![Freiheitsstatue NYC full](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Freiheitsstatue_NYC_full.jpg)
Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until
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 opposing ...
. Before
airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...
s, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to
standing armies or a large
navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
. After the 1940s, it was recognized that fixed
fortification
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...
s were obsolete and ineffective against aircraft and missiles. However, in prior eras foreign fleets were a realistic threat, and substantial fortifications were built at key locations, especially protecting major harbors.
The defenses heavily depended on fortifications but also included
submarine minefields, nets and
booms, ships, and airplanes. Therefore, all of the armed forces participated in seacoast defense, but the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
played the central role in constructing fixed defenses.
Designs evolved and became obsolete with changes in the technology available to both the attacking forces and the defenders. The evolution of the U.S. seacoast defense system is generally identified among several "systems", which are somewhat defined by the styles used, but more so by the events or trends which periodically stimulated new funding and construction. The division of the early forts into the First and Second Systems was made by later historians, and appears officially in an 1851 report by
Chief Engineer
A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "ChEng" or "Chief", is the most senior engine officer of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that department..Chief engineer ...
Joseph Totten
Joseph Gilbert Totten (August 23, 1788 – April 22, 1864) fought in the War of 1812, served as Chief of Engineers and was regent of the Smithsonian Institution and cofounder of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1836, he was elected a member ...
, probably the most prolific builder of masonry forts in American history.
Early defenses
At the beginning of the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, many coastal fortifications already protected the
Atlantic coast. Prior to independence from Britain the colonies bore cost and responsibilities for their own protection. Urgency would wax and wane based on the political climate in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. Most defenses were
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
protected by
earthworks, as protection from
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
raids and foreign incursions. In the American colonies and the United States, coastal forts were generally more heavily constructed than inland forts, and mounted heavier weapons comparable to those on potential attacking ships. Though seldom used, the forts were a deterrent. During the Revolution additional forts were built by both sides, usually to meet specific threats. Those built by
Patriot
A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism.
Patriot may also refer to:
Political and military groups United States
* Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution
* Patriot m ...
forces were called Patriot batteries.
First System
When the United States gained independence in 1783, the seacoast defense fortifications were in poor condition. Concerned by the outbreak of
war in Europe in 1793, the
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
created a combined unit of "
Artillerists and Engineers" to design, build, and garrison forts in 1794, appointed a committee to study coast defense needs, and appropriated money to construct a number of fortifications that would become known as the First System.
Twenty significant forts at thirteen harbors were approved for construction, mostly with traditional low walled structures with low sloped
earthworks protecting wood or brick walls. The conventional wisdom was that soft earth would cushion the effect of cannon fire against the walls, and that low walls presented less exposure to projectiles. Walls were laid out at angles to each other forming a system of
bastions, resembling a
star layout, so that enemy forces could not mass against the bottom of a wall beneath the vertical field of fire from the wall; defenders on any wall could see and fire on the base of the adjacent walls. The angled walls also reduced the chance for more destructive straight-on hits from cannonballs. Most First System forts were relatively small, and with some exceptions mounted only one tier of
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
, on the roof of the fort. Additional "" (located near the waters the forts protected) outside the forts provided more firepower. Four of the First System forts were rebuilds of colonial forts,
Fort Constitution
Fort William and Mary was a colonial fortification in Britain's worldwide system of defenses, defended by soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire who reported directly to the royal governor. The fort, originally known as "The Castle," was situ ...
in Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
Fort Independence in Boston, Massachusetts,
Fort Wolcott
Fort Wolcott was a fortification on the small Goat Island in Newport Harbor of Narragansett Bay less than 1 mile west of the city of Newport, Rhode Island. The attacks on and occurred near the fort.
Fort Anne
An earthen Fort Anne, built on Goat ...
in Newport, Rhode Island, and
Fort Mifflin
Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island (or Deep Water Island) on the Delaware River below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia International A ...
in Philadelphia.
Lacking trained engineers to supervise the work,
Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
Henry Knox
Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the ...
placed a number of European engineers under contract. Although some fine forts were constructed, for the most part enthusiasm and funding waned and little work was completed. Most of the partially finished earthworks and wooden structures deteriorated before they were needed to defend against the British in
1812.
Second System
![Columbiad 10-inch Model 1840 Side View](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Columbiad_10-inch_Model_1840_Side_View.jpg)
In 1802, Congress separated the
artillerists and
engineers
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the ...
into separate corps and directed the Corps of Engineers to create a
military academy
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...
at
West Point, New York
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
. One of the driving forces for establishing the new academy was the need to divorce the United States from its reliance on foreign engineers. In 1807-1808, new concerns over a possible war with Great Britain prompted
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
to renew fortification programs; this has come to be known as the Second System. One event that foreshadowed war was the
''Chesapeake–Leopard'' affair.
One common weakness among the typical low-walled open bastion or
star forts was exposure to enemy fire, especially to new devices designed to explode
in mid air and rain
shrapnel
Shrapnel may refer to:
Military
* Shrapnel shell, explosive artillery munitions, generally for anti-personnel use
* Shrapnel (fragment), a hard loose material
Popular culture
* ''Shrapnel'' (Radical Comics)
* ''Shrapnel'', a game by Adam C ...
down on the gunners. Gun emplacements which were at an angle to the sea were vulnerable to a solid shot running parallel to the wall taking out a row of guns and gunners with one
enfilading
Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in de ...
shot. In the late 1770s, a French engineer, the
Marquis de Montalembert
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...
, advocated a major change in the design of fortresses to address these problems. His design protected a fort's gunners by placing most of them in covered
casemate walls with openings for the guns. By stacking rows of casemates in high walls more guns could be mounted along shorter walls. This was particularly important for seacoast fortifications, which had only a limited time in which to fire at passing enemy ships. To build these tall forts, walls had to be built of
masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...
, but be very thick in order to withstand the pounding of cannon fire. Despite the goal of building multi-tiered forts, only a few of these were completed, notably
Castle Williams in New York Harbor. Most completed Second System forts generally resembled First System forts, with a one-tier star fort supplemented by water batteries.
The Second System was distinguished from the First System by greater use of Montalembert's concepts and the replacement of foreign engineers by American ones, many of them recent graduates of the new
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
superintended by Major
Jonathan Williams, who not only instructed the new engineers in new ideas of coastal defense, but also designed and constructed a prototype,
Castle Williams on
Governors Island
Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...
in New York Harbor.
Again, several fine forts were produced, but generally projects went unfinished, and between the First System and Second System little was prepared to resist the British in the coming
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
. However, no First System or Second System fortress was captured by the British. The British succeeded in entering
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...
by capturing a fort on
Craney Island near Norfolk and bypassing the area's two other forts. The invasion of
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
was prevented by
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack ...
and supporting forts and troops. These included shoreline batteries at Forts Babcock and Covington to the west, Fort Look-Out (or the Six-Gun Battery) on the peninsula to the rear in the west, a temporary naval battery across the Patapsco channel to the east at
Lazaretto Point, and sunken ships blocking the channels on either side of Fort McHenry, along with 20,000 militia dug in on the east side of the town at "Loudenschlager's Hill" (later "Hampstead Hill" in today's
Patterson Park
Patterson Park is an urban park in Southeast Baltimore, Maryland, United States, adjacent to the neighborhoods of Canton, Highlandtown, Patterson Park, and Butchers Hill. It is bordered by East Baltimore Street, Eastern Avenue, South Patte ...
). The intense all-night bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British ships offshore was memorialized by
Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer who witnessed the ferocious attack from one of the vessels, and put down his thoughts watching the barrage—which failed to either destroy the fort or subdue its defenders—in a four-stanza poem, which became known as
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
and later became America's national anthem. In some cases even incomplete forts (some with fake wooden cannon barrels painted black pointed out the embrasures) were sufficient to deter attack from the sea. But, undefended and unfortified,
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, the national capital, was burned after the land militia forces were routed at the
Battle of Bladensburg
The Battle of Bladensburg was a battle of the Chesapeake campaign of the War of 1812, fought on 24 August 1814 at Bladensburg, Maryland, northeast of Washington, D.C.
Called "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms," a British for ...
northeast of the capital in
Prince George's County, Maryland. Washington had one fort, which the British bypassed,
Fort Washington on the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
just below
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C.
In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...
, whose commander ordered the magazine blown when the passing British fleet appeared nearby, after the British had already occupied Washington. The present Fort Washington was built on the site of the destroyed Fort Washington in the early 1820s as part of the Third System. Among the many important and historic documents lost in the British burning of the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
were the plans to the first Fort Washington (begun as Fort Warburton) and other Second System forts.
Third System
In 1816, following the War of 1812, Congress appropriated over $800,000 for an ambitious seacoast defensive system which was known as the Third System. A Board of Engineers for Fortifications, appointed by President
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
, visited potential sites and prepared plans for the new forts. The Board's original 1821 report established the policy which would remain in place for most of the 19th century. The original report suggested 50 sites, but by 1850 the board had identified nearly 200 sites for fortification. The Army built forts at 42 of these sites, with several additional sites containing towers or batteries.
The forts were originally intended to mount mostly 42-pounder (7 inch or 178 mm) seacoast guns; however, due to a shortage of these weapons many 32-pounder (6.4 inch or 163 mm) seacoast guns and 8-inch (203 mm) and 10-inch (254 mm)
Columbiad
The columbiad was a large-caliber, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon able to fire heavy projectiles at both high and low trajectories. This feature enabled the columbiad to fire solid shot or shell to long ranges, making it an excellent seacoas ...
s were mounted instead.
The main defensive works were often large structures, based on combining the
Montalembert concept, with many guns concentrated in tall, thick masonry walls, and the
Vauban concept, with layers of low, protected-masonry walls. Most Third System forts had at least two tiers of cannon; the First and Second System forts often had only one tier. Construction was generally overseen by officers of the
Army's Corps of Engineers. Smaller works guarded less significant harbors. U.S. Army engineer officer
Joseph Totten
Joseph Gilbert Totten (August 23, 1788 – April 22, 1864) fought in the War of 1812, served as Chief of Engineers and was regent of the Smithsonian Institution and cofounder of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1836, he was elected a member ...
and former French engineer officer
Simon Bernard
Baron Simon Bernard (28 April 1779 – 5 November 1839) was a French general of engineers. Born in Dole, Simon Bernard was educated at the École polytechnique, graduating as second in the promotion of 1799 and entered the army in the corps of e ...
(commissioned a
brevet brigadier general in the U.S. Army) designed the larger forts and key features of most of the smaller forts, such as the Totten
casemate, which allowed a good field of fire with a minimal
embrasure
An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...
size.
By the end of the Third System in 1867, 42 forts covered the major harbors along the coastline. While most of the forts were completed, several of the forts—mostly in New England—were still under construction. A few of these forts, such as Fort Preble, Fort Totten, and Fort Constitution, were readied for armament even though they were far from complete.
The Corps of Engineers listed the forts from Northeast to Southwest, then to the Pacific Coast. The same order is used here for the new-construction forts of the Third System:
* Penobscot River, Maine:
Fort Knox;
* Kennebec River, Maine:
Fort Popham;
* Portland Harbor, Maine:
Fort Gorges,
Fort Scammell
House Island is a private island in Portland Harbor in Casco Bay, Maine, United States. It is part of the City of Portland. The island is accessible only by boat. Public access is prohibited, except for an on-request tour sanctioned by the isla ...
,
Fort Preble
Fort Preble was a military fort in South Portland, Maine, United States, built in 1808 and progressively added to through 1906. The fort was active during all major wars from the War of 1812 through World War II. The fort was deactivated in 1950 ...
;
* Kittery Point, Maine:
Fort McClary
Fort McClary is a former defensive fortification of the United States military located along the southern coast at Kittery Point, Maine at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. It was used throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harb ...
;
* Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
Fort Constitution
Fort William and Mary was a colonial fortification in Britain's worldwide system of defenses, defended by soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire who reported directly to the royal governor. The fort, originally known as "The Castle," was situ ...
;
* Boston Harbor, Massachusetts:
Fort Warren,
Fort Independence;
* New Bedford, Massachusetts: Fort at Clark's Point (later
Fort Rodman
Fort Taber District or the Fort at Clark's Point is a historic American Civil War-era military fort on Wharf Road within the former Fort Rodman Military Reservation in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The fort is now part of Fort Taber Park, a 47- ...
);
* Newport, Rhode Island:
Fort Adams
Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island that was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, named for President John Adams who was in office at the time. Its first commander was Capta ...
;
* New London, Connecticut:
Fort Trumbull
Fort Trumbull is a fort near the mouth of the Thames River on Long Island Sound in New London, Connecticut and named for Governor Jonathan Trumbull. The original fort was built in 1777, but the present fortification was built between 1839 and 18 ...
;
* New York City, New York:
Fort Schuyler
Fort Schuyler is a preserved 19th century fortification in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It houses a museum, the Stephen B. Luce Library, and the Marine Transportation Department and Administrative offices of the State University o ...
, Fort at Willets Point (later
Fort Totten),
Fort Tompkins,
Fort Richmond,
Fort Hamilton
Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which i ...
, Fort on Sandy Hook, New Jersey (later
Fort Hancock);
* Pea Patch Island, Delaware:
Fort Delaware
Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility, designed by chief engineer Joseph Gilbert Totten and located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River.Dobbs, Kelli W., et al. During the American Civil War, the Union used Fort Delaware as ...
;
* Baltimore Harbor, Maryland:
Fort Carroll;
* (Washington, D.C.) Maryland:
Fort Washington;
* Norfolk, Virginia:
Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virgi ...
, Fort Calhoun (later
Fort Wool
Fort Wool is a decommissioned island fortification located in the mouth of Hampton Roads, adjacent to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT). Now officially known as Rip Raps Island, the fort has an elevation of 7 feet and sits near Old Point ...
);
* Beaufort, North Carolina:
Fort Macon
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
;
* Wilmington, North Carolina:
Fort Caswell;
* Charleston, South Carolina:
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
;
* Savannah, Georgia:
Fort Pulaski
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
;
* St. Marys River, Florida:
Fort Clinch
Fort Clinch is a 19th-century masonry coastal fortification, built as part of the Third System of seacoast defense conceived by the United States. It is located on a peninsula near the northernmost point of Amelia Island in Nassau County, Florida ...
;
* Key West, Florida:
Fort Taylor
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
;
* Dry Tortugas, Florida:
Fort Jefferson;
* Pensacola Bay, Florida:
Fort Pickens
Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. The fort was completed in 1834 and was one of the few ...
,
Fort Barrancas
Fort Barrancas (1839) or Fort San Carlos de Barrancas (from 1787) is a United States military fort and National Historic Landmark in the former Warrington area of Pensacola, Florida, located physically within Naval Air Station Pensacola, which wa ...
, Advanced Redoubt,
Fort McRee
Fort McRee was a historic military fort constructed by the United States on the eastern tip of Perdido Key to defend Pensacola and its important natural harbor. In the defense of Pensacola Bay, Fort McRee was accompanied by Fort Pickens, located a ...
;
* Mobile Bay, Alabama:
Fort Morgan,
Fort Gaines;
* New Orleans, Louisiana:
Fort Massachusetts,
Fort Pike, Fort Wood (later
Fort Macomb),
Fort Jackson,
Fort St. Philip
Fort St. Philip is a historic masonry fort located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, about upriver from its mouth in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, just opposite Fort Jackson on the other side of the river. It formerly served a ...
,
Fort Livingston;
* San Francisco Bay:
Fort Point,
Fort Alcatraz
Fort Alcatraz was a United States Army coastal fortification on Alcatraz Island near the mouth of San Francisco Bay in California, part of the Third System of fixed fortifications, although very different from most other Third System works. Initi ...
.
In addition, several towers and batteries were constructed in support of the forts or at lesser harbors. First and Second System forts were renovated during the system as well, and readied for the larger cannon prevalent during that period.
Civil War
Again, changes in technology affected design; the higher velocity ordnance of new rifled cannons crushed and penetrated the masonry walls of Third System forts. Severe damage was inflicted to forts on the Atlantic Coast during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. For example,
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
in
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
was bombarded into surrender by
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
batteries in 1861, and reduced to rubble during
Union
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* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
efforts towards its recapture. In 1862
Fort Pulaski
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
was forced to surrender after only 30 hours of bombardment with rifled cannon, primarily large-caliber
Parrott rifle
The Parrott rifle was a type of muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the American Civil War.
Parrott rifle
The gun was invented by Captain Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point graduate. He was an American soldier and inven ...
s.
Many of the larger smoothbore cannon (32-pounder and up) were rifled and equipped with breech bands to support larger powder charges and extend their effective range during the Civil War. This process is referred to as "banded and rifled".
During the Civil War, naval officers learned that their
steamships and
ironclad vessels could run past Confederate-held Third System forts with acceptable losses, such as at
Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The ...
.
The urgencies of war required that new forts or improvements be constructed quickly and at low cost. Partially completed Third System forts were finished, but new construction was mostly wood-revetted earthworks. Frequently earthworks were built near a Third System fort in order to supplement its firepower, but often they were stand-alone fortifications. In some cases, cannon from masonry forts were dispersed to earthen bunkers where they were better protected. The fortification of
San Francisco Bay is a good example, where the typical Third System Fort Point at the mouth of the bay was effectively replaced by dispersed earthworks and low-walled fortifications nearby on
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pri ...
,
Angel Island Angel Island may refer to:
*Angel Island (California), historic site of the United States Immigration Station, Angel Island, and part of Angel Island State Park, in San Francisco Bay, California
* Angel Island, Papua New Guinea
* ''Angel Island'' (n ...
, the
Marin Headlands
The Marin Headlands is a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The entire area is pa ...
, and
Fort Mason
Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California originated as a coastal defense site during the American Civil War. The nucleus of the property was owned by John C. Frémont and disputes over compensation by the United States continued into 1968. In 188 ...
. Following the war, work on masonry forts ended in 1867, leaving several incomplete.
Minefields
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboa ...
used the term "torpedo" to describe an underwater explosive device in 1805. Samuel Colt experimented with electrical firing of the torpedo. During the Civil War, these
underwater mines became an important supplementary defense measure. The
Confederacy, without a large navy to protect its harbors, relied on mines extensively to deter attacks by Union ships.
Electrically fired torpedoes, later termed mines, controlled from mine
casemates ashore were developed during and after the Civil War as part of coastal defenses.
[National Park Service, Torpedo Defense - COAST DEFENSE OF THE POTOMAC]
/ref>
Coast artillery weapons during the Civil War
Numerous types of seacoast artillery were used in the Civil War. Except for the 20-inch Rodmans, of which only three Army weapons were built, the following list includes only widely deployed weapons. See Siege artillery in the American Civil War
Siege artillery is heavy artillery primarily used in military attacks on fortified positions. At the time of the American Civil War, the U.S. Army classified its artillery into three types, depending on the gun's weight and intended use. ''Fie ...
for more information.
* Smoothbore
A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars.
History
Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...
weapons:
* 32-pounder (6.4-inch or 163 mm) and 42-pounder (7-inch or 178 mm) seacoast guns
* 8-inch (203 mm) and 10-inch (254 mm) columbiad
The columbiad was a large-caliber, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon able to fire heavy projectiles at both high and low trajectories. This feature enabled the columbiad to fire solid shot or shell to long ranges, making it an excellent seacoas ...
s
* 8-inch, 10-inch, 15-inch (381 mm) and 20-inch (508 mm) Rodman gun
Drawing comparing Model 1844 8-inch columbiad and Model 1861 10-inch "Rodman" columbiad. The powder chamber on the older columbiad is highlighted by the red box.
The Rodman gun is any of a series of American Civil War–era columbiads designed b ...
s (a type of columbiad)
* Rifled weapons:
* Rifled and sometimes banded variants of smoothbore guns ranging from 24-pounder (5.82-inch) to 10-inch caliber; one Union rifling system was called the James rifle
James rifle is a generic term to describe any artillery gun rifled to the James pattern for use in the American Civil War, as used in some period documentation. Charles T. James developed a rifled projectile and rifling system. Modern author ...
* 6.4-inch (100-pdr), 8-inch (200-pdr), and 10-inch (300-pdr) Parrott rifle
The Parrott rifle was a type of muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the American Civil War.
Parrott rifle
The gun was invented by Captain Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point graduate. He was an American soldier and inven ...
s
* 6.4-inch and 7-inch (178 mm) Brooke rifle
The Brooke rifle was a type of rifled, muzzle-loading naval and coast defense gun designed by John Mercer Brooke, an officer in the Confederate States Navy. They were produced by plants in Richmond, Virginia, and Selma, Alabama, between 1861 and ...
s (Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
made)
Post Civil War to the creation of the Coast Artillery Corps
After the war, construction for several new Third System forts began in New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. These were to be built of stone rather than brick, and designed to accommodate the large-bore cannon developed during the war. However, in 1867 money for masonry fortifications was cut off, and the Third System came to a close.
The vulnerability of masonry to rifled cannon and large-caliber smoothbore cannon and fewer concerns for invasion led to the construction of well-dispersed masonry-revetted earthen fortifications with brick-lined magazines, often located near Third System forts. These were typically armed with 15-inch Rodman gun
Drawing comparing Model 1844 8-inch columbiad and Model 1861 10-inch "Rodman" columbiad. The powder chamber on the older columbiad is highlighted by the red box.
The Rodman gun is any of a series of American Civil War–era columbiads designed b ...
s and 8-inch converted rifles; in some cases, the forts were also rearmed with these weapons. All of the larger Parrott rifles had burst frequently during the war, so few of these were retained in service after the war. Also during the 1870s, a number of new projects were started to include large caliber mortars and submarine mines. However, the facilities for the mortars and mines were never completed, and funding for the new fortifications was cut off by 1878, leaving much of the program unfinished. By the 1880s most of the earthen fortifications were in disrepair.
Monitors for coast defense
Though coastal defense was generally within the purview of the Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
, the Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
became more involved in the late 19th century with coastal defense ships, generally called monitors. These monitors were turreted ironclad warships inspired by ; as well as coastal ships which closely followed her design, the term "monitor" also encompassed more flexible breastwork monitors which had a modest armored superstructure and were thus more seaworthy. These also featured modern rifled breech-loading guns.
Monitor-style ships were used extensively in offensive roles during the Civil War, but were impractical for ocean service and offensive action abroad. They were, however, ideally suited for harbor defense with their shallow draft and large guns. Postwar, Civil War-era monitors were dispersed to important harbors, including 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 ...
on the west coast. From the 1870s to the 1890s, larger and more powerful breastwork monitors were produced, such as the ''Amphitrite'' class, while the ocean-going navy was slow to make the transition to steel hulls and armor plating. An improvement on the monitor concept was the coastal battleship, such as the ''Indiana'' class of the 1890s.
As a result of the Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
and the acquisition of 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 ...
and the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, by 1900 the Navy was committed to ocean-going battleships, and ceased building monitors; however, some of the vessels remained in service up to World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in combat-prepared roles, and as training or auxiliary vessels thereafter.
Coast artillery weapons between the Civil War and Endicott period
The Endicott Program was largely implemented 1895–1905. As Endicott facilities were constructed in each harbor defense area, the previous coastal defenses were usually abandoned. Only widely deployed weapons are listed. The larger Parrott rifles had shown a tendency to burst during the war, so only a few were retained in service after the war, in emplacements that took advantage of their long range.
* 10-inch (254 mm) and 15-inch (381 mm) Rodman smoothbore guns
* 8-inch (203 mm) Rodman converted rifles (converted from 10-inch Rodman guns)
Endicott period
As early as 1882, the need for heavy fixed artillery for seacoast defense was noted in Chester A. Arthur's Second Annual Message to Congress as follows:
Prior efforts at harbor defense construction had ceased in the 1870s. Since that time, the design and construction of heavy ordnance in Europe had advanced rapidly, including the development of superior breech-loading and longer-ranged cannon, making U.S. harbor defenses obsolete. In 1883, the Navy began a new construction program with an emphasis on offensive rather than defensive warships. These factors combined to create a need for improved coastal defense systems.
In 1885, President Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
appointed a joint Army, Navy, and civilian board, headed by Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
William Crowninshield Endicott
William Crowninshield Endicott (November 19, 1826 – May 6, 1900) was an American politician and Secretary of War in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland (1885–1889).
Early life
Endicott was born in Salem, Massachusetts o ...
, known as the Board of Fortifications
Several boards have been appointed by US presidents or Congress to evaluate the US defensive fortifications, primarily coastal defenses near strategically important harbors on the US shores, its territories, and its protectorates.
Endicott Board ...
. The findings of the board illustrated a grim picture of existing defenses in its 1886 report and recommended a massive $127 million construction program of breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the U.S. coastline. Most of the board's recommendations were adopted. This led to a large-scale modernization program of harbor and coastal defenses in the United States, especially the construction of modern reinforced concrete fortifications and the installation of large caliber breech-loading artillery and mortar batteries. Typically, Endicott period projects were not fortresses, but a system of well-dispersed emplacements with a few large guns in each location. The structures were usually open-topped concrete walls protected by sloped earthworks. Many of these featured disappearing gun
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 back ...
s, which sat protected behind the walls, but could be raised to fire. With a few exceptions early in the program, Endicott forts had no significant defenses against a land attack. Controlled mine fields were a critical component of the defense, and smaller guns were also employed to protect the mine fields from minesweeping vessels. An extensive fire control system
A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a h ...
was developed and provided for the forts of each Artillery District. Most of the Endicott fortifications were constructed from 1895 through 1905. As the defenses were constructed, each harbor or river's installations were controlled by Artillery Districts, renamed Coast Defense Command
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
s in 1913 and Harbor Defense Command A Harbor Defense Command was a military organization of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps designated in 1925 from predecessor organizations dating from circa 1895. It consisted of the forts, controlled underwater minefields, and other c ...
s in 1925.[
By the outbreak of the ]Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
in April 1898, the Endicott Program had completed only a few batteries at each harbor. Following the explosion and sinking of on 15 February, an Act of Congress of 9 March 1898 authorized the construction of batteries that could be rapidly armed at numerous East Coast locations. It was feared that the Spanish fleet would bombard US ports. Completion of Endicott batteries and refurbishment or redeployment of 1870s batteries were also included. The 1870s-type batteries were armed with Civil War-era Rodman guns and Parrott rifles, along with some new weapons: 21 8-inch M1888 guns (slated for incomplete Endicott forts) on modified 1870s Rodman gun carriages. New batteries were also begun for eight 6-inch Armstrong guns and 34 4.72-inch Armstrong guns, purchased from the United Kingdom to provide some modern quick-firing medium-caliber guns, as none of the Endicott Program's 6-inch or 3-inch batteries had been completed. Field artillery, primarily 5-inch siege guns and 7-inch siege howitzers, was also deployed, mostly in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. Many of these batteries were not completed until 1899, after the war was over, and the 8-inch guns were withdrawn within a few years as modern emplacements for them were completed.
1901 reorganization
Army leaders realized that heavy fixed artillery required different training programs and tactics than mobile field artillery. Prior to 1901 each of the seven artillery regiments contained both heavy and light artillery batteries. In February 1901, with the Endicott program well under way, the Artillery Corps was divided into two types: field artillery and coast artillery. The previous seven artillery regiments were dissolved, and 30 numbered companies of field artillery (commonly called batteries) and 126 numbered companies of coast artillery (CA) were authorized. 82 existing heavy artillery batteries were designated as coast artillery companies, and 44 new CA companies were created by splitting existing units and filling their ranks with recruits. The company-based organization was for flexibility, as each harbor defense command was differently equipped and a task-based organization was needed. The Coast Artillery would alternate between small unit and regimental organization several times over its history. The head of the Artillery Corps became the Chief of Artillery in the rank of brigadier general with jurisdiction over both types of artillery.[''Coast Artillery Organization – A Brief Overview'', Bolling W. Smith & William C. Gaines]
/ref>
Mine planters
Circa 1901 the Coast Artillery took responsibility for the installation and operation of the controlled mine fields from the Corps of Engineers; these were planted to be under observation, remotely detonated electrically, and protected by fixed guns.[ With that responsibility the Coast Artillery began to acquire the vessels required to plant and maintain the mine fields and cables connecting the mines to th]
mine casemate
ashore, organized as a "Submarine Mine Battery" within the coast defense command
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
.[ The larger vessels, called " mine planters", were civilian crewed until the creation of the U.S. Army Mine Planter Service (AMPS) and Warrant Officer Corps to provide officers and engineers for these vessels in 1918.][ Ft. Miles, Principal Armament - Mine Field]
The mine component was considered to be among the principal armament of coastal defense works. When the Coast Artillery Corps was disestablished and the artillery branches merged in 1950, some of the mine planter vessels were transferred to the U.S. Navy and redesignated as Auxiliary Minelayers (ACM/MMA).
Coast artillery weapons of the Endicott period
These weapons were emplaced between 1895 and 1905. Only widely deployed weapons are listed. Most except the mortars, 3-inch guns, and some 6-inch guns were on disappearing carriages, with 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 (also called pedestal carriages) used for the remainder. Although some harbor defenses in less-threatened locations were disarmed following World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(some of these retained minefields), many of these weapons remained in service until superseded by 16-inch guns and scrapped during 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 opposing ...
.
* 12-inch gun M1888, M1895, M1900 (305 mm)
* 12-inch mortar M1886, M1890 (305 mm)
* 10-inch gun M1888, M1895, M1900 (254 mm)
* 8-inch gun M1888
The 8-inch gun M1888 (203 mm) was a U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps gun, initially deployed 1898–1908 in about 75 fixed emplacements, usually on a disappearing carriage. During World War I, 37 or 47 of these weapons (references vary) w ...
(203 mm)
* 6-inch gun M1897, M1900, M1903 (152 mm)
* 5-inch gun M1897, M1900 (127 mm)
* 3-inch gun M1898, M1902, M1903 (76 mm)
Taft Board and creation of the Coast Artillery Corps
In 1905, after the experiences of the Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
, President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
appointed a new fortifications board, under Secretary of War William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
. They updated some standards and reviewed the progress on the Endicott Board's program. Most of the changes recommended by this board were technical; such as adding more searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
s, electrification (lighting, communications, and projectile handling), and more sophisticated optical aiming techniques. The board also recommended fortifications in territories acquired from Spain: Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, as well as 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 ...
, and a few other sites. Defenses in Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
were authorized by the Spooner Act
The First Spooner Act of 1902 (also referred to as the Panama Canal Act, 32 Stat. 481) was written by a United States senator from Wisconsin, John Coit Spooner, enacted on June 28, 1902, and signed by President Roosevelt the following day. It aut ...
of 1902. The Taft Program fortifications differed slightly in battery construction and had fewer numbers of guns at a given location than those of the Endicott Program. Due to the rapid development of dreadnought battleship
The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
s, a new 14-inch gun was introduced in a few locations and improved models of other weapons were also introduced. By the beginning of World War I, the United States had a coastal defense system that was equal to any other nation.
The rapidity of technological advances and changing techniques increasingly separated coastal defenses (heavy) from field artillery (light). Officers were rarely qualified to command both, requiring specialization. As a result, in 1907, Congress split Field Artillery and Coast Artillery into separate branches, creating a separate 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 ...
(CAC), and authorized an increase in the Coast Artillery Corps to 170 numbered companies. In 1907, the Artillery School at Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virgi ...
became the Coast Artillery School, which operated until 1946, and in 1908, the Chief of Artillery became the Chief of Coast Artillery.
In an exercise in 1907 at Subic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay on the west coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, about northwest of Manila Bay. An extension of the South China Sea, its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility, U.S. Naval Base Sub ...
, Philippines, a U.S. Marine
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...
battalion of the Advanced Base Force
The United States Marine Corps's Advanced Base Force (Advance Base Force in some references) was a coastal and naval base defense force that was designed to set up mobile and fixed bases in the event of major landing operations within, and beyo ...
commanded by Major Eli K. Cole emplaced forty-four heavy guns for coast defense in a ten-week period, due to the Eight-eight fleet
The was a Japanese naval strategy formulated for the development of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the first quarter of the 20th century, which stipulated that the navy should include eight first-class battleships and eight armoured cruisers or ba ...
war scare with Japan.[Allan R. Millett, ''Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps'', (New York City, NY: The Free Press, 1991).] These guns were operated by the Marines until circa 1910, when the Coast Artillery Corps' modern defenses centered on Fort Wint
Fort Wint was part of the harbor defenses of Manila and Subic Bays built by the Philippine Department of the United States Army between 1907 and 1920 in response to recommendations of the Taft Board prior to the non-fortification clause of the ...
on Grande Island
Fort Wint was part of the harbor defenses of Manila and Subic Bays built by the Philippine Department of the United States Army between 1907 and 1920 in response to recommendations of the Taft Board prior to the non-fortification clause of the Wa ...
were completed.
Fort Drum
One of the most extreme fortresses of the early 20th century was Fort Drum
Fort Drum is a U.S. Army military reservation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, on the northern border of New York, United States. The population of the CDP portion of the base was 12,955 at the 2010 census. It is home ...
in Manila Bay
Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phi ...
of the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. Originally a barren rock island, it was leveled by U.S. Army engineers between 1910 and 1914 and then built up with thick layers of steel-reinforced concrete into a massive structure roughly resembling a concrete battleship. It was the only true sea fort of the Endicott and Taft programs. The fort was topped with a pair of armored steel gun turrets, each mounting two M1909 guns; this model was specially designed for Fort Drum and was not deployed elsewhere. Four M1908 guns on M1910 pedestal mounts in casemates were also equipped. Searchlights, anti-aircraft batteries, and a fire direction tower were also mounted on its upper surface. The fortress walls protected extensive ammunition magazines, machine spaces, and living quarters for the 200 man garrison. The extensive level of fortification was not typical of the period, but driven by the exposed location. Although the design predated concerns about defense from air attack, the design proved to be exemplary for that purpose.
After the outbreak of war in the Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
on 7 December 1941, Fort Drum withstood heavy Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
air and land bombardment as it supported U.S. and Filipino defenders on Bataan
Bataan (), officially the Province of Bataan ( fil, Lalawigan ng Bataan ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the enti ...
and Corregidor until the very end on 6 May 1942. The fortress was among the last U.S. posts to hold out against the Japanese and did not surrender until ordered by superiors after Corregidor had been overrun, but not until the U.S. soldiers had sabotaged the guns and ordnance to prevent use by the Japanese. Ironically, even without the guns, the Japanese in Fort Drum were among the last holdouts when U.S. forces recaptured the Philippines in 1945.
Self-propelled torpedoes
Mines as we know them today were frequently referred to as torpedoes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The self-propelled torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
as we know it was derived from the concept of the mine, with early submarines and torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s evolving as defensive weapons in the 1890s to deliver torpedoes against attacking fleets. During early development, it was not clear whether submarines and torpedo boats would be in the purview of the Army or the Navy, since the Army was responsible for the use and development of stationary minefields and other fixed coastal defenses. As the range and potential uses of submarines and torpedo boats grew, it became more apparent that these were naval vessels, and both surface- and submarine-delivered torpedoes were an important aspect of naval coastal defense strategies. However, self-propelled torpedoes were not included in the Army's coastal defenses. Shore-launched Whitehead compressed air driven torpedoes were the first deployed, in Europe.
World War I
Submarines and airplanes became more important, with the former being a perceived if not actual threat to U.S. harbors. This concern caused an increase in the use of mines and nets, and demand for superior artillery. However, as the war progressed it became more clear that the enemies did not have the resources to bring the war across the Atlantic, and progress diminished along with concerns. Curiously, despite the rise of air power in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, it received little consideration in U.S. coast defense design until the late 1930s, probably due to the emergence of Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
aircraft carriers as a threat. In response to the rapid improvements in dreadnought battleship
The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
s, approximately 14 two-gun batteries of 12-inch guns on a new M1917 long-range barbette carriage began construction in 1917, but none were completed until 1920.
Due to their experience and training with large guns, the Coast Artillery operated all U.S. Army heavy artillery ( 155mm gun and up) in World War I, primarily French- and British-made weapons. They also acquired the anti-aircraft mission in that war. A number of 5-inch and 6-inch guns were withdrawn from coast defenses and remounted on wheeled carriages for use on the Western Front, with about 72 6-inch (possibly including some Navy guns) and 26 5-inch guns shipped to France. However, due to the Armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...
, none of the units equipped with repurposed coast defense guns completed training in time to see action. Only a few of the 6-inch guns and none of the 5-inch guns were returned to the coast defenses after the war. Most of the 6-inch guns were stored until remounted in World War II, and the 5-inch guns were declared obsolete and scrapped circa 1920.[Williford, pp. 92-99]
Railway artillery
A large-scale program to mount 12-inch mortars along with 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch guns and some other weapons as railway artillery
A railway gun, also called a railroad gun, is a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery, mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railway wagon. Many countries have built railway guns, but the best-known are ...
was partially implemented during and shortly after World War I, with the weapons withdrawn from less-threatened forts and from spares. A general program to reduce mortars from four per pit to two per pit created a surplus of these weapons. The cramped pits created difficulties in reloading; a two-mortar pit had roughly the same rate of fire as a four-mortar pit. Despite a large-scale effort, of all these weapons only three 8-inch guns were delivered to France before the Armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...
, due to shipping priorities. The mortars and 8-inch guns were on trainable mounts, thus were suitable for use as coast defense weapons; the other weapons were returned to the forts after the war. Sources indicated that up to 91 12-inch mortars and 47 8-inch guns were retained as railway coast defense weapons through World War II, with most of the 8-inch guns deployed and almost all of the mortars held in reserve.[Hogg, pp. 139-140] During World War I, the U.S. Navy implemented a more successful program that delivered five 14"/50 caliber railway gun
The 14"/50 caliber railway guns were spare US Navy Mk 4 14 inch/50 Caliber#Caliber as measurement of length, caliber guns mounted on railway cars and operated by US Navy crews in France in the closing months of World War I.
Background
In 1917 the ...
s to France in time to support the final Allied offensives. However, these weapons' mountings were not suitable for coast defense and they were retired after that war.
Coast artillery weapons of the Taft period and World War I
A new 14-inch (356 mm) gun and improved versions of some Endicott period weapons were introduced from 1905 to 1918, supplementing rather than replacing the previous weapons. The 14-inch guns were emplaced in the new harbor defenses of Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, 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 ...
, the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...
, and Manila Bay
Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phi ...
in the Philippines. A one-off 16-inch gun M1895 (406 mm) was also deployed on a disappearing carriage on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal in 1914; this was the first 16-inch gun in U.S. service. Only widely deployed seacoast weapons are included in this list.
* 14-inch gun M1907, M1910 (356 mm)
* 12-inch mortar M1908, M1912
* 6-inch gun M1905, M1908
Between World War I and World War II
Airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...
s were a minor but increasingly important factor in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and the threat prompted changes to coastal defenses in the 1920s and 1930s. Demonstrations in the 1920s by U.S. Army General Billy Mitchell
William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force.
Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, command ...
showed the vulnerability of warships to air attack; this illustrated the use of aircraft for seacoast defense against ships, but also the vulnerability of defenses against air power. In the isolationist United States, bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...
s were seen as more of a defense against naval attack than a strategic offensive weapon. However, planes like the Boeing B-17
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
, which evolved as defensive weapons, turned out to have excellent offensive capacity as well.
Drawdown and reorganization
In the early 1920s several types of weapons, mostly those with only a few deployed, were withdrawn from Coast Artillery service. This was probably to simplify the supply situation. The only widely deployed type withdrawn was the 3-inch M1898 Driggs-Seabury gun with masking parapet
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 ...
(simplified disappearing) mounts, at least 111 of which had been emplaced. The disappearing function had already been disabled due to interfering with aiming the gun, and the weapon had an alarming tendency for the piston rod to break on firing. Others included 6-inch Armstrong guns (9 guns), all three types of 4.72-inch Armstrong guns (34 guns), 4-inch/40 caliber Navy Driggs-Schroeder
Driggs-Schroeder was the name of several naval guns designed by US Navy officers William H. Driggs and Seaton Schroeder for the United States Navy in the late 1880s, fitted on ships built in the 1890s. Some Driggs-Schroeder weapons were also ado ...
guns (4 guns), and all models of 5-inch guns (52 guns). Twenty-six of the 5-inch guns had been sent to France for use on field carriages. Additionally, approximately 72 6-inch guns withdrawn from coast defenses for field service were not immediately remounted; these were eventually remounted on long-range carriages in new batteries during 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 opposing ...
. Except in a few cases, none of these weapons were directly replaced.[Berhow 2015, pp. 200–226]
On 9 June 1925 the Coast Defense Commands were redesignated as Harbor Defense Command A Harbor Defense Command was a military organization of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps designated in 1925 from predecessor organizations dating from circa 1895. It consisted of the forts, controlled underwater minefields, and other c ...
s via a War Department War Department may refer to:
* War Department (United Kingdom)
* United States Department of War (1789–1947)
See also
* War Office, a former department of the British Government
* Ministry of defence
* Ministry of War
* Ministry of Defence
* D ...
order. By the end of the 1920s, eight harbor defense commands in less-threatened areas were completely disarmed. These included the Kennebec River, ME, Baltimore, MD, Potomac River, MD and VA, Cape Fear River, NC, Savannah, GA, Tampa Bay, FL, Mobile, AL, and the Mississippi River, LA. It is possible the mine defenses were retained in reserve. Some of these commands were rearmed with "Panama mount
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cost ...
s" for mobile artillery early in World War II.
In 1922, 274 Coast Artillery companies were authorized, 188 of which were active. During that year 44 companies were inactivated, but 14 new companies were created for the Philippine Scouts, and a 15th in 1923. The Philippine Scouts, units of mostly Filipino enlisted men and mostly U.S. officers, manned many of the coast defenses in the Philippines and served in other key roles. The General Staff reconfirmed a commitment to artillery and mines as the most practical and cost-effective methods for seacoast defense, as an alternative to a larger Navy or Air Corps. In 1924 the CAC adopted a regimental system, consolidating the companies into 16 Regular Army
A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following:
* a standin ...
harbor defense regiments, two Philippine Scouts regiments (one harbor defense, one tractor-drawn), three Regular tractor-drawn regiments, and two Regular railway regiments. These were supplemented by 11 harbor defense and two tractor-drawn regiments of the National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
, which trained in peacetime for activation in wartime. The total companies authorized remained the same, at 289 with 144 active. There was also a Coast Artillery Reserve of 14 harbor defense regiments, four railway regiments, three tractor-drawn regiments, and 42 anti-aircraft regiments in 8 AA brigades. However, many of the Reserve units had only a small number of personnel assigned, and many were demobilized without activation in 1933 and during World War II, or served in that war with different designations.[CAC regiments 1-196 at the CDSG]
/ref>[National Guard CAC regiments 197-265 at the CDSG]
/ref> From 1930 to 1932 the army drafted new defense projects for each harbor. In 1931 it established a Harbor Defense Board to supervise the execution of these projects.
New weapons
The rapid evolution of dreadnought battleship
The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
s between 1905 and 1920 demonstrated the need for improved coast defenses, as most Endicott and Taft period weapons were on short-range mountings and were not large enough to reliably defeat battleship armor. Thirty existing 12-inch M1895 guns were mounted on new long-range M1917 barbette carriages in 16 batteries, including two one-gun batteries in the Philippines. Most of these batteries remained in service through the end of World War II. Other new weapons were deployed, but in limited quantities due to budget constraints. 14-inch M1920 railway guns were added to the harbor defenses of the Panama Canal and Los Angeles, two at each location. The future of U.S. coast defense was foreshadowed with the adoption of 16-inch (406 mm) guns, initially the 16-inch howitzer M1920
The 16-inch howitzer M1920 (406 mm) was a coastal artillery piece installed to defend major American seaports between 1922 and 1947. They were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. They were installed on high-angle barbett ...
(25 calibers
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matc ...
long) and 16-inch gun M1919
The 16 inch gun M1919 (406 mm) was a large coastal artillery piece installed to defend the United States' major seaports between 1920 and 1946. It was operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Only a small number were ...
(50 calibers long). 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, new barbette carriages were designed with an elevation of 65 degrees to allow plunging fire as enemy ships approached. Four howitzers were deployed at Fort Story
Joint Expeditionary Base-Fort Story, commonly called simply Fort Story is a sub-installation of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story, which is operated by the United States Navy. Located in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Vi ...
, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
and seven guns were deployed at four locations near Boston, Long Island, NY, Queens, NY, 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 ...
. In 1922, 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 U.S. Navy to cancel the battleships and the , surplusing 16-inch/50 caliber Mark II and Mark III barrels. About 70 guns were completed before the treaty went into effect, and the Navy wished to retain most of them for use in future battleships. Initially only 20 guns were transferred to the Army, who built a new version of the M1919 mount for the naval guns. However, only ten of these guns were deployed until 1940, in Pearl Harbor, Panama, and San Francisco. They were known as the 16-inch Navy gun MkIIMI and MkIIIMI in Army service. The 16-inch guns, firing projectiles up to , were much more effective than any previous U.S. coast defense guns.
Another weapon sparsely deployed in the 1930s would become a bigger part of World War II coast defenses. 8-inch/45 caliber Mark VI naval guns from older battleships scrapped under the Washington Naval Treaty became available, but only six guns were deployed between 1933 and 1938, all in fixed mountings. Up to 32 guns were initially available from the secondary armament of , , , and , of the ''Virginia''- and ''Connecticut''-class battleships. They were known as the 8-inch Navy gun MkVIM3A2 in Army service, and a railway mounting was developed in 1941. The main armament of these ships, the 12"/45 caliber Mark 5 gun
The 12″/45 caliber Mark 5 gun was an American naval gun that first entered service in 1906. Initially designed for use with the of pre-dreadnought battleships, the Mark 5 continued in service aboard the first generation of American dreadnought ...
, was also made available to the Army, but these were never deployed by the United States and at least some were sold to Brazil.
Protection against air attack was slow to evolve. Existing batteries were camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
d, but if detected, they remained vulnerable to air attack. The first batteries of heavy guns constructed after World War I were, somewhat inexplicably, completely open except for camouflage, but mounted long-range weapons set back from the coast out of direct observation from the sea.[Conn, pp. 45-55] However, from the late 1930s (in most cases beginning in 1942) these batteries were mounted under thick concrete casemates covered with vegetation to make them virtually invisible from above and well protected against bombing. Significantly, the Washington Naval Treaty prohibited major improvements to defenses in the Pacific including the Philippines, so the two long-range 12-inch guns at Fort Mills
Fort Mills ( Corregidor, the Philippines) was the location of US Major General George F. Moore's headquarters for the Philippine Department's Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays in early World War II, and was the largest seacoast ...
on Corregidor were never casemated (paradoxically, this probably improved their usefulness against the Japanese invasion when it came, as they had large arcs of fire). Another result was that 12 240 mm howitzers being shipped to the Philippines were deployed in Hawaii instead. In anticipation of a conflict with Japan, most of the limited funds available between 1933 and 1938 were spent on the Pacific coast, especially as several Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
aircraft carriers were operational by then. In 1939, the threat of war in Europe prompted larger appropriations and the resumption of work along the Atlantic coast.
A new weapon adopted by the U.S. during World War I introduced road and cross-country mobility to the Coast Artillery. The 155 mm gun M1918
The Canon de 155 Grande Puissance Filloux (GPF) modèle 1917 was a WWI-era French-designed 155 mm gun used by the French Army and the United States Army during the first half of the 20th century in towed and self-propelled mountings.
His ...
(6.1 inch), closely derived from the French 155 mm GPF (Grand Puissance Filloux, or high-powered gun designed by Filloux), could be towed behind heavy Holt tractor
The Holt tractors were a range of continuous track haulers built by the Holt Manufacturing Company from California (U.S.), which was named after Benjamin Holt.
Between 1908 and 1913, twenty-seven of the first 100 Holt caterpillar track-type t ...
s and deployed to provide some protection for areas not part of existing harbor defenses. Each tractor-drawn regiment was authorized 24 of these weapons. Circular concrete platforms called "Panama mount
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cost ...
s" were constructed in existing and new defenses to improve the utility of these weapons, particularly early in World War II.
In anticipation of war, additional mines, searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
s, radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
, and anti-aircraft guns were installed in 1940 and 1941. However, due to a general shortage, installation of new anti-aircraft guns at harbor defenses was minimal. After the war began, the entire Western Defense Command
Western Defense Command (WDC) was established on 17 March 1941 as the command formation of the United States Army responsible for coordinating the defense of the Pacific Coast region of the United States during World War II. A second major respo ...
was placed on high alert, but Japanese attacks, including two submarine deck gun
A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret.
The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...
attacks and explosive balloons, caused only minor damage.
Anti-submarine net
An anti-submarine net or anti-submarine boom is a boom placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines.
Examples of anti-submarine nets
* Lake Macquarie anti-submarine boom
* Indicator net
* Naval operations in ...
s, naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
s, and controlled mines A controlled mine was a circuit fired weapon used in coastal defenses with ancestry going back to 1805 when Robert Fulton termed his underwater explosive device a torpedo:
Robert Fulton invented the word torpedo to describe his underwater explosiv ...
protected many harbor entrances. Radar and patrol planes could detect enemy vessels at long distances, and aircraft became the first line of defense against intruders.
A coast defense exercise conducted in the Harbor Defenses of Long Island Sound
The Harbor Defenses of Long Island Sound was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of Long Island Sound and Connecticut from 1895 to 1950, beginning with the Endicott program. These ...
in 1930 was notable for including aircraft and submarines (from the nearby Submarine Base New London) in the defensive plan. Observation, bombardment, and pursuit (fighter) aircraft were included. The submarines had a dual reconnaissance and counter-attack mission; it was determined that these missions should be separated in future.
Coast artillery weapons between World War I and World War II
The majority of Endicott and Taft period weapons remained in service between the wars. U.S. coast artillery introduced between the wars included:
* 16-inch gun M1919
The 16 inch gun M1919 (406 mm) was a large coastal artillery piece installed to defend the United States' major seaports between 1920 and 1946. It was operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Only a small number were ...
(406 mm)
* 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun
The 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun and the near-identical Mark 3 were guns originally designed and built for the United States Navy as the main armament for the ''South Dakota''-class battleships and s. The successors to the 16"/45 caliber gun Mark ...
(also Mark 3)
* 16-inch howitzer M1920
The 16-inch howitzer M1920 (406 mm) was a coastal artillery piece installed to defend major American seaports between 1922 and 1947. They were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. They were installed on high-angle barbett ...
* 14-inch M1920 railway gun (356 mm)
* 12-inch gun M1895
The 12-inch coastal defense gun M1895 (305 mm) and its variants the M1888 and M1900 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the Unit ...
on long-range M1917 barbette carriage (305 mm)
* 12-inch coast defense mortar
The 12-inch coast defense mortar was a weapon of caliber emplaced during the 1890s and early 20th century to defend US harbors from seaborne attack. In 1886, when the Endicott Board set forth its initial plan for upgrading the coast defenses of ...
(various models) on railway mounting
* 8-inch M1888 gun on railway mounting (203 mm)
* 8-inch Navy MkVIM3A2 gun (initially on fixed mountings)
* 155 mm gun M1918
The Canon de 155 Grande Puissance Filloux (GPF) modèle 1917 was a WWI-era French-designed 155 mm gun used by the French Army and the United States Army during the first half of the 20th century in towed and self-propelled mountings.
His ...
, a tractor-drawn French-designed weapon built for the U.S. Army (6.1 inch)
World War II
The attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
demonstrated the obsolescence of coastal artillery that was not protected against air attack and the inadequacy of pre-war anti-aircraft defenses. However, perhaps if there was no coastal artillery surface raiders would have been bolder. Coastal defense emplacements in the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
(the only occasion since the Civil War on which U.S. coast defenses were heavily engaged) and Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
were locally effective; however, the Japanese simply attacked where there were no defenses and then enveloped the fortifications. Heavily fortified positions such as Japanese Rabaul and Fort Drum in the Philippines demonstrated tactical success amongst strategic failures.
Fall of the Philippines
The Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
invaded the Philippines shortly after Pearl Harbor, bringing the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays
The Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays ("Coast Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays" until 1925) (a.k.a. CD/HD Manila Bay) were a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command, part of the Philippine Department of the Un ...
into the war along with the other U.S. and Filipino forces in the archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...
. The Japanese initially landed in northern Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
, far from the defenses of Manila Bay. Although the Coast Artillery did their best, their weapons were poorly positioned against the direction of enemy attacks and vulnerable to air and high-angle artillery attack. Eight 8-inch railway guns had been deployed to the Philippines in 1940, but six were destroyed by air attack while entrained in response to the initial landings, and the other two were placed in fixed mountings on Corregidor and Bataan
Bataan (), officially the Province of Bataan ( fil, Lalawigan ng Bataan ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the enti ...
, but lacked crews and ammunition. The 14-inch turret guns of Fort Drum
Fort Drum is a U.S. Army military reservation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, on the northern border of New York, United States. The population of the CDP portion of the base was 12,955 at the 2010 census. It is home ...
and the 12-inch mortars of Battery Way and Battery Geary were probably the most effective coast defense weapons in the Battle of Corregidor, but all but two of the mortars were knocked out before the Japanese landed on the island. The U.S. forces surrendered on 6 May 1942, after destroying their weapons.
Modernization
The outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 and the Fall of France in June 1940 greatly accelerated U.S. defense planning and funding. About this time a severe lack of design coordination resulted in the being unable to use the Mark 2 and Mark 3 16-inch guns, and a new gun design was required for them. 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 (eventually 38) 16-inch two-gun batteries to protect strategic points along the U.S. coastline, to be casemated against air attack, as were almost all of the older batteries by this time.[
]
The 16-inch guns were only the top end of the World War II program, which eventually replaced almost all previous coast defense weapons with newer (or remounted) weapons. Most of the 12-inch long-range batteries were casemated and served through the end of the war. Generally, each harbor defense command A Harbor Defense Command was a military organization of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps designated in 1925 from predecessor organizations dating from circa 1895. It consisted of the forts, controlled underwater minefields, and other c ...
was to have two or three 16-inch or 12-inch long-range batteries, plus 6-inch guns on new mountings with protected magazines, and 90 mm Anti Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) guns, which were supplemented with 37 mm or 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. In addition to the proposed 38 new 16-inch (406 mm) batteries with a range of , eleven new 8-inch (203 mm) batteries with a range of and 87 new 6-inch (152 mm) batteries on high-angle shielded mountings with a range of were projected.[Berhow 2015, pp. 229–231] All of these batteries had two guns each with heavily protected magazines and plotting rooms and casemated guns (except the 6-inch guns had shielded mountings). Additionally, about 32 8-inch MkVIM3A2 railway guns were deployed. In most cases replacing existing harbor defenses, with wartime changes noted, fortifications were planned for the harbor defenses of:
East coast
* Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
* Portsmouth, New Hampshire
* Boston, Massachusetts
* Cape Cod Canal (16-inch not built)
* New Bedford, Massachusetts (no additional heavy guns)
* 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 ...
* 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 ...
** Long Island Sound
** Southern New York
* Delaware River
* Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...
* Charleston, South Carolina (16-inch not built)
Gulf coast
* Key West (no additional heavy guns)
* Pensacola, Florida (no additional heavy guns)
* Galveston, Texas (no additional heavy guns)
West coast
* San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...
* Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
* San Francisco, California
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 ...
* Columbia River (no additional heavy guns)
* Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
(no additional heavy guns)
* Cape Flattery
Cape Flattery () is the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States. It is in Clallam County, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca joins the Pacific Ocean. It is also part of the Makah Reservation, and ...
, Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
* Dutch Harbor, Alaska
Dutch Harbor is a harbor on Amaknak Island in Unalaska, Alaska. It was the location of the Battle of Dutch Harbor in June 1942, and was one of the few sites in the United States to be subjected to aerial bombardment by a foreign power during Worl ...
(biggest guns were 8-inch)
* Kodiak, Alaska
Kodiak ( Alutiiq: , russian: Кадьяк), formerly Paul's Harbor, is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island's communities and the outside ...
(biggest guns were 8-inch)
* Sitka, Alaska (no heavy guns)
* Seward, Alaska
Seward (Alutiiq: ; Dena'ina: ''Tl'ubugh'') is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska's southern coast, approxima ...
(no heavy guns)
Other U.S. possessions or overseas
* Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
* 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 ...
* Kaneohe Bay
* North Shore of Oahu
Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O ...
(biggest guns were 8-inch and 240 mm howitzers)
* Balboa, Canal Zone
Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.
History
The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spa ...
(no additional heavy guns)
* Cristóbal, Colón (16-inch not built)
* San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...
* Roosevelt Roads Naval Station
Roosevelt Roads Naval Station is a former United States Navy base in the town of Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The site operates today as José Aponte de la Torre Airport, a public use airport.
History
In 1919, future US President Franklin D. Roosev ...
(biggest guns were 8-inch)
* Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
(no heavy guns built)
* Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
(not built)
* Bermuda
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(biggest guns were 8-inch)
* Argentia, Newfoundland
Argentia ( ) is a Canadian commercial seaport and industrial park located in the Town of Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated on the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula and defined by a triangular shaped headland which r ...
(no heavy guns)
With CONUS and the Caribbean less threatened as the war progressed, about 21 16-inch gun batteries were completed in 1941-44, but not all of these were armed. Three new 12-inch long-range batteries and five 8-inch batteries (mostly in Alaska) were completed and armed, and about 65 6-inch batteries were completed, but only about 45 of these were armed. Some batteries on Oahu were completed with two 14-inch triple turrets from the sunken and eight 8-inch twin turrets removed from and rather than the designed guns. As the areas of combat became more distant from the U.S. and as naval threats were essentially removed, defending harbors against ships became a low priority, and as the new coast defense batteries were completed, almost all of the older seacoast guns were scrapped to become new weapons. Many soldiers of the Coast Artillery were transferred to field artillery, anti-aircraft, or even infantry duties. When the war ended, it was soon decided that seacoast defense guns were no longer needed, and missiles would eventually fill the role. By 1947, most guns remaining in the seacoast defenses were declared surplus and scrapped, and the last weapons were removed in 1950 when the Coast Artillery was deactivated.
Other coast defense operations
Two related aspects of seacoast defense in the early part of the war were coastal beach patrols in the continental United States ( CONUS) and the maintenance of mobile forces there to respond to potential enemy raids. The Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
began these patrols after Pearl Harbor, and in early 1942 the Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and Western Defense Command
Western Defense Command (WDC) was established on 17 March 1941 as the command formation of the United States Army responsible for coordinating the defense of the Pacific Coast region of the United States during World War II. A second major respo ...
s were assigned the equivalent of up to eight infantry regimental combat team
A regimental combat team (RCT) is a provisional major infantry unit which has seen use by branches of the United States Armed Forces. It is formed by augmenting a regular infantry regiment with smaller combat, combat support and combat service ...
s each for both beach patrols and mobile response. With a rapidly diminishing threat after 1942, by mid-1943 these forces were cut back significantly, and were mostly demobilized in early 1944. On the night of 12 June 1942, a patrolling Coast Guard sailor observed German agents landing from a U-boat near Amagansett
Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, t ...
, Long Island, New York. Communication difficulties precluded an immediate response, but the four agents were rounded up over the next two weeks, along another four landed near Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
on 17 June. Capture was made easier when two of the agents in New York decided to defect within a few days. They were tried by a military court-martial, with six of the eight executed; one of the defectors received a life sentence and the other 30 years in prison.
Besides the Coast Artillery, key islands in the Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
theater were defended by U.S. Marine defense battalions
Marine Defense Battalions were United States Marine Corps battalions charged with coastal and air defense of advanced naval bases during World War II. They maintained large anti-ship guns, anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and small arms to repe ...
throughout the war. Their most famous engagement was the Battle of Wake Island
The Battle of Wake Island was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on Wake Island. The assault began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor naval and air bases in Hawaii on the morning of 8 December 1941 (7 December ...
in December 1941, in which heavy casualties were inflicted on a Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
invasion force that eventually took the island. The U.S. Navy participated in harbor defense with anti-submarine net
An anti-submarine net or anti-submarine boom is a boom placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines.
Examples of anti-submarine nets
* Lake Macquarie anti-submarine boom
* Indicator net
* Naval operations in ...
s and magnetic indicator loops for detecting submarines; joint harbor defense command posts and harbor entrance control posts were established at harbor defense commands to coordinate army and navy operations. The 155 mm Long Tom
The 155 mm gun M1 was a 155 millimeter caliber field gun developed and used by the United States military. Nicknamed "Long Tom" (an appellation with a long and storied history in U.S. field and naval artillery), it was produced in M1 and M2 ...
artillery piece, an evolution of the 155 mm GPF concept, was used in island and harbor defense in the Pacific from 1943 by both the Marines and the Army. Seven Army Coast Artillery Groups (155 mm Gun) were activated in May–June 1944 as a result of breaking up the tractor-drawn 155 mm gun regiments, which may have been rearmed with the new weapon. Three were deployed to Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
and the Philippines in 1945 while one was activated in Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
; the remainder never left CONUS.
Coast artillery weapons during World War II
U.S. coast artillery during World War II relied primarily on weapons purchased between the wars or stored since the aftermath of World War I. Essentially all of the Endicott and Taft period weapons were scrapped by late 1944 as new batteries were completed. The weapons deployed during the later part of the war included:
* 16-inch gun M1919
The 16 inch gun M1919 (406 mm) was a large coastal artillery piece installed to defend the United States' major seaports between 1920 and 1946. It was operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Only a small number were ...
(406 mm)
* 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun
The 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun and the near-identical Mark 3 were guns originally designed and built for the United States Navy as the main armament for the ''South Dakota''-class battleships and s. The successors to the 16"/45 caliber gun Mark ...
(also Mark 3)
* 16-inch howitzer M1920
The 16-inch howitzer M1920 (406 mm) was a coastal artillery piece installed to defend major American seaports between 1922 and 1947. They were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. They were installed on high-angle barbett ...
* 14-inch M1920 railway gun (356 mm)
* 12-inch gun M1895
The 12-inch coastal defense gun M1895 (305 mm) and its variants the M1888 and M1900 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the Unit ...
on long-range M1917 barbette carriage (305 mm)
* 12-inch coast defense mortar
The 12-inch coast defense mortar was a weapon of caliber emplaced during the 1890s and early 20th century to defend US harbors from seaborne attack. In 1886, when the Endicott Board set forth its initial plan for upgrading the coast defenses of ...
(various models) on railway mounting (almost all in reserve)
* 240 mm howitzer M1918
The M1918 240 mm howitzer was an American heavy howitzer system manufactured in the U.S. to specifications of the U.S. Army.
History
When the United States entered World War I, the U.S. Army had no modern heavy artillery that could be mov ...
(9.45 inch) on fixed mountings in Hawaii
* 8-inch gun M1888
The 8-inch gun M1888 (203 mm) was a U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps gun, initially deployed 1898–1908 in about 75 fixed emplacements, usually on a disappearing carriage. During World War I, 37 or 47 of these weapons (references vary) w ...
on railway mounting (203 mm)
* 8-inch Navy gun MkVIM3A2 (on railway and fixed mountings)
* 7"/45 caliber gun (178 mm), ex-Navy guns
* 155mm gun M1918, a tractor-drawn French-designed weapon built for the U.S. Army (6.1 inch)
* 155 mm Long Tom
The 155 mm gun M1 was a 155 millimeter caliber field gun developed and used by the United States military. Nicknamed "Long Tom" (an appellation with a long and storied history in U.S. field and naval artillery), it was produced in M1 and M2 ...
gun M1/M2
* 6-inch gun M1903
The 6-inch gun M1897 (152 mm) and its variants the M1900, M1903, M1905, M1908, and M1 (a.k.a. T2) were coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1897 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated b ...
on a new high-angle shielded mounting (also M1905, M1/T2)
* 6-inch gun M1900
The 6-inch gun M1897 (152 mm) and its variants the M1900, M1903, M1905, M1908, and M1 (a.k.a. T2) were coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1897 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by ...
on pedestal mounting (some retained until after the war)
* 6"/50 caliber gun
The 6"/50 caliber gun Mark 6 and Mark 8 (spoken "six-inch-fifty-caliber") were used for the secondary batteries of the United States Navy's and battleships, as well as the and armored cruisers. They were also used as the main battery on the p ...
, ex-Navy Mark 6 and Mark 8 guns
* 5"/51 caliber gun
5"/51 caliber guns (spoken "five-inch-fifty-one-caliber") initially served as the secondary battery of United States Navy battleships built from 1907 through the 1920s, also serving on other vessels. United States naval gun terminology indicates t ...
(127 mm) Mark 15 (early-war Marine defense battalions
Marine Defense Battalions were United States Marine Corps battalions charged with coastal and air defense of advanced naval bases during World War II. They maintained large anti-ship guns, anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and small arms to repe ...
)
* 4"/50 caliber gun
The 4″/50 caliber gun (spoken "four-inch-fifty-caliber") was the standard low-angle, quick-firing gun for United States, first appearing on the monitor and then used on "Flush Deck" destroyers through World War I and the 1920s. It was also the ...
(102 mm) Mark 9
* 90 mm gun M1 and M2 (3.5 in) on fixed and towed mounts
* 3-inch gun M1903 (76 mm) (some retained until after the war)
* 40 mm gun M1 (1.57 in)
* 37 mm Gun M1
The 37 mm gun M1 was an anti-aircraft autocannon developed in the United States. It was used by the US Army in World War II.
The gun was produced in a towed variant, or mounted along with two M2 machine guns on the M2/ M3 half-track, res ...
(1.46 in)
Postwar defensive missiles
A system of 90 mm and 120 mm anti-aircraft guns was deployed around the periphery of CONUS shortly after World War II. However, it was soon overtaken by technology. Early in the Cold War, the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
developed long-range bombers which could reach the United States, and soon after exploded their first atomic bomb. Among the most-threatened targets were harbors and naval bases. The mission of the Nike surface-to-air missile program was to act as a "last-ditch" line of air defense for selected areas. The Nike system would have been used if the Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
's interceptor aircraft failed. With some anti-ship capability (especially the later nuclear-capable weapons), these were the last fixed-fortification weapons employed in the United States.[Morgan & Berhow 2002]
Nike sites were built during the 1950s in "rings" around major urban and industrial areas and key Strategic Air Command bases. The number of sites constructed in each ring varied, depending on many factors. In relatively flat terrain rings usually consisted of four launch sites, as at Washington, D.C. However, due to mountainous terrain, the San Francisco Bay area required twelve launch sites. Due to the short range of the original Nike missile, the Nike Ajax
The United States Army's Nike Ajax was the world's first operational guided surface-to-air missile (SAM), entering service in 1954. Nike Ajax was designed to attack conventional bomber aircraft flying at high subsonic speeds and altitudes abov ...
, many bases were located close to the center of the areas they protected. Frequently, they were located within heavily populated areas. By 1960, the longer-range, nuclear-capable Nike Hercules
The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, bu ...
was deployed, with the Air Force's BOMARC missile system following soon after.[
With the advent of numerous intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Nike and BOMARC systems were considered obsolete by the mid-1960s and the installations were removed in the early 1970s, ending nearly 200 years of American coastal defense.][
]
See also
*Advanced Base Force
The United States Marine Corps's Advanced Base Force (Advance Base Force in some references) was a coastal and naval base defense force that was designed to set up mobile and fixed bases in the event of major landing operations within, and beyo ...
, the United States 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 ...
/Marine Corps
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...
joint effort in coastal defenses of Subic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay on the west coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, about northwest of Manila Bay. An extension of the South China Sea, its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility, U.S. Naval Base Sub ...
and the Caribbean areas during the interim years prior to World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
* List of coastal fortifications of the United States
*Harbor Defense Command A Harbor Defense Command was a military organization of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps designated in 1925 from predecessor organizations dating from circa 1895. It consisted of the forts, controlled underwater minefields, and other c ...
*United States Army 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 ...
* List of United States War Department Forms - Lists US Army ordnance publications circa 1895-1920, links online versions, including many coast artillery weapons
*
*Disappearing gun
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 back ...
*Siege artillery in the American Civil War
Siege artillery is heavy artillery primarily used in military attacks on fortified positions. At the time of the American Civil War, the U.S. Army classified its artillery into three types, depending on the gun's weight and intended use. ''Fie ...
Notes
References and further reading
*
* Browning, Robert S., III. ''Two If by Sea: The Development of American Coastal Defense Policy'' (Praeger, 1983)
*
*
*
*
*
* McGovern, Terrance and Smith, Bolling, ''American Coastal Defences 1885-1950'' (Fortress series, Book 44), Osprey Publishing 2006,
*
*
*
* Price, Russell Reed. "American coastal defense: The Third System of fortification, 1816-1864" (PhD dissetation, Mississippi State University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1999. 9930343).
*
*
*
*
*
Harbor Defenses of San Francisco
The California State Military Museum
at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
List of all US coastal forts and batteries
at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
FortWiki, lists most CONUS and Canadian forts
Coast Artillery Organization, A Brief Overview
CDSG, Inc.
External links
American Forts Network, lists forts in the US, former US territories, Canada, and Central America
"Gun Train Guards Ends of Panama Canal -- Rolling Fort Crosses Isthmus in Two Hours" ''Popular Mechanics'', December 1934 pp.844-845
excellent drawings in article on the 14-inch M1920 railway gun
US National Park Service list of parks with forts
FortWiki gun type list
Coast Defense Study Group
Description of Seacoast Guns 8, 10, 12, 14, 16-inch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seacoast Defense In The United States
Coastal fortifications
Fortifications in the United States
Coastal artillery
Artillery of the United States
United States Army Coast Artillery Corps
War of 1812
American Civil War artillery
19th-century military history of the United States
20th-century military history of the United States
War scare