In June 1942, spies from German U-boats landed here and occupied Dr. William Sanford’s home, which had been built on this site in 1937. The submarines, deployed during WWII as part of Hitler’s Operation Drumbeat, torpedoed tankers and freighters traveling the East Coast shipping lane and carrying vital supplies to the U.S. and England. The Germans sank a total of 397 ships and killed 5,000 people. Twenty-four ships were sunk off the coast of Florida, including 18 between Cape Canaveral and Boca Raton.