200 Plus
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•April 21, 2016
German Saboteurs Reach U.S. Soil
The last major U-boat attack in New Jersey waters during the first half of 1942 was part of one of the most famous exploits of German submariners. With the declaration of war on the United States in…
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•April 14, 2016
Diary Declassification Helps Fill in Gaps
One of the reasons little has been written about the U-boat attacks off the Jersey Shore in 1942 is the lack of credible sources. As the attacks came closer to shore, the U.S. Navy began increasing…
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•April 7, 2016
U-boat Claims Another Victim
On Monday, May 25, 1942, there were only a few people on the beaches of LBI. Memorial Day weekend was a few days away; it would be the first since the United States had entered World War II.
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•March 31, 2016
News Gets Out Despite Blackout
Following the torpedoing of three Allied ships within sight of New Jersey beaches in mid-March 1942, the Navy finally realized that something had to be done. First, the order was given to dim coastal…
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•March 24, 2016
Were Locals Helping U-boats?
Looking back at the winter of 1942 and the government’s reactions to the nation’s early defeats on the battlefield may give you some insight into today’s events. On the West Coast as Gen. Douglas…
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•March 17, 2016
Blimp’s Eye View of U-boat Action
Today it’s hard to understand just how devastating the first months of World War II were on the American people. They were shocked by the attack on Pearl Harbor followed by a series of humiliating…
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•March 10, 2016
Atlantic City Parties on Despite U-boats
In March 1942, the people of the United States were transitioning from life in a free and open society to one in a nation fighting a total war. Newspapers were filled with stories about the coming of…
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•March 3, 2016
Bright Lights on Coast Endanger Coastal Shipping
While the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is often used as a symbol for the dangers of unpreparedness, a similar case could be made for the U-boat war off the East Coast during the first three months…
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•February 25, 2016
Reality of War Hits Shore Summer
During the first months of World War II, the American people were being told that the German U-boat menace along the East Coast was under control, that there was no need for convoys and the Navy was…
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•February 18, 2016
U-boats Grow Bolder Off NJ Coast
When Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States, in December 1941, the East Coast was as unprepared for the U-boat onslaught that was to come as Pearl Harbor had been for the Japanese air attack.…
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•February 11, 2016
U-Boat Toll Continues to Rise
The four-stacked destroyer Jacob Jones was searching for a German U-boat in the predawn hours of Feb. 28, 1942, off Cape May. Unfortunately, the U-boat struck first, hitting the Jones with two…
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•February 4, 2016
Chaos Follows U-Boat Attack
When the U-587 set sail from France in February 1942 under Capt. Ernst Rehwinkel, it was one of the most technologically advanced weapons afloat. With a range of 8,500 miles and four bow torpedo…
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•January 28, 2016
German U-Boat Claims Second Victim
The U-578, under the command of one of the oldest German captains, 41-year-old Ernst Rehwinkel, left France bound for the northeast coast of the United States as part of Operation Drumbeat on Feb. 2…
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•January 21, 2016
World War II Hits the Jersey Shore
Throughout New Jersey there are monuments and signs marking the many battles fought here and remembering those who fell defending their country. But if you walk its beaches in late winter, there is…
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•December 21, 2015
Get Out Your Cliff Notes
It is tradition for The SandPaper to turn off its lights and computers and take a long winter’s nap at the end of every year. As part of that tradition, the 200 Plus column tries to stump its readers…
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•December 17, 2015
Visit Williamsburg for True Colonial Christmas
Many are aware that our modern idea of the holiday season began with the pen of New Jersey cartoonist Thomas Nast and his depiction of Santa Claus. But the thousands who travel each year to…
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•December 10, 2015
Farrow’s Court-Martial Drags On
In October 1891, Lt. William S. Farrow, a decorated Indian fighter, author and force behind the Barnegat Park retirement community in Ocean County, New Jersey, was facing a court-martial in New York…
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•December 3, 2015
Farrow Goes Before Court Martial
In the late 1880s, Lt. Edward S. Farrow, a well-known Indian fighter and author, had envisioned Barnegat Park as a self-contained resort and retirement community of 4,000 acres nestled in the Jersey…
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•November 25, 2015
Barnegat Park, 1891: The Laborers’ ‘Riot’
January 1891 saw the apparent return of peace and quiet to Barnegat Park, the Army Navy retirement settlement in today’s Berkeley Township. The 60 Italian laborers who had rioted over not being paid…
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•November 12, 2015
Militia Troops Called to Barnegat Park
On Jan. 5, 1891, most of the country learned of the strange happenings in the Pines of New Jersey. The Los Angeles Herald‘s front page story was typical.
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•November 5, 2015
Barnegat Park: Ticking Time Bomb
Barnegat Park was a planned retirement community for military officers located in the Pines north of Forked River. Envisioned by Lt. Edward S. Farrow in the late 1800s, by the end of 1890 the Park…
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•October 29, 2015
Station 119 a Lonely, Intriguing Outpost
Located at the end of Great Bay Boulevard in Tuckerton, the red roof of former Coast Guard Station 119, which today is the Rutgers University Marine Field Station, is recognizable to most residents…
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•October 22, 2015
Barnegat Park Accuser Discredited
Barnegat Park, located in today’s Berkeley Township, was envisioned in 1887 as a retirement development for military officers. A planned community of 300 acres was laid out and 4,000 more set aside…
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•October 15, 2015
Is Barnegat Park Just a Scam?
In 1889, New Jersey Coast and Pines, by Gustav Kobbe, described the new development that was “being developed into a summer and winter settlement under the auspices of several officers of the Army…
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•October 8, 2015
Grand Scheme for Barnegat Park
Local history is filled with failed real estate schemes, whether it’s selling building lots on Tuckers Island or a supersonic jet port in the Pines, to a bridge to nowhere in a Manahawkin marsh but…
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•September 28, 2015
Mogul Case Goes to Trial
The schooner Mogul had sunk off LBI on May 12, 1841, under mysterious circumstances; the captain and four crewmen had been seen abandoning the ship and rowing in the direction of Little Egg Inlet. A…
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•September 24, 2015
Mogul‘s Crew Shares Surprising Story
In May 1841, newspapers across the country ran stories about the return of the Barnegat Pirates when a Gloucester, Mass., fishing boat, Neptune, came upon the sinking schooner Mogul off LBI. When…
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•September 17, 2015
Was This Piracy or Mutiny?
With the illumination of the original 40-foot-tall Barnegat lighthouse in 1835, the number of local shipwrecks decreased, and the stories of the Barnegat Pirates faded from the nation’s newspapers.…
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•September 10, 2015
Clamor Begins for Lighthouse at Barnegat Shoals
As is the case many times, while researching the information for one series you turn up something on another; so it was while looking into the Barnegat Pirates. Their story became linked to a local…
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•September 3, 2015
Plattown Pirates Brought to Justice
In October 1835, dozens of men from the Jersey Shore were brought before a federal judge in Trenton and tried for piracy. These men, known in the press as the “Barnegat Pirates,” were accused of…
