Choose one:  Virginia's Coastal Defense | Art Mack Story

Virginia's Atlantic coast extends for hundreds of miles and includes dozens of barrier islands, as well as the opening to the Chesapeake Bay. All of it needed protection in the war. The most likely threat to Virginia's coast and its shipping were German U-Boats. In early 1942 German U-Boats crept along the Virginia coast and targeted Allied ships. Civilians patrolled beaches and manned watch towers to spot U-Boats. They watched the skies for German aircraft and worked to achieve total blackouts in the major cities. Blackouts made Allied ships more difficult for German U-Boats to find-without shore lights on the horizon to silhouette them. This exhibit features the many elements of coastal defense in World War II Virginia.

Coast Guardsman on horseback on beach		German U-boat prisoners march down street as Navy Bluejackets look on

SPARS poster: "Your duty ashore...his afloat"		Coast Guardsman on beach using binoculars

A civilian defense poster warns for Americans to be prepared for blackouts		Aircraft spotter tower--dedication at Emporia, Va.

Sub nets at Willoughby Spit		Aerial view of Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Newport News...Headquarters, Administrative area, Chesapeake and Ohio railroad yards, and Pier Area w/ ten ships loading

German U-boat being attcked by Allied aircraft off Atlantic coast		Sinking merchant marine ship

Navy "Helldiver" planes fly over False Cape, Va. with Creeds Air Field in top right corner		Coast Guardsman on watch in lookout structure on beach

Coast Guardsman with dog		Men in 246th coastal artillery at Fort Story

A young boy does his part to defend the homefront by pulling down a blackout shade		Burying dead German U-Boat casualties, Hampton

Virginia National Guard manning anti-aircraft gun		Poster: Volunteer Now--Ground Observer Corps

Coast Guardsman on horseback on beach

 

Arthur W. Mack was born in New York in 1920. He enlisted in the National Guard, and was taken into federal service in the Army in 1941 and was sent to Norfolk. He met a civilian Army typist from North Carolina named Tess and courted her while they were both stationed in Norfolk. They married on June 20, 1942. In 1942 he applied at Langley to be taken into pilot training, and was accepted. Mack ended up as a captain of a B-17 (with a crew of ten) in the 306th Bomber Group, and flew 25 missions from England over Germany. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944 for safely bringing a heavily damaged B-17 back from a bombing run over Germany. Mack's heroic safe return was widely covered in the newspapers. This exhibit features the personal collection of Art Mack's photographs from the war.

Art and Tess Mack on front porch		Art and Tess Mack in 1998, at pilot grad class of 4/43 reunion

Art Mack in Four Leaf Clover, just back from Berlin, May 8, 1944		Portrait of Tess Mack sent to parents, 1943

Art Mack in aviation cadet uniform		7 sheets of bombing mission lists

V-Mail from Art Mack to Tess Mack		The Mack brothers, Art on right

"The New York Times" headline: "3 Reich Plane Plants Wrecked, 64 U.S. Craft Lost in Air Attack; Russians Open Gap in New Push"		Group shot of plane crew

Crew on Berlin Raid 3/9/44 in Four Leaf Clover		Aerial shot of bombs dropping

Bombardier aiming, side view		Art Mack posing with mother and father at Camp Smith, 1936

To view the entire collection of Art Mack images, click here.