A century ago, all telephones were connected by wire coming out of the wall, and calls began with the assistance of a living, breathing operator, who intoned, “Number Please.” As primitive as the telephones of the years before World War II seem today, the phones and the women who operated them were a vital link in the defenses of coastal Delaware.
After World War II began in Europe in 1939, the United States, scarred by its experience in the First World War, was determined to remain neutral. After the fall of France and other successes by the German forces in Europe, American military authorities feared that the conflict would eventually spread across the Atlantic to the United States.
In 1941, radar was in its infancy, and the only way to spot an enemy warplane approaching the Delaware coast was to keep a careful watch on the sky.
Several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States established the Aircraft Warning Service (AWS) composed of a corps of volunteer sky watchers, mostly women, who staffed observation posts near Rehoboth, Midway and other locations.
By 1941, seventy observation posts had been established in Delaware, staffed by 1,400 observers. On Oct. 10, 1941, the Milford Chronicle reported, “In cooperation with the U. S. Army Air Corps, practice exercises of the Aircraft Warning Service will be conducted on the Atlantic Seaboard from October 9 to 16, inclusive, with the exception of Sunday, October 12.”
According to the newspaper, “Immediately upon spotting an airplane watchers at these posts report by telephone to army filter stations located in Philadelphia and Baltimore the type, number and direction of the planes.
“These filter stations in turn report the movement of aircraft to control centers which are being set up in Wilmington, Dover and Georgetown. Immediately upon receiving advice of approaching aircraft these control centers advise fire companies, industries, transportation companies, police and the Red Cross, the medical unit and [radio] station WDEL”
As part of the October 1941 air raid exercise, seven women from Lewes were among the plane spotting observers who staffed an observation post in a pyramidal tent on a farm near Midway.
The Delaware Coast News reported, “The observers will keep watch from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Sunday.” When the sky watchers, wearing a striking royal blue armband embroidered with the golden wings of the AWS, spotted airplanes, the AWS volunteer immediately telephoned the operator, and when the operator came on the line, the observer announced, “Army-Flash.”
Then, the civilian observer began to recite a litany of information about the number and type of airplanes, how high they were flying, and the direction they were flying. The conversation ended within seconds; and within minutes, the information was plotted on a map in Georgetown.
According to the Delaware Coast News, when an air raid on Rehoboth appeared to be imminent, “the Stokely factory whistle will blow two blasts [followed by] three blasts.”
The practice to take Sundays off led to disaster when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, and there were no AWS watchers to warn of the impending attack. From that point on, the AWS operated seven days a week.
During the war, the women AWS spotters and telephone operators were vital parts of the the civil defense network that protected southern Delaware against a surprise enemy attack, and it began with a telephone call that was answered quickly by a live operator who politely asked, “Number please.”
Principal sources
Milford Chronicle, Oct. 10, 1941.
Delaware Coast News, Oct. 10, 1941.
Iva Short Both, Martha Torbert Hudson, and Paulette Bier Shaw, editorial consultant, “Georgetown, From Crossroads to County Seat: A Bicentennial Look”
“At Georgetown, Delaware,” Georgetown Historical Society, 1990, pp. 174-175.
