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The Birdmen of Cape Cod
July 20, 2021 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Join the Atwood Museum on July 20th to hear about the true story from Cape Cod’s history that inspired and influenced Paul Kemprecos’ new novel Killing Icarus. Make your reservations today for this virtual lecture!
On July 21, 1918, a German U-boat surfaced off Nauset Beach in Orleans and fired on a tugboat and the four barges it was towing. Some crew were injured, the tug was set ablaze and the barges sunk, despite the efforts of a plane from the Chatham naval air base to defend them, and a few shells hit the mainland. Little more than ten years later the Germans were back for a second, more benign invasion, when a team of three German glider experts, led by ace pilot Peter Hesselbach, launched historic glider flights from Highland golf links and Corn Hill in Truro.
In the aftermath of the flights a German-American glider school was established high on a South Wellfleet bluff overlooking the Atlantic. The school closed a year later, a victim of the stock market crash, and its buildings were used for a cottage colony.
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