Buzz over to Topsail to learn about ‘Operation Bumblebee’

We don’t have to travel far from Carteret County (N.C.) to begin to discover “the hidden history” of North Carolina – 50 “fascinating tidbits” that light up the editors of Our State magazine.

One of those little-known pearls that was featured in Our State’s April 2024 issue is “Operation Bumblebee.” That was the code name assigned to the U.S. Navy’s secret guided missile testing program that operated on Topsail Island after World War II from 1946-48.

Topsail Island is about a 70-mile drive from Morehead City (around Jacksonville and down toward Wilmington on U.S. Route 17).

 

To set the stage, Topsail Island was just an uninhabited “spit of sand,” albeit 26 miles long, in the Atlantic Ocean off the mainland from Onslow and Pender counties in late 1940, when the U.S. Army began construction of Camp Davis Army Air Field at Holly Ridge.

At the time, the clock was ticking leading up to the United States’ involvement in World War II. The Camp Davis project – to build a state-of-the-art anti-aircraft artillery training facility – was a major $16.8 million investment.

Troops started arriving in April 1941, and the base was fully operational by June. At its peak, more than 20,000 officers and soldiers were stationed at Camp Davis.

 

The Army took possession of the nearby barren spit (Topsail Island), which was only about five miles away from the camp. A site known as Sears Landing (within present-day Surf City) served as an anti-aircraft firing target point for Camp Davis troops.

Eventually, all Camp Davis operations were transferred to the Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, in September 1944, and the base at Holly Ridge was closed.

In June 1946, the Navy began moving about 500 individuals onto Topsail Island and established U.S. Naval Ordnance Testing Facility to conduct test firings of ramjet-powered missiles. “Operation Bumblebee” was a highly classified effort to develop guided surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to be used to defend U.S. warships at sea.

The project on Topsail Island involved scientists from the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Silver Spring, Md., and the Kellex Corporation, a civilian contractor, based in Jersey City, N.J. It was a unique partnership initiated by the federal government to mobilize scientific resources to address wartime challenges.

Merle Tuve was the director of the APL during “Operation Bumblebee.”

Within months, teams had constructed an assembly building, a launching platform, a control tower, eight 35-foot observation towers to photograph, track and study the flights of the rockets, as well as dormitories, a mess hall and a bombproof shelter. A pontoon bridge was built across the small sounds and channels that are part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

The mission was to develop a jet-powered missile that could destroy an air target up to 20 miles away. The program was named “Operation Bumblebee” on a lark, “since the seemingly impossible aerodynamic challenges that the scientists faced resembled those of a bumblebee in flight,” one historian remarked.

“Although deemed aerodynamically unable to fly, the bumblebee does not know this and flies anyway.” The operation at Topsail Island led to the maturing of supersonic aircraft and shipboard missile design in the mid-20th century.

 

An estimated 200 experimental rockets were assembled and launched over the course of 18 months. The tests provided an impetus to the development of jet aircraft engine technology and insights into rocketry incorporated later in the space program.

 

When the Navy pulled out of Topsail Island, officials took all records but left the structures intact. Fortunately, the assembly building has been preserved as a Topsail Island community events center and museum. We’ll go there next.