Carteret Co. states its case as ‘WW II Heritage Community’

Continuing to build our case for Carteret County, N.C., to be designated as a “World War II Heritage Community,” the yet-to-be-written formal resolution should address these noteworthy deeds:

Whereas No. 3: Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue on the southern shore of Bogue Sound, in the community of Bogue, opened in 1942 as a training site for pilots from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point at Havelock in nearby Craven County.

Facilities were also constructed to support two squadrons with a combined total of 45 aircraft and accommodations for 1,050 personnel.

 

During World War II, Bogue Field was used almost exclusively for dive-bomber squadron training. Dive-bombing circle targets were constructed on nearby islands in Bogue Sound, and vertical targets were built for low-level bombing practice.

Whereas No. 4: The woman who was reverently known as the “Queen of Bogue Banks” – Alice Green Hoffman – was suspected of being a German spy during World War II. (She is shown below.) The intrigue was compounded because Hoffman’s niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, was married to President Theodore Roosevelt’s eldest son.

Alice Green was a wealthy socialite who shuttled between New York City and Paris, France, dabbling in real estate development. She married New Yorker John Ellis Hoffman in 1905. Their marriage dissolved in 1910, but she retained the Hoffman surname, giving rise to speculation during World War II that she had “German connections.”

 

“Before the outbreak of World War II, Alice Green Hoffman had lost or disposed of all her real estate interests in New York City and Paris,” commented Walt Zaenker, a Pine Knoll Shores historian. By 1941, at age 79, she chose to reside permanently at her “Shore House” on Bogue Banks, satisfied to maintain a reclusive lifestyle.

 

Rumors began circulating that Alice was a spy, radioing freighter locations to German U-boats and allowing German mini-submarines to resupply at her dock. The FBI and U.S. Army were tracking her activities, Zaenker said.

“All rumors proved to be untrue, baseless and lacking in any link to reality. The truth was just the opposite,” he wrote.

Gabrielle Brard, who was Alice’s housekeeper, was later interviewed in 1973 by a reporter from the Carteret County News-Times. Brard said: “During the war, Mrs. Hoffman’s house was the scene of frequent parties for the American soldiers stationed in the area. Beside the parties, soldiers were welcomed as overnight guests and at mealtimes.”

“During this time, war rationing was in effect. Local fishermen would bring in the catch; the soldiers would help prepare the meal, and ‘we shared what we had with them.’”

Whereas No. 5: The Down East section of Carteret County was also well-fortified and heavily involved in the World War II effort.

Cape Lookout Bight was designated in 1942 as a “safe harbor” for the anchorage of convoys of Navy warships and merchant marine vessels that were traveling between Charleston, S.C., and the Chesapeake Bay.

The anchor marks the entrance to Cape Lookout Bight in the cradle of  “the hook.”

Nets were placed across the entrance to the bight “to keep the U-boats from slipping in at night to torpedo the anchored ships.”

Near the entrance to Cape Lookout Bight, a small Army base was set up onshore to provide additional protection.

Carteret County historian Chuck Lewis said that “concrete ammunition storage rooms and gun emplacements were built. But, when it came time to install the guns, the Army could not move the guns from the barges to the gun placements.”

The guns were so heavy, they kept sinking into the sand. Caterpillar tractors and bulldozers failed to move the guns. “The Army men sweated, cursed and swore,” Lewis wrote.