It was 79 years ago when another menace galvanized the nation and called everyone to task to fight it. The twin threats from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan changed the way Americans lived and cast a frightening pall over the country.
In Lynn and other communities, soldiers drilled, women went to work to build the Arsenal of Democracy, and military emplacements sprouted up in neighborhoods.
The Pearl Harbor attack’s first anniversary was still months away when an aircraft warning observation tower was built in the Highlands. Seen through history’s lens, the notion of German bombers lumbering over Lynn in an imitation of the London Blitz seems far-fetched today, but it was a deadly-serious concern in 1942.
Built by the city, the tower was a new and improved way to help civilian warning spotters, who had been at work for months keeping eyes on the sky on alert for enemy threats.
Arthur Coleman, Essex County aircraft warning director, said the spotters “in the eyes of the military are unsung heroes of this war.”
The spotters included men and women American Legion members and auxiliary organization members as well as other adult volunteers and high school students.
Imagine attending high school, playing sports, hanging out with friends and then finding yourself assigned to provide early warning in case an air attack is launched on your hometown.
Item reporter Wilde Mellencamp trekked up to the tower on a February, 1943 day when the thermometer read 14 degrees below zero and Lynn women logged four-hour shifts watching the snow-clotted sky.
Any aircraft spotted on the horizon from East Boston to Swampscott necessitated a call to the Army with the spotters reporting the sighting in clipped military jargon.
“Army flash,” the spotter told the Army operator.
“Army. Go ahead, please,” replied the operator.
“One…bi…high…seen…Jenny-seven…three…west…northwest,” the spotter reported as she watched a twin-engine plane cross the horizon.
The spotters worked in a cramped room with a compass table and clock. A chart showing aircraft silhouettes hung on a wall and a water cooler stood in one corner.
Mellencamp’s report chronicled the shift filled by three women who boiled tea on a stove to warm themselves while they scanned the horizon and wind howled around the tower.
“These three are examples of the 75 Lynn women who drop their housework for two or four or 20 hours a week to guard what the Army calls ‘the first line of defense,'” wrote Mellencamp.
German attacks on coastal shipping triggered blackout and light-dimming regulations, as well as planning to “control the conduct of enemy aliens as well as all other persons.” The Daily Evening Item reported how the Army “ordered a complete blackout of the entire coastline” on April 26, 1942.
Street lights along Lynn Shore Drive and the Lynnway were extinguished. Cars were barred from the Drive but Lynnway drivers could use their headlights.
The same Army order included this comment from Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, Eastern defense area commander: “Such evacuations as may be necessary will be by selective processes applicable to enemy aliens, or to other persons deemed dangerous to remain at large within the area or within its zones.”
Spotty local adherence to the “dimout” rules led to a May 1942 crackdown on lighting: All windows facing the ocean must be dark; oceanfront street lights were dimmed; all business signs were ordered darkened. Police and air raid wardens were on alert across Lynn and neighboring coastal communities to enforce the dimout.
By 1943, the U.S. Coast Guard began issuing identification cards for anyone living along the coast or going for a walk along the beach. Applicants were required to provide basic personal information, including “status of citizenship.” Confusion accompanied the identification requirement with a Coast Guard spokesman calling it voluntary but also adding: “It’s quite reasonable to expect that people without identification cards may not be permitted to walk along the beach boulevards after dark.”
Dimout rules began to ease by January 1944. The war was far from over and Americans had months more to live on a war footing with rationing, savings bonds, and casualty lists the “new normal” until victory in Europe and over Japan were assured.