who defected to the West with a Russian MIG jet fighter 3
years before, worked as a beach boy in Rehoboth having finished his first year at the U. of Del. For
such a feat, Sok, later known as Kenneth Rowe, received a check for $100,000 from the US Government.
Oct. 23, Giuseppe Bellanca sold his aircraft company located near New Castle to Piasecki Helicopters
(later VERTOL) of Morton, PA.
1957
Apr. 30 The first cars rolled off the assembly line at Newark's Chrysler Plant. Previously, the plant had
made military tanks.
Sep. 5, John and Mary Biggs closed their airfield near New Castle. Dating from 1922, it later became the
site of the Penn Acres development.
1958
Aug. 28 Mrs. J. Caleb Boggs, wife of Governor Boggs, christened a new C-133 cargo plane at the
Dover Air Force Base. Named "State of Delaware", the plane was one of the most advanced cargo
planes in the world.
1959
Mar. 19, Two F-94 jets collided 35,000 feet above Dover as the Pennsylvania Air National Guard pilots
parachuted to safety. The flash at 8:15 P.M. was seen as far away as Wilmington and Lancaster,
Pennsylvania.
1963
Oct. 3, Captain James Harold Johnson, Jr. of Milford, 31, became the first Delaware casualty in the
Vietnam conflict, a war in which some 27,000 Delawareans served and from which 122 did not return
home.
1964
Oct. 31, Captain Theodore C. Freeman of Lewes, Delaware's only astronaut, died in a plane crash in
Houston, Texas.
1965
Mar 25, A Dover based C-124 airplane crashed near Cordova, MD killing all 6 crewmen.
May 24, Gen. Thomas Holcomb, 17th commandant of the US Marine Corps (1936-1944), died in New
Castle.
20 Aug. The Dravo Corporation in Wilmington announced it would close its shipbuilding yard
putting the last 80 employees out of work.
1967
Jul 28, After racial strife broke out in Wilmington, a curfew was initiated.
1968
Mar. 13, Installed just weeks before the racial riots occurred after the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King, the Most Rev. Thomas J. Mardaga, DD, was named Catholic Bishop of Wilmington. By
the following Christmas he joined with Protestant leaders calling for the removal of National Guard
troops from the streets of Wilmington.
June 18, Marine PFC Elmer L. Faulkner, Jr, 19, of Greenwood was killed in action in Quang Tn,
Vietnam.
Sep 15, A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) Building on the
U/D campus.
1969
Jan. 21, Governor Russell Peterson, according to his campaign promises, withdrew the National
Guard from the streets of Wilmington.
1971
Jan 14, Navy Lt. Comdr. James J,Connell, Jr, of Wilmington died while being held captive by North
Vietnamese since 1966.
Nov. 28, Lt. Gen. John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel, World War II hero, returned to Newark to help settle
the estate of his aunt Miss Etta J. Wilson.
1977
Apr. 10, The Dover Air Force Base Mortuary processed the remains of 326 people killed in the world's
worst aviation accident of two jumbo jets in the Canary Islands.
1983
Oct 23, Michael Hastings of Seaford, 21, was one of 241 US Marines killed in Beirut, Lebanon during a
terrorist attack.
1985
May 14, A 7 by 10 foot, 353 lb. landing gear fell harmlessly from an Air Force C-5A Galaxy airplane
from 6,000 feet in a field 1 1/2 miles northwest of Smyrna.
1989
Oct 15, The Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery was dedicated at Summit on the north side of the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
1991
May 31, The Delaware Air National Guard returned from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf War.
Jun 11, A Delaware based Boeing V-22 Osprey helicopter was heavily damaged when it spun out of
control at the New Castle County Airport slightly injuring two crewmen.
Sep 8, Maynard H. Mires, Sr, 97, the last surviving member of the John Philip Sousa band, died in
Lewes.
1992
Dec. 15, The remnants of a crashed WW II P-47 airplane in Bombay Hook in 1944 were recovered and
placed on display at the Air Mobility Command Museum on Dover Air Force Base.
1999
Apr. 16, Live ordinance, a 40 mm artillery shell, was found at South Bethany, the result of sand
replenishment from offshore.
Oct. 15, A downstate Veterans' Cemetery was dedicated near Millsboro.
Twentieth Century
Mexican Punitive Expedition 1916
World War I, 1917-1919
World War II, 1941-1945
Korean War, 1950-1953
Vietnam War, 1965-1973
Gulf War, 1990-1991
1901
Sep 3, A monument was unveiled at Cooch's Bridge to the first claimed unfurling of the American flag
in battle September 3, 1777.
1904
Jan 14, Clement Reeves died in Delaware City. Formerly a 1st Lt, Co H, 5th Del Inf, he had guarded
Confederate prisoners at Fort Delaware. It was Reeves who sold his farm to the US Government upon
which Fort Delaware was eventually built.
Aug. 20, Local Delaware City folks objected to Sunday baseball by soldiers at Fort du Pont right next
door.
1908
Governor Preston Lea praised the 1st Delaware Infantry as it left Camp Hall in Rehoboth and traveled
by railroad to Fort du Pont in Delaware City to train with regular soldiers.
1910
Jul 23, The 1st Regiment, National Guard of Delaware, left Wilmington for its summer encampment in
Rehoboth Beach.
5 Oct, The battleship USS Delaware, carrying 827 sailors and 55 officers, sailed into Wilmington.
Governor Pennewill presented a silver tea set to its captain and crew after it docked in the Delaware
River off Deep Water Point.
1914
Aug. 4, Vacationing in Europe, Delaware Gov. Charles R. Miller and his wife were temporarily detained
when their German-American liner was impounded in England due to the outbreak of World War I.
1915
Nov. 29, The 2nd worst explosion occurred at the DuPont's Powder Mills along the Brandywine
killing 30 people and injuring 5.
1916
Jan 31, A war scare over Germany was heightened in Wilmington when a mysterious 'aeroplane' was
spotted flying over DuPont's gunpowder plants across the Delaware River at Carney's and Deepwater
Points.
Jun 30 Delaware National Guardsmen were sent to Deming, New Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa.
Jul 20, With World War I raging in Europe, the First Delaware Infantry was mustered into Federal
service at the State Rifle Range south of New Castle.
1917
Feb. 7, The Delaware National Guard arrived back in Wilmington from chasing Pancho Villa in
Deming, New Mexico.
May 13, Construction was underway on Fort Saulsbury at Slaughter Beach for protection of the
Delaware Bay during WWI.
Jun 15, William Cornish entertained at a school picnic near Harrington with war and patriotic songs
and playing Billy Sunday's hymns on his Victrola.
Jul 21, Pilot Allen Ashley Smith, a 25 year old Delaware Aeronautical School student from Brooklyn
died when his Thomas flying boat crashed in the Delaware River.
June 26, The Wilmington Aeronautical School flew a mock air attack on the City of Wilmington with
the dropping of leaflets. Pretending the leaflets could be German bombs, the feat sought to encourage
men from 18-45 to enlist in the military.
Aug. 19, The Delaware National Guard left for maneuvers at Camp McClellan in Anniston, Alabama.
Nov. 15, The Kent Co. draft board received a letter from a woman who thought her estranged husband
should be drafted.
Dec. 5, First Lt. Paris T. Carlisle, III, on returning home from military service, was shown the Milford
Fire Company's new fire truck. After he was killed in battle less than a year later in France, the
company was named after him.
Dec 6, Roy Rinard of Wilmington aboard the Von Steuben witnessed a gigantic explosion in Halifax,
Nova Scotia harbor resulting from the collision of an ammunition ship with another.
1918
May 28, U-151, a German submarine entered the Delaware Bay and laid mines.
Jul 3, Referred to as the "work or fight" law, new legislation required all men between the ages of 18-55
to be at some gainful employment at the height of World War I.
Jul 18, Aviator Lawrence Layton of Milford, nephew of former Secretary of State Caleb R. Layton, died
in aerial combat over France.
Jul 22, Delaware troops in the 77th Division, composed mostly of Jersey troops, fought the Germans in
the Aisne-Marne District in France.
Jul 27, The younger brother of later General John W. O'Daniel of Newark, Lieutenant James A.
O'Daniel, a flyer, was killed at the front over France.
Jul 31, The steamer Poseidon collided with a tanker carrying coal from Boston to Norfolk and sank off
the Delaware coast. Thirty-three men were brought into Lewes.
Aug. 26, Twenty-two year old Lt. Lawrence Roberts of Wilmington was killed in an aerial dogfight
over Cambrai, France while serving with the 17th Aero Squadron.
Aug. 29.With war raging in Europe, Delaware's 59th Pioneer Infantry embarked on the Leviathan at
Hoboken, N. J. for Brest, France.
Sep 7, The 59th Pioneer Infantry, Delaware Regiment, disembarked at Brest, France.
1918
Aug 5, Amanda M. Smyth, age 81, widow of General Thomas Smyth, one of the last general officers to
die in the Civil War, passed away at home at 1401 Rodney Street in Wilmington. She outlived her
husband 53 years!
Sep 12, Newark's Lt. John W. O'Daniel was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in
helping close the St. Mihiel salient in France. His younger brother, Lt. James A. O'Daniel, a flyer, had
been killed 6 weeks earlier over France.
Oct. 7, Ruth MacGregor, one of Delaware's few female casualties in World War I, died of influenza
enroute to France.
Oct 9, Cpl. Walter Fox died of wounds becoming the first casualty in WW I from Dover.
Oct. 17, Soon after reading his letter, James Swift's mother in Wilmington received a telegram stating he
had been killed in the war.
Nov. 9, The US Navy freighter Saetia was hit by a mine off Fenwick Island and sank.
Nov. 12, The Milford Fire Company changed its name to the Paris T. Carlisle Company in deference to
the Milford soldier killed in France in the last days of World War I.
Dec 23, Raymond Acker of Delaware City was one of the soldiers who accompanied President
Woodrow Wilson's peace mission to Paris.
1919
Jan 22, Wilmington soldiers in the 59th Pioneer Infantry Thomas Davis, Harvey Hadley, Howard
Johnson, and John Chandler were killed in a mine explosion in Rehon, France.
At the conclusion of “The Great War” on June 29, 1919, the 59th Pioneer Infantry Regiment, Delaware
National Guard, sailed from Brest France arriving at Hoboken on July 5.
Nov. 11, Town leaders in Middletown dedicated a monument at Four Corners, or Cochran Square
recalling four servicemen who died in World War I.
1920
Apr 17, Middletown planted trees in the yard of the Academy commemorating Jeremiah Jackson, Davis
Manlove, Rupert Burstan, and John Hoffecker who didn't come back home from World War I.
Sep 2, A 40 man crew was rescued from the US Navy S-5 231 foot submarine as it foundered in 170 feet
of water at the mouth of Delaware Bay.
1921
Dec. 23, The Washington Street Bridge, dedicated to Delaware's war dead, was opened in Wilmington.
1924
The Sussex County battalion of the old First Delaware Infantry was reorganized on March 24, 1924 as
the 261st Separate Coast Artillery Battalion (Harbor Defense), with Battery “A” stationed in Laurel.
1925
Feb. 23, Civil War cavalryman General James H. Wilson died at 87 and was buried in Wilmington's
Old Swedes Church Yard. He was credited with helping capture the escaping President Jefferson Davis
near Irwinville, Georgia in May 1865.
1926
Feb. 27, After Governor Robert Robinson called out the National Guard at 21 year old Negro Harry
Butler's trial, he was hanged in Georgetown prison yard before a crowd of 5,000 onlookers. He was
convicted for the murder of Eleanora Steinmetz of Bridgeville.
1927
April 27, The State purchased an undeveloped portion of Bethany Beach from William P. Short for use
as a National Guard Training Site.
Aug. 27, Henry B. du Pont and several of his kin purchased the Spring Garden Farm near New Castle
and began to lure the airplane builder Giuseppe Bellanca to town.
Oct 21, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis in Wilmington and gave a
speech in Baynard Stadium.
Oct. 27 Giuseppe Bellanca bought the Spring Garden Farm near New Castle from Henry B. du Pont
and friends for $37,215 and proceeded to build a factory to manufacture airplanes.
Nov. 29, At an auction in London, the Delaware Historical Society purchased a Delaware Militia flag
that had been captured by the British just before the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, 150 years before.
1928
The first National Guard encampment at Bethany Beach was held beginning on August 4, 1928,
hosting the 198th Coast Artillery Regiment.
Dec 27, The annual Christmas dance of the officers and their ladies at Fort du Pont in Delaware City
was held at the officers' club. It was the largest social event of the season on the post.
1929
Dec 19, Three Delaware Gold Star Mothers whose sons were killed in World War I accepted the
government's offer to visit their sons' graves in France.
1931
Oct. 15, The entire Delaware General Assembly and Governor C. Douglass Buck attended the Sesqui-
Centennial celebration of Cornwallis's surrender in Yorktown, Virginia.
1932
Apr. 1, A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp opened at Georgetown for mosquito control.
During WW II it was also used as a POW camp.
1934
Jan 25, A grass fire burned the Bellanca Hangar near New Castle and incinerated the world famous WB-
II Columbia airplane, the one Charles Lindbergh really wanted to fly, but didn't in his flight across the
Atlantic in 1927.
Apr. 12, Republican US Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota began hearings in Washington aimed
at alleged munitions sales profiteering in World War I. The DuPont Company, represented by Lammot
and Felix du Pont, was one of those called in, but Nye's findings were inconclusive.
1937
May 7, Ferdinand Lammot "Peter" Belin, Jr, 24 year old Yale graduate and nephew of Mrs. Pierre S. du
Pont, II, of Wilmington, dropped 30 feet to safety as the German dirigible Hindenburg burned on
landing at Lakehurst, NJ. Until he died in 1982, he rarely ever spoke of his miraculous escape.
Sep 30, With its work done on mosquito control, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp closed
on Savannah Road in Lewes, and later opened as a POW camp during WW II.
Oct 20, Admiral Purnell F. Harrington, son of the former Delaware Chancellor Samuel M. Harrington,
died as one of the last Civil War veterans at the age of 93.
1933
Aug. 19, S/Sgt. Harold E. McMahon of California crashed his plane in a marsh near Little Creek.
Having sunk to the bottom of a bog near Simon's Creek, neither he nor the plane were ever recovered.
1938
Jul 16, Rehoboth Airfield had its grand opening. Felix du Pont, a resident, and later town
commissioner, was instrumental in this project.
1940
Aug. 8, A new armory was opened in Georgetown on Pine Street.
Sep 16, Delaware's 198th Coast Artillery, Anti-Aircraft Regiment, National Guard was activated by the
Selective Service Act and sent to Camp Upton, N. Y.
Oct 17, With the passage of the Federal Selective Service Act, all male citizens in the state, ages 21-36,
registered for compulsory military training. Ernest R. Lynch of Lewes became the first draftee of World
War II in Delaware.
Nov. 26, Selective Service inductions began in Delaware with the quota of 120 recruits.
1941
May 5, The legislature enacted legislation allowing Sussex County Levy Court to build an airport in
Georgetown. During the war the air base was used by the US Navy as an auxiliary training facility for
the Cape May County Naval Air Station, NJ.
May 13, Lewes and Rehoboth residents were roused as practice salvos were fired by guns at Fort Miles
on Cape Henlopen.
Nov. 12, With the attack on Pearl Harbor less than a month away, Governor Walter Bacon inspected
gun emplacements in Fort Saulsbury at Slaughter Beach wherein were stationed 200 soldiers.
Dec 7, Lt. George S. Welch of Wilmington took off in his plane at Pearl Harbor in the Japanese attack
and shot down several enemy planes.
Dec. 17, Now that war had been declared against the Axis Powers, the City of Dover offered its
municipal airport of 587 acres to the Federal Government as a coastal patrol base. 1941 It later became
the Dover US Air Force base.
1942
Jan 8, 2nd Lt George S. Welch of Wilmington was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his
gallant efforts at Pearl Harbor in shooting down enemy planes.
Jan 11, The first of 5 German U-boats appeared off the US East Coast sinking ships oftentimes visible
from Delaware beaches.
Jan 27, Seven weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the Delaware National Guard sailed via
the Panama Canal for Bora Bora in the French Society Islands.
Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Joseph Rosevich of Wilmington became the personal secretary to General George S.
Patton and remained so all during World War II.
Feb. 17, Delawareans Major Hugh Sharp and Lt. Ed Edwards were honored in President Franklin
Roosevelt's office in Washington for a daring sea rescue with the Civil Air Patrol off Rehoboth.
Feb. 28, Named for the Delaware War of 1812 hero, the USS Jacob Jones was sunk off Delaware by U-578.
Mar 7, Ten crewmen were lost when the Navy tanker Mission San Francisco was cut into by the Liberian
freighter Elna II near Pea Patch Island.
Mar. 14, Delawareans were urged to plant victory gardens in the spring to help promote food
production for the war effort.
May 8, Delawareans, along with others on the East Coast, were rationed 3 gallons of gasoline per week
for non-essential driving as automobile traffic was cut 80%. Placed on the windshield was: "A" sticker,
3 gals; "B" sticker, essential war effort; "C" sticker, doctors, nurses; and "T", truckers.
May 11, Ens. William Yeates Conwell of Milton died from exposure adrift in the North Atlantic almost
3 weeks after his Merchant Marine ship Lammot du Pont was sunk by a U-boat.
May 25, 2nd Lt. George Welch of Wilmington, a flying hero at Pearl Harbor and a recipient of the
Distinguished Service Cross, was welcomed into President Roosevelt's Oval office.
May 27, In a simulated air raid test all employees of the Hercules, Atlas and Delaware Trust Companies
evacuated the building in 5 minutes at 9th and Market Streets in Wilmington.
Jun 5, Donnie Holzmueller, Jr. of Milford was killed when his patrol boat was sunk by a German
torpedo in the Atlantic Ocean.
June 11, Although Rehoboth Squadron Two of the Civil Air Patrol encountered the German U-boat
Commander Paul-Karl Loeser's U-373 laying fifteen 2,000 lb. mines off Lewes, they did not have the
military resources to stop it.
June 17, The first statewide Civil Defense blackout drill to avoid future possible air raids took place.
June 23, While patrolling the Aleutian Islands Lt. Commander William E. Pennewill of Dover was
killed when his plane crashed near Kodiak, Alaska.
Jun 24, The Tug John R. Williams hit an enemy mine laid by U-373, 7 miles off Rehoboth and sank
Jul 5, For the first time since 1920 there would be no Kent-Sussex Fair in Harrington due to World War
II.
Jul 6, In the first days of World War II the Civil Air Patrol operated out of the Rehoboth Airport being
equipped only with small depth charges and bombs for beach patrol.
Sep. 1, The Dravo Corporation in Wilmington produced LST 6, the first LST landing ship tank for the
war effort.
Oct. 30, The Federal Government made its first overture to the DuPont Company regarding the
Manhattan Project, the development of the atomic bomb.
Nov. 13, Charles Leonard Caulk, Jr, Seaman 2nd Cl. from Wilmington perished when his ship USS
Juneau was sunk off Guadalcanal in the Pacific.
Nov. 29, The first War Loan Drive of World War II was held in Delaware with the state providing $39
million of the $9 billion sought nationally. 2nd Lt. William J. McLoughry of Dover was killed when a
plane he was co-piloting crashed near Oran, Algeria.
Dec 5, Lt. James William Bishop of Laurel was declared missing in action between Tunis and Bizerte in
North Africa. Years later it was reported he had died in a plane crash.
Dec 28, Air raid wardens fearing enemy air attacks arrested Justice E. Wessells of Delmar for showing
lights during a coastal dim-out in Delaware.
1943
Mar 4, The bodies of the captain and 2 crew members of the Canadian Gypsum Prince, sunk by a U-boat,
were the only ones brought ashore at Lewes.
Mar 5, The Civil Air Patrol in Rehoboth began coastal patrols with Eddie Edwards and Major Hugh
Sharp, Jr. and spotted their first U-boat 5 days later off Cape May, NJ.
Mar. 16, An explosion occurred at the Sussex Ordnance Company on Cedar Beach Road in Milford.
Five people were killed and 25 were injured where 40 mm shells were being produced.
Mar. 29, Due to wartime shortages, the rationing of meats, cheese, and fats was begun.
Apr. 12, The Second War Loan Drive was held in Delaware as a captured 2-man Japanese sub was
exhibited in Georgetown, Dover, and Wilmington.
Apr 24, Sergeant William L. Nelson of Middletown, Co H, 60th Infantry Regiment, was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for gallantry in battle near Djebel Dardyss, Tunisia.
25 May, The Dravo Corporation Shipyard of Wilmington launched the first destroyer escort DE- 99,
USS Cannon and for the next 9 months production amounted to 2 vessels a month.
Sep 9 At the height of World War II the 3rd War Loan Drive opened with rallies and parades up and
down the state with $49,000,000 as the state's goal.
Sept. 12, Richard C. du Pont of Granogue, a civilian authority on gliders, was killed in California
when his parachute opened too close to the ground.
Sep 18, First Lt. Orlando Greenly of Lincoln who was blown from his cot at Scholfield Barracks during
the Pearl Harbor attack almost 3 years before, was killed in action in Salerno, Italy as a member of
Darby's Rangers.
Sep 30, With Americans' nerves already on edge, an air raid alert at 2:10 A.M. up and down the East
Coast proved to be a false alarm.
Oct. 3, Pfc. Lynn Ritter, Jr. of Lewes, 20, was killed in Rome by a land mine while picking up
wounded soldiers in his Jeep.
Oct. 22, Staff/Sgt George Guild of Wilmington, tailgunner on a B-24, was killed in action just after
takeoff when his entire crew perished in a crash in England.
Nov. 26, Blair Ellis of Laurel was one of 2,000 soldiers aboard the ship HMT Rohna when it was sunk in
the Mediterranean. With the loss of half the troops, including Ellis, the report was withheld from the
public for over 50 years!
Dec 12, Pvt. Edward Hampton Howell of Middletown, in the Army Medical Corps almost a year and
home on furlough, died in a car crash in Townsend.
Dec 16, Captain David R. Raub of the New Castle Army Air Base died as his P-38G plane crashed on
Pea Patch Island. The wreckage burned for 12 hours in 16 degree weather.
1944
Jan 11, Fourteen Delaware women helped in the war effort by driving Wilmington's Delaware Coach
Company buses.
Jan 13, Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey, USN, attended the capping ceremony at Wilmington's
Delaware Hospital for his daughter Mrs. Preston Lea Spruance of Greenville.
Jan 17, Kent-Sussex Fair Association decided to resume its annual fair in Harrington since its closing in
the early part of World War II.
Jan 18, The 4th War Loan Drive was held in Delaware as Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey made a
surprise appearance at the Du Pont Hotel Playhouse.
Feb. 11, Staff Sgt. George Murphy of Wilmington, a B-17 waist gunner, wrote home that he had been
on 40 missions and expected to be home in 5 months. Three days later he was killed over Italy.
Mar 5, Though not a Delawarean but scion of a distinguished Delaware family, Lt. Col. James W.
Bellah won acclaim in Burma operations. He later served in the Delaware State Guard. Bellah was a
fiction writer and had one of his stories, "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", made into a movie in 1949.
Apr. 8, From a family of four brothers who saw service in World War II, Sgt. Harold Krantz of St.
Georges became the second killed in action.
Apr. 16, Tech/5 Clayton Jones of Wilmington was killed in Italy when he attempted to douse the flames
of a heavily loaded bomber.
May 7, Sgt. Martin Eisenman of Wilmington, a survivor of the Bataan death march, died when an
American submarine sank an unmarked Japanese prison ship near the Philippines.
May 19, A waist gunner on board a B-17 bomber, Sgt. Gerald Francis Farren of Wilmington was killed
over Germany the day after he wrote a letter to his parents telling about his last flight.
June 1, The first German prisoners of war arrived at Fort du Pont in Delaware City. The total number
of prisoners eventually totaled 4,300. Later camps followed in Georgetown, Leipsic, Lewes, Harrington,
Bethany Beach, Bridgeville, and Fort Saulsbury in Slaughter Beach.
Jun 6, Col. Norman M. Lack of New Castle helped plan the D-Day invasion.
June 12, 1944 The 5th War Loan Drive of World War II was held in Delaware with such special guests
as band leader Paul Whiteman and movie star Lieutenant William Holden.
June 15, Pvt. William C. Fox of Dover, a navigator in an amphibious tank division, was killed in
action in the Marianas Islands in the Pacific.
July 3, Howard Wilkins of Milford, a copilot on a B-24 Liberator bomber, died when his plane was shot
down over the Ploesti oilfields in Romania.
June 30, Sgt. Warren H. Sheppard of Hartly, one of the first on the beaches of Normandy earlier on D-
Day, was killed in Southern France.
Jul 19, Sgt Kennard R. Wiggins of New Castle was credited with shooting down an ME-109 while on a
B-24 bombing mission with the 781st Bombardment Sqdn, 15th AF. He was awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross for his actions.
Jul 22, German POWs, captured in North Africa and stationed at the old Civilian Conservation Camp
(CCC) near Lewes, cheerfully helped clean up beaches despite not being permitted to talk to civilians.
Jul 26, Two Wilmington men, Harry First and Louis DiMartino, crew members on their 49th mission
in the same B-24, were killed when their plane was shot down over Austria.
Aug 16, Lt. Carl Herman Dorschel of Wilmington, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver
and Bronze Stars, was killed at Agay, Southern France.
Aug. 20, A German Prisoner of War camp was built in Georgetown with prisoners working in chicken
processing plants. In Harrington Libby McNeil & Libby contracted to house 300 German POWs on the
fairgrounds for the months of July and August.
Aug. 25, Capt. William L. Hollis, USMCR, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Hollis, Delmar, was awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross for 'extraordinary achievement' in the Solomon Islands and Bismarck
Archipelago areas.
Sept. 7, Pfc. John E. Adams, Jr. of Laurel, captured at Bataan and being transported to Japan on a
freighter as a POW, died when the ship was torpedoed.
Sep 18, Pvt. John W. O'Daniel, Jr, son of Major General John W. O'Daniel of Newark, was killed in a
paratroop drop in Holland. (General O'Daniel's brother was killed in World War I).
Sep 13, A hurricane passed 50 miles east of the state as the USS destroyer Warrington unsuccessfully
tried to stay afloat. Only 65 of 300 crewmen survived. Robert G. Kern, 1st Class, USN from Milford was
one of the lost.
Sept. 23, Sgt. Elmer T. Short of Dover, a gunner on a B-25 bomber, died when his plane was shot
down over Galliate, Italy.
Sep 30, Lieutenant Joseph Myers of Frederica died instantly in Holland when he threw himself upon a
grenade. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Oct 13, Sgt. Phillip Carlon, a B-24 turret gunner, wrote home to Wilmington that he had just returned
from a very dangerous mission over Germany. Next day he was killed.
Oct. 16, The mother of Pvt. Thomas Marando was notified in Delmar that her son, previously reported
as missing in action, was a prisoner of war in Germany.
Oct. 18, The ship of Josiah O. Wolcott, Jr,attorney and son of the late Chancellor and former US
Senator Josiah O. Wolcott, Sr, was lost at sea off the coast of France.
Oct 29, The Final War Loan Drive was held in Delaware with the Victory Train making appearances in
Dover and Wilmington. It featured war mementos such as Hermann Goering's $300,000 jewel-
encrusted baton.
Nov. 20, The 6th War Loan Drive of World War II, "Buy An Extra Bond", opened with rallies and
parades as Delaware exceeded its $48,000,000 goal.
Nov.21, Pfc. Robert B. Hayman, age 20, and voted the "best all-around boy" in Delmar High School
when he graduated, was killed in action in Germany.
Nov. 26, After 12 trips over Germany with the 8th Air Force, Wilmingtonian Lt. Chester Adkins of
Holly Oak perished when his plane was shot down.
Nov. 28, 1944 Pvt. Melvin A. Geiger of Harrington was killed in Germany just a day after his wife gave
birth to their third child in Dover.
Dec. 11, The US Army headquartered in Dover's Richardson Hotel, seized chicken trucks up and down
the state in order to guarantee adequate food supplies for armed forces still fighting around the world.
Dec 15, Major William Dunmyer, a West Point graduate from Wilmington and survivor of the Bataan
"Death March," was killed in an unmarked Japanese ship carrying American prisoners.
1945
Jan 12, Flight Officer Roy R. Aydelotte, a navigator on a B-24 Liberator bomber, was reported missing
in action. A graduate of Delmar High School, he was a former employee of the Seaford Du Pont plant.
Feb. 21, Pfc. Ralph Webber of Townsend wrote his parents from somewhere in Germany that he
thought the war would soon be over and he was looking forward to coming home. Two days later he
was killed in combat.
Mar. 11, Captain Robert Waller of Gordon Heights near Wilmington, winner of the Bronze Star and a
Japanese POW for almost 3 years, died of dysentery after dropping to 85 lbs.
Mar 26, Stewards Mate John Bryant of Wilmington was killed when a Japanese kamikaze plane hit his
destroyer. His body was buried at sea.
Apr. 2, Sgt. Bauduy Grier of Wilmington was rescued by a US sub after being adrift in a life raft for 24
days in the China Sea. He was the only survivor after his plane crashed on March 10.
Apr. 8, Sergeant Marshall Tyndall of Wilmington, formerly of Georgetown, helped inventory 100 tons
of gold bullion in a German mine placed there by escaping Nazis.
Apr 19, Mrs. Mildred Marando of Delmar was notified by the War Department that her son, Pvt.
Thomas C. Marando, was liberated from a German prison camp.
Apr. 28, A POW camp to house 300 Germans was constructed in Bethany Beach.
Apr. 30, Sgt. Philip Alden Beaman of Newark, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, was killed
in Luzon in the Philippines.
May 12, Pfc. Philip Volturo of Wilmington, veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and fierce fighting in
Germany, drowned accidentally two days after the war ended.
May 28, Chief Water Tender Richard Edward Prendergast of Camden, recipient of the Distinguished
Service Medal and Purple Heart, was killed off Okinawa during a kamikaze attack.
Aug 14, Delawareans celebrated the end of World War II and victory over Japan.
Oct. 28, The Eighth and final War Loan Drive was held in Delaware with the appearance of the Victory
Train featuring Nazi leader Hermann Goering's $300,000 jewel-encrusted baton.
Nov. 20, Pvt. Leo Shepherd of Wilmington pulled guard duty at the Nurenberg Trials and managed to
get autographs of 18 of the 21 Nazi officials.
Nov. 23, The rationing of meats, canned fish, and butter, banned for so long on the home front during
World War II, was ended.
28 November, German prisoners totaling 1,750 left Delaware for Boston with another 2,000 to follow.
Dec 5, Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island and Fort Saulsbury east of Milford were decommissioned and
returned to the state.
Dec. 20, The War Manpower Commission removed POWs from a Millsboro chicken processing plant at
the request of organized labor.
1946
May 4, 270 German prisoners, the last of 4,300 held in the state during WW II, left Fort du Pont in
Delaware City for Fort Dix, NJ. for their journey home.
May 26, American Gold Star Mothers placed a monument at Governor Printz and Philadelphia Pike in
memory of their fallen sons of World War II.
Aug. 3, With World War II ended, the New Castle Army Air Base came to an official end when the US
Government returned it to New Castle County.
Sept.6, Delaware Air National Guard holds its first muster at the Wilmington Armory
Sep 26, The Federal Government transferred Fort duPont in Delaware City back to the State of
Delaware.
1947
Jun 11, The last rationing item for the war effort, that of sugar, was discontinued.
Nov. 29, The Federal Government returned New Castle County Airport to the state as passenger,
express and freight service reopened.
1949
Jan 14, Spurred on by rampant vandalism on Pea Patch Island, a group of 20 people met in the Hotel
Du Pont and organized the Fort Delaware Society.
Feb. 25, Delaware accepted the boxcar 40 et 8 from France for our help during WWII. It's on exhibit in
Seaford.
Nov. 22, A portrait of Lt. Gen. Eugene Reybold of Delaware City, Chief of US Army Engineers, was
hung in Legislative Hall, Dover.
1950
The 336th Fighter Interceptor Squadron “Rocketeers” was posted to the recently re-named Dover Air
Force base for a brief period on August 13, 1950. Assigned to the 4th Fighter Group, they trained at
Dover until November when they were deployed to air combat in Korea flying F-86A Sabrejets.
On 8 September 1950, the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, equipped with the F-86A Sabre was reassigned
to New Castle, giving the airfield an air-superiority mission. The 4th FIW was deployed to Japan on 10
November 1950, with a mission to counter the MiG threat in the skies of Korea.
1951
February 1, The 142nd Fighter Squadron (J), Special Order No. 1 activated the Delaware Air National
Guard for federal service to serve for 21 months during the Korean War.
In July 1951, Newark Delaware native John Wilson "Iron Mike" O'Daniel went to Korea to command
1st Corps, 8th Army for his last combat assignment.
Delaware Air National Guard pilot 1st Lt Walter C. Stewart of Glenmore Pennsylvania was killed in
action in Korea on 23 April 1951 while attempting a low altitude ejection on returning to base for
emergency landing after an explosion in his F-84E Thunderjet.
Delaware Air Guard pilot 1st Lieutenant Charles D. Hogue of Philadelphia was listed as missing in
action in Korea, on 13 December 1951 twenty miles northeast of Sinanju.
1952
Jul 1, Chrysler's first production M48 rolled out of the Delaware Tank Plant in Newark and was
christened by Mrs George S Patton Jr.
Jul 20, Captain Irvin M. Tindall, a graduate of Laurel High School in 1949, was listed as missing in
action over Korea while flying his F 84 Thunderbolt jet fighter.
In November, 1952 the 46th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 4709th Air Defense Wing relieved the
demobilized Pennsylvania Air Guard 148th FIS, in the interceptor role at Dover AFB, also flying F-94
“Starfires”.
Nov. 22, A C-124 Globemaster disappeared 150 miles southeast of Anchorage, Alaska. One of its
passengers was Lt. Col. Eugene Smith, WW II veteran from Wilmington.
1953
Jul 27, The Korean War ended with Delaware having sent 12,000 men and women into that "forgotten
war". Forty-three Delawareans were killed and 185 wounded.
Sept 21, No Kum-Sok (later Kenneth Rowe) a lieutenant in the North Korean Air Force during the
Korean War defected to South Korea. He flew his MiG-15 to the Kimpo Air Base in South Korea,
claiming that he wanted to get away from the "red deceit.
1954
May 25, An Air Force C-45 crashed into the Newark Lumber Yard along Main Street. As the two pilots
parachuted to safety, the plane barely missed about 4 service stations in the area before crashing.
June 8, President Dwight Eisenhower landed at Dover Air Force Base to make a speech at Washington
College in Chestertown, Md.
1956
Jul 18, No Kumn Sok, a North Korean pilot who defected to the West with a Russian MIG jet fighter 3
years before, worked as a beach boy in Rehoboth having finished his first year at the U. of Del. For
such a feat, Sok, later known as Kenneth Rowe, received a check for $100,000 from the US Government.
Oct. 23, Giuseppe Bellanca sold his aircraft company located near New Castle to Piasecki Helicopters
(later VERTOL) of Morton, PA.
1957
Apr. 30 The first cars rolled off the assembly line at Newark's Chrysler Plant. Previously, the plant had
made military tanks.
Sep. 5, John and Mary Biggs closed their airfield near New Castle. Dating from 1922, it later became the
site of the Penn Acres development.
1958
Aug. 28 Mrs. J. Caleb Boggs, wife of Governor Boggs, christened a new C-133 cargo plane at the
Dover Air Force Base. Named "State of Delaware", the plane was one of the most advanced cargo
planes in the world.
1959
Mar. 19, Two F-94 jets collided 35,000 feet above Dover as the Pennsylvania Air National Guard pilots
parachuted to safety. The flash at 8:15 P.M. was seen as far away as Wilmington and Lancaster,
Pennsylvania.
1963
Oct. 3, Captain James Harold Johnson, Jr. of Milford, 31, became the first Delaware casualty in the
Vietnam conflict, a war in which some 27,000 Delawareans served and from which 122 did not return
home.
1964
Oct. 31, Captain Theodore C. Freeman of Lewes, Delaware's only astronaut, died in a plane crash in
Houston, Texas.
1965
Mar 25, A Dover based C-124 airplane crashed near Cordova, MD killing all 6 crewmen.
May 24, Gen. Thomas Holcomb, 17th commandant of the US Marine Corps (1936-1944), died in New
Castle.
20 Aug. The Dravo Corporation in Wilmington announced it would close its shipbuilding yard
putting the last 80 employees out of work.
1967
Jul 28, After racial strife broke out in Wilmington, a curfew was initiated.
1968
Mar. 13, Installed just weeks before the racial riots occurred after the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King, the Most Rev. Thomas J. Mardaga, DD, was named Catholic Bishop of Wilmington. By
the following Christmas he joined with Protestant leaders calling for the removal of National Guard
troops from the streets of Wilmington.
June 18, Marine PFC Elmer L. Faulkner, Jr, 19, of Greenwood was killed in action in Quang Tn,
Vietnam.
Sep 15, A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) Building on the
U/D campus.
1969
Jan. 21, Governor Russell Peterson, according to his campaign promises, withdrew the National
Guard from the streets of Wilmington.
1971
Jan 14, Navy Lt. Comdr. James J,Connell, Jr, of Wilmington died while being held captive by North
Vietnamese since 1966.
Nov. 28, Lt. Gen. John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel, World War II hero, returned to Newark to help settle
the estate of his aunt Miss Etta J. Wilson.
1977
Apr. 10, The Dover Air Force Base Mortuary processed the remains of 326 people killed in the world's
worst aviation accident of two jumbo jets in the Canary Islands.
1983
Oct 23, Michael Hastings of Seaford, 21, was one of 241 US Marines killed in Beirut, Lebanon during a
terrorist attack.
1985
May 14, A 7 by 10 foot, 353 lb. landing gear fell harmlessly from an Air Force C-5A Galaxy airplane
from 6,000 feet in a field 1 1/2 miles northwest of Smyrna.
1989
Oct 15, The Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery was dedicated at Summit on the north side of the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
1991
May 31, The Delaware Air National Guard returned from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf War.
Jun 11, A Delaware based Boeing V-22 Osprey helicopter was heavily damaged when it spun out of
control at the New Castle County Airport slightly injuring two crewmen.
Sep 8, Maynard H. Mires, Sr, 97, the last surviving member of the John Philip Sousa band, died in
Lewes.
1992
Dec. 15, The remnants of a crashed WW II P-47 airplane in Bombay Hook in 1944 were recovered and
placed on display at the Air Mobility Command Museum on Dover Air Force Base.
1999
Apr. 16, Live ordinance, a 40 mm artillery shell, was found at South Bethany, the result of sand
replenishment from offshore.
Oct. 15, A downstate Veterans' Cemetery was dedicated near Millsboro.
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