Restored World War II Artillery Fire Control Tower Open to the Public in Cape May, New Jersey

At the mouth of the Delaware Bay, during World War II the military built a number of gun batteries and artillery fire control towers both in New Jersey and in Delaware to attack to spot and attack enemy ships that would try to enter the Delaware River shipping channel. These defenses were very important, due to the potential of German ships to use the Delaware Rive to attack the Philadelphia Navy Ship Yard. The towers couldn't spot submarines, so giant underwater nets were used to trap German U-boats.

Originally there were 15 concrete fire control towers, 11 on the Delaware side and 4 in Cape May County, New Jersey. In New Jersey, 2 have been destroyed, one has been encased in the middle of a hotel, and the final one has just been restored and as of March, 2009 is now open to the public (Fire Control Tower Number 23). The tower bas built in June, 1942 using a sliding tube-shaped form. A ring of reinforced concrete was poured, and when it solidified, the form was slid up so more concrete could be poured. This technique enabled the tower to be constructed in only two and a half days.

In March of 2009, one of the azimuth instruments used in the towers was brought from Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park and installed in the newly restore Lookout Tower in Cape May. The azimuth is a telescope-like instrument that was the principal means of aiming the big guns of the coastal artillery. The azimuth was used to find the location of enemy ships, and then the angles from two azimuths in different towers were plotted. The point at which the two lines crossed marked the location of the object. With azimuth sightings every 30 seconds for a moving ship, they could predict where the ship would be in the next 30 seconds, and guns could then be accurately aimed. then aim a gun to anticipate the ship's location.

The concrete towers helped aim batteries of coastal artillery, stretching from North Wildwood, New Jersey to Bethany Beach, Delaware. Fire Control Tower Number 23 is now a museum and memorial located on Sunset Boulevard near Cape May Point, and is now open daily to the public from noon to 3:00 p.m. Visitors can climb to the observation platform at the top of the tower and see the equipment used to determine firing coordinates for massive guns on both sides of the Delaware Bay. Admission is $6 for adults and $2.50 for children (ages 3-12). The World War II Lookout Tower is owned by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, and is leased to Cape May's Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts. The $1.3 million restoration of the tower, is now complete. Call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278 for more visitor information.