~ OV Tour MAIL ~
Pete Payette wrote:
Fri 4/18/03 3:14 PM     From: naforts@yahoo.com and www.usaforts.com
Subject: Seacoast Forts

What do you know about a WWII aircraft observation post on Willoughby Spit, about 1941 to 1943-44?
Pete's Bullboard Post (4th entry down)

"I've attached a map..." Pete begins. His post on our BullBoard relates all he learned in days to come. His vintage maps date back to 1915!
Other "today" images we created for clarification.
Click on the thumbnail images for larger views.

In a subsequent e-mail Pete wrote us: "...It looks like the Willoughby Reservation may have been a block or two west of the Nansemond Hotel site. From your overhead photo you supplied, is that a park or open land where 168 joins West Ocean View Ave? Maybe that was the spot? I also think that my VA Beach expert may soon have the location pinned down for the WWII searchlight tract on East Ocean View Ave. He is Lt. Col. Fielding Tyler (USA Ret.), director of the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Museum."

RK'd replied to Pete: I recently came across an OV volunteer's lookout tower used during WWII,
[ thumbnail/enlarge, at right]-- also,
"...There is not much evidence of the Sunken Sub, even at low tide these days-- our area is more concerned with property values I think, than history. Go to the top of Tour One." and added--
According to Dudley Cooper (once owner of the the OV Amusement Park):

'The war years... men were going overseas directly from the Amphibious Installation here. Incidentally, the amphibious warfare (exercises) originated nearby along Shore Drive which is now the present Amphibious Base. The strategy for the operation of the amphibious warfare was developed about three hundred yards west of our park at the Nansemond Hotel, which was given over to the naval service at that time. So, all the strategy for the amphibious warfare was planned there. The Navy wanted the men to have recreation before they went overseas for the morale. I think we succeeded in doing that.'

Further according to the Norfolk Public Library: 'In 1942 the Nansemond was taken over by the federal government and became headquarters to the Amphibious Training Command, Atlantic Fleet. Troops stationed there conducted embarkation and landing exercises day and night on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and more than 40 successful assaults on enemy beaches were planned and practiced there, including Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. The Nansemond returned to civilian life in July 1945. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1980.'"

How close was the Nansemond [236 WOV]? We guessed the Nansemond due to its size may have been involved. WRONG! But we were getting warmer-- click to enlarge Pete's historic map (with our inset)  below/left for details.
      
(Again, writing to Pete) At the foot of Mason Creek Rd is 276 WOV and to it's immediate left, is the property (Sarah Constant Beach Shrine since 1932). Incidentally, we cheer the current owner (who rents it out, as an apartment house) for not bending to local developers and politicians, to sell the property. A Singleton family uncle owned it, and it was sold to an in-law. Immediately right, was the old Nansemond site-- The C.A. Bakers were original owners of the Nansemond, then John Gee; I went to Ocean Air Elementary with Mr. Gee's son, also named John, to whom the Nansemond was bequeathed. Except for the 276 WOV property, the old 'Tourist Camp' (Sarah Constant Shrine) & hotel properties adjoined one another. --RK

Just feet from the Route 60 signs, on your left, is the first plaque (click to enlarge) for the Shrine which reads:

"Landing of Wool and Surrender of Norfolk" --Near here Major-General John E. Wool, on May 10, 1862, landed with 6000 troops. President Lincoln, Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, and Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, watched the movement from a ship in Hampton Roads. As the confederate troops had withdrawn, Wool marched to Norfolk, which was surrendered to him by Mayor W.W. Lamb, that afternoon. [See Tour 13 for more details].

Just a few yards [west] from there is a second plaque which reads:

"Operation Torch, 1942" --The first major amphibious action of World War II was planned near here in the Nansemond Hotel, Hdq. of Amphibious Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet. An Army-Navy staff under Adm. H.K. Hewitt met with Gen. G.S. Patton to plan the movement of Task Force "A" from Hampton Roads to North Africa. [See Tour 2 for more].

 

A few more yards [west], the third plaque:

"Susan Constant Shrine" --This shrine commemorates the Susan Constant, the flagship of the fleet that first carried English settlers to Virginia in 1607. The Susan Constant, a 120-ton vessel was built in 1605 and made one voyage to Spain before the Virginia Company of London chartered it. Captained by Christopher Newport, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and Discovery sailed from London on 20 Dec. 1606 and arrived nearby off the Virginia Capes on 26 Apr. 1607. The colonists erected a cross claiming the land for England, explored the James River as a suitable settlement site, and planted the first permanent English colony at Jamestown on 14 May 1607.

By our joint efforts, we can pinpoint where the Willoughby searchlight tower was; I talked with (my Willoughby expert) Bobby Lebby of the Willoughby Inn)... It is actually marked. The bricks around the "Landing of Wool" plaque (above) marked where the searchlight was according to Bobby, who reminds during WWII, they had blackouts. He remembers it well. Another searchlight was at City Beach (which we called A&P Beach naturally, due to a familiar store at the west end of it. The searchlight on that (City) beach was at it's east end... Bobby added, what is now called Monkey Bottom Park at the corner of Tidewater and Mason Creek going all the way to Ocean View Avenue (where we photographed 276 WOV) were dunes, known as the OV Sandhills, which went all the way to where most of us think of as Monkey Bottom behind Ocean View Elementary, going toward 3rd View. These sandhills were "severed" with the construction of Tidewater Drive; and were actually a site for Army Barracks during WW II. Bobby continued saying, between 7th & 10th Stops in Willoughby --they had installed Submarine Nets to trap enemy subs, which is why on Tour One we repeat the legend: "... It is said it was an enemy sub that made it through the nets during World War II."  Pete received different info, but we can still see remnants of the sub at very low tide.

Visit our Aerial Views of Willoughby, identifying areas related to this page.

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