The 16 inch gun M1919 (406 mm) was a large

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...

piece installed to defend the United States' major

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

s between 1920 and 1946. It was operated by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Coast Artillery Corps The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artillery ...

. Only a small number were produced and only seven were mounted; in 1922 and 1940 the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

surplussed a number of their own 16-inch/50 guns, which were mated to modified M1919 carriages and filled the need for additional weapons.

History

The first US 16-inch (406 mm) gun, a coastal artillery weapon, started construction in 1895 at

Watervliet Arsenal The Watervliet Arsenal is an arsenal of the United States Army located in Watervliet, New York, on the west bank of the Hudson River. It is the oldest continuously active arsenal in the United States, and today produces much of the artillery fo ...

. It was known as the M1895 and completed in 1902; only one was built. It was mounted on a

disappearing carriage A disappearing gun, a gun mounted on a ''disappearing carriage'', is an obsolete type of artillery which enabled a gun to hide from direct fire and observation. The overwhelming majority of carriage designs enabled the gun to rotate bac ...

Fort Grant Fort Amador ( es, Fuerte Amador) and Fort Grant were former United States Army bases built to protect the Pacific (southern) end of the Panama Canal at Panama Bay. Amador was the primary on-land site, lying below the Bridge of the Americas. Grant ...

on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal Zone in 1914, where it served until scrapped in 1943. The weapon's muzzle section was displayed at the Watervliet Arsenal museum, which closed in 2013. Mark III 16 inch coastal defense gun2

The second 16-inch (406 mm) gun was the

50 caliber Model 1919 (M1919). The first of these was deployed to

Fort Michie Fort Michie was a United States Army coastal defense site on Great Gull Island, New York. Along with Fort H. G. Wright, Fort Terry, and Camp Hero, it defended the eastern entrance to Long Island Sound as part of the Harbor Defenses of Long ...

Great Gull Island Great Gull Island is a island separating the Long Island and Block Island sounds, located approximately southwest of Little Gull Island. Both islands are located in the town of Southold in Suffolk County, New York, and lie roughly midway be ...

, New York on a unique all-around-fire M1917 disappearing carriage, with elevation increased from 15° to 30°. An additional six of the Army-designed M1919 guns were built and deployed by 1927 in two-gun batteries on

barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...

carriages in the harbor defenses of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

(

Fort Duvall Fort Duvall was a Coast Artillery fort, part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston, in Massachusetts. What was then called Spinnaker Island (Massachusetts), Hog Island in Hull, Massachusetts was acquired by the U.S. government in 1917, and the fort was ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

(

Fort Tilden Fort Tilden, also known as Fort Tilden Historic District, is a former United States Army installation on the coast in the New York City borough of Queens. Fort Tilden now forms part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is administered ...

), and

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

(Fort Weaver). The 16-inch gun M1919 was built using the

wire-wound This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces' ordnance (i.e.: weapons) and also ammunition. The terms may have slightly different meanings in the military of other countries. BD Between decks: applies to a naval gun mounting in ...

method, common in Europe but rare in the United States. Based on the Coast Artillery's experience operating heavy weapons in World War I, especially the French-made 400 mm (15.75 inch) Modèle 1916 railway howitzer, the M1919 barbette carriage was designed with an elevation of 65° to allow plunging fire as enemy ships approached. In 1922, the terms of the

Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...

caused the

to cancel the battleships and the s, surplusing 16-inch/50 caliber Mark II and Mark III barrels. Initially, 20 guns were transferred to the Army, which built a new version of the M1919 mount for the naval guns. With funding lacking until 1940, five batteries of two guns each were built 1924-40 in the harbor defenses of Pearl Harbor, Panama (Pacific side), and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In 1940 a near-fiasco was experienced in designing the ''Iowa''-class battleships, and a new gun, the

16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun The 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 – United States Naval Gun is the main armament of the ''Iowa''-class battleships and was the planned main armament of the cancelled . Description Due to a lack of communication during design, the Bureau of Ordnance ...

, had to be designed for them, as they could not accommodate the Mark 2 and Mark 3 guns. With war on the horizon, the Navy released the approximately 50 remaining guns, and on 27 July 1940 the Army's Harbor Defense Board recommended the construction of 27 16-inch two-gun batteries to protect strategic points along the US coastline, all to be casemated against air attack, as were almost all of the older 16-inch batteries by this time. 16-inch-Casemated

Typical of this plan were the guns placed to protect

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

; two 16-inch guns in Battery Gray, Fort Church,

Little Compton, Rhode Island Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The pop ...

, with two more in Battery Hamilton,

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the wes ...

, Point Judith,

Narragansett, Rhode Island Narragansett is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 14,532 at the 2020 census. However, during the summer months the town's population more than doubles to near 34,000. The town of Narragansett occupie ...

. A second battery of 16-inch guns at Fort Greene, Battery 109, had construction suspended in 1943 and never received guns. These batteries were placed such that they not only protected Narraganset Bay, but interdicted the main channels into

Buzzards Bay Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since ...

and the east end of Long Island Sound. By late 1943, the threat of a naval attack on the United States had diminished, and with two or four 16-inch guns in most harbor defenses, construction and arming of further batteries was suspended. As 16-inch guns and a companion improved 6-inch gun were emplaced, older weapons were scrapped. About 21 16-inch gun batteries were completed 1941-44, but not all of these were armed.Berhow, p. 225 With the war over in 1945, most of the remaining coast defense guns, including the recently emplaced 16-inch weapons, were scrapped by 1948.

Specifications

The gun fired a . projectile to a range of . The estimated cost of the gun and barbette was $520,000 in 1938. The new M1

Gun Data Computer The gun data computer was a series of artillery computers used by the U.S. Army for coastal artillery, field artillery and anti-aircraft artillery applications. In antiaircraft applications they were used in conjunction with a director. Variati ...

was used in directing these guns.

References

* * * * *

General references

* TM 9-2300 Standard Artillery and Fire Control Materiel FEB. 1944 * TM 4-210 Seacoast Artillery Weapons Oct. 1944
FM 4-85, Service of the Piece, 16-inch gun and howitzer
* TM 9-471 * SNL E-10 * SNL E-20 * SNL E-58 * American Coast Artillery Materiel 192

(extensive manufacturing information)

External links

United States War Department TM 9-471 Technical Manual 16-inch Seacoast Gun Matériel Gun Mk II M1 Barbette Carriage M4. November 3, 1942

2009-05-06)

*https://web.archive.org/web/20090428084307/http://www.cdsg.org/press2.htm TM 4-210, Seacoast Artillery Weapons {{DEFAULTSORT:16 50 Caliber M1919 Gun Artillery of the United States World War II artillery of the United States Coastal artillery 400 mm artillery Disappearing guns Military equipment introduced in the 1920s

History

Specifications

See also

References

General references

External links