Ocracoke Beach Jumpers have niche in World War II history

U.S. Navy “Beach Jumpers” were trained at “Loop Shack Hill” on Ocracoke Island in Hyde County, N.C., beginning in December 1943, for duty in World War II. 

These were specialized units of sailors that employed deception tactics to support amphibious landings.

Historians say: “Beach Jumpers utilized a combination of sound effects, smoke, radar-reflecting decoys and radio-jamming to simulate large-scale attacks, confusing the enemy and drawing their fire away from the actual landing zones. ”

“While not directly assaulting beaches, Beach Jumpers played a crucial role in creating diversions and softening enemy defenses before the main landings.”

The Beach Jumpers were “experts in psychological warfare,” and their activities were crucial in several military campaigns, particularly in the Mediterranean region.

Stephen Ruiz, a contributor to Military.com, said the Beach Jumper concept originated with Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., an American actor, producer and decorated naval officer of World War II.

Actors Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Crawford were married from 1929-34.

 

“While Fairbanks appeared in about 100 movies – including ‘The Prisoner of Zenda,’ ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘The Corsican Brothers’ – his role in creating the Beach Jumpers was likely the most impactful he ever had,” Ruiz wrote.

Volunteering for duty in World War II, Lt. Fairbanks was assigned as a liaison to British Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations in the United Kingdom.

 

Mountbatten headed commando units where officers learned about explosives, deceptive tactics and the art of misdirection. “Fairbanks was invited to participate and became enthralled,” Ruiz said.

Fairbanks trained with the British warfighters and went on several “harassment raids,” causing him to develop a deep appreciation for the military art of deception.

When he returned to the United States, Fairbanks presented his idea for a unit of men trained to conduct tactical cover, diversionary and deception missions to Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, who gave his consent on March 5, 1943.

 

The Navy promptly advertised that it was seeking 180 officers and 300 enlisted men to “volunteer for prolonged, hazardous duty for a secret project” to be overseen by Adm. H. Kent Hewitt, Commander of Amphibious Forces.

 

One sailor who immediately raised his hand was 18-year-old Charlie Vorndran of Brick Township, N.J. (He was 94 years old when he shared his story in 2018 with journalist Daniel Nee. Vorndran died the following year.)

 

“The ‘project’ for which Vorndran signed up would turn into one of (World War II’s) most immensely complex operations,” Nee reported. “Vorndran’s mission would be to lead about 20 small boats close to the shoreline of enemy territory and utilize a combination of lights, explosions, electronic-jamming equipment and sounds to fool the enemy into believing an invasion was underway. Meanwhile, Allied troops would be conducting a real invasion at another location.”

 

Vorndran underwent “rigorous preparation” at the Amphibious Training Base at Virginia Beach, Va., where Lt. Fairbanks personally trained the American sailors on techniques he had developed in England, Nee said.

“Vorndran was a member of Beach Jumper Unit One, the first of 11 such units to be formed during the war. 

One of the team’s first missions was near Cape San Marco, Italy, where the Beach Jumpers successfully convinced the enemy to stage about 100 miles from the actual landing area of an Allied invasion force. That force was launching ‘Operation Husky,’ where the Allies took Sicily.”

 

“Had it not been for the Beach Jumpers, thousands of casualties could have resulted as American troops would have met an exponentially larger enemy on shore. It was later found out that their efforts diverted an entire German division away from the real landing site,” Nee wrote.

 

In 1945, 20-year-old Radioman 3rd Class Glenn Marshall Cox of Clarksburg, W.Va., was stationed at the Navy’s Amphibious Training Base on Ocracoke Island, operating out of “Loop Shack Hill,” according to his daughter, Cynthia Cox Cleland. 

 

“Dad told me repeatedly that he requested overseas duty but was denied because he had ‘too many brothers already serving.’” Five of seven Cox boys entered the military during World War II.

He had the honor of receiving and transcribing the radio code message announcing the end of WW II to the Amphibious Training Base on Ocracoke Island.