Battery 223 is in Lower Township,

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on Cape May bound by Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are fiv ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. The harbor defense battery was completed in 1943. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on June 25, 2008.

History

In the years before the entry of the U.S. into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the belief that America's shore defenses were inadequate resulted in the 1940 Modernization of the Coastal Defense program. Battery 223 was part of the effort to address the advances of offensive and defensive technology in the 1930s. Standardized and mass-produced fortifications were built on both the east and west coasts. Battery 223 was one of three 200-series fortifications built for Fort Miles, headquartered in Cape Henlopen, Delaware. Designed to host a 6-inch battery and survive a direct hit from battleships and aircraft, the structure was built with six-foot thick reinforced concrete walls and a thick blast proof roof; the entire building was covered with earth. The 6-inch guns had a nine-mile range. In addition to the three 200-series batteries, Fort Miles also had a 16-inch and a 12-inch battery, both at Cape Henlopen. The 16-inch guns had a range of 26 miles. In all, assets of Fort Miles extended along 200 miles of shoreline, including a network of 20 fire control towers. Battery 223's guns were never fired at an enemy, though there were drills and live fire tests. As the war turned in favor of the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, lessening the need for coastal defense, and continuing advances in warfare technology rendered fixed coastal defenses obsolete, the Modernization of the Coastal Defense program was never completed. Battery 223 was decommissioned in 1944; all army seacoast defense guns had been scrapped by 1948. By 1950, the army had dismantled all of the fixed gun harbor defenses; the buildings were used for other military purposes or were declared surplus. Battery 223 was used for radio communications by the navy at some point after 1958, a concrete pad was poured on the top the building to support a

Quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War I ...

. Battery 223 became part of the Cape May Point State Park in 1962. Today the battery is no longer covered and is in full view.

Architecture

The exterior of the building is a series of windowless blocks of formed concrete. It is roughly T-shaped, the long portion runs east–west parallel to the beach, the stem of the T extends to the north. It contains 20 rooms, including a plotting room, switchboard room, latrine, several shell storage rooms, a chemical warfare service room, and an airlock. The airlock provided protection against chemical attack. Wood pilings support the building; though once buried in sand, they are now exposed by

beach erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...

. Power was provided by three diesel generators with a gallery of exhaust pipes and mufflers, evaporative water coolers were in a separate room. The switchboard room connected the plotting room to the external fire control towers. The plotting room received coordinates from two towers, which were then used to

triangulate In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle me ...

the target and produce gun aiming directions.

References

{{NRHP in Cape May County, New Jersey Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Cape May County, New Jersey Government buildings completed in 1942 Infrastructure completed in 1942 Lower Township, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Cape May County, New Jersey World War II on the National Register of Historic Places New Jersey Register of Historic Places 1942 establishments in New Jersey

History

Architecture

See also

References