History

Maj.-Gen. Milton A. Reckord

Commanding General, Third Corps Area, U.S. Army

Commanding General of the U.S. Army's Third Corps Area, who in the first days of May 1942 issued the dim-out order that reached Ocean City — street lighting curtailed in eight Worcester County towns, down-beam headlights only on and east of U.S. 113, and nothing but parking lights on any vehicle approaching Ocean City or Fenwick Island. The order's stated purpose was 'to avoid silhouetting of ships at sea'.

In the record (1)

  1. 1942 · 1942-05-08

    The Army dimmed out the Maryland coast in May 1942 to stop U-boats silhouetting ships against it — and inside Ocean City and Fenwick Island a car could show nothing but its parking lights.

    This is the order the campaign has been missing. On 8 May 1942 the Worcester Democrat printed it under the headline 'Eight Towns In Co. Fast Blacking Out'. 'All sections of Worcester County are complying fully with the dim-out orders issued last week by Major-General Milton A. Reckord, Third Corps Area Commander, as a precautionary measure to avoid silhouetting of ships at sea.' The eight towns, 'as far as street lighting is concerned', were Bishopville, Showell, Berlin, Ocean City, Newark, Snow Hill, Girdletree and Stockton. The chain of command is in the paper too: 'In Worcester County the official Army dim-out order is being carried out through Chief Air Raid Warden John I. Timmons, of Worcester County, and his staff of Senior Air Raid Wardens in county towns, with the cooperation of Home Defense Corps units at Pocomoke City, Ocean City, Berlin and Snow Hill. Chief Air Raid Warden Timmons receives his orders from Colonel Barrett, the State ARP Director.' And here is the rule that made the war visible from a car window: 'all motorists traveling along U. S. Highway No. 113 or east of said state road, must show only down beam headlights on all vehicles. And upon approaching the coastal area of Ocean City or Fenwick Island (Maryland Beach), all lights on vehicles must be limited to parking lights only.' Every car owner registering for gasoline rationing on 12, 13 and 14 May was to be handed a copy of the regulations. The preamble of the Army's proclamation says why: 'the seriousness of the situation along our Eastern Seaboard requires strict regulation and control of all lighting which may in any way assist the enemy, either in disclosing locations along the coast or creating silhouettes which might prove detrimental to shipping'. The Atwater had been shelled and sunk on Winter Quarter Shoal five weeks earlier. This is what a town does after that. One correction the same pass supplies: this was not the beginning. The Salisbury Times of 4 April 1942 records that a 'dim-out' had been 'adopted by Ocean City last week' - the last days of March - so the resort had dimmed itself more than a month before the Army dimmed the county, and before its own council passed a blackout ordinance on 2 May. — 1943 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The regime this fact describes now has a terminus. Army dim-out regulations at Ocean City were still in force and expressly UNCHANGED on 30 April 1943 ('Army regulations for the dimout at the resort remain the same as last year' — Salisbury Times, 30 April 1943, p5), and the Army-proclaimed coastal dim-out came to an official end on the night of Monday 1 November 1943 across Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties (Salisbury Times, 2 November 1943, p1). The 1942 order therefore ran roughly eighteen months. Col. Henry S. Barrett — already a personRef on the 1942 fact — is the source at both ends, which is a pleasing confirmation that the campaign has the right man on the right chain of command.

    Ocean City Home Defense CouncilWorcester County Council of DefenseJohn I. TimmonsCol. Henry S. Barrett

    Source · checked 2026-08-11