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Fort Greene (Narragansett, Rhode Island)
Fort Greene is a United States Army Reserve installation in the Point Judith area of Narragansett, Rhode Island. During World War II this was a coastal defense fort, and together with Fort Church in Little Compton, it superseded all previous heavy gun defenses in the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay. It is named for General Nathanael Greene of the Revolutionary War, who was born in Rhode Island. History Fort Greene was built as part of a general modernization of US coast defenses, begun in 1940 with the outbreak of war in Europe and the Fall of France. The goal was to replace all previous heavy weapons, most of which were over 35 years old, with long-range ex-Navy 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 guns. Lighter weapons would be replaced by 6-inch guns on high-angle shielded barbette carriages. Ammunition magazines and the 16-inch guns would be in casemated bunkers to protect against air attack. The fort was intended to protect the approaches to Narragansett Bay as part of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harbor Defenses Of Narragansett Bay
A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up passengers. Ports usually include one or more harbors. Alexandria Port in Egypt is an example of a port with two harbors. Harbors may be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys or they can be constructed by dredging, which requires maintenance by further periodic dredging. An example of an artificial harbor is Long Beach Harbor, California, United States, which was an array of salt marshes and tidal flats too shallow for modern merchant ships before it was first dredged in the early 20th century. In contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides of land. Examples ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
6-inch Gun M1
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 the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. They were installed on disappearing carriages or pedestal (a.k.a. barbette) mountings, and during World War II many were remounted on shielded barbette carriages. Most of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped within a few years after World War II. History In 1885, William C. Endicott, President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of War, was tasked with creating the Board of Fortifications to review seacoast defenses. 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 US coastline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camp Varnum
Camp Varnum is a Rhode Island Army National Guard training facility in the Boston Neck area of Narragansett, Rhode Island. During World War II it was Fort Varnum, a coastal defense fort. History Fort Varnum was built as part of a general modernization of US coast defenses begun in 1940 with the outbreak of war in Europe and the Fall of France. The fort is named for General James Mitchell Varnum of the Revolutionary War. It was built to relocate previously-emplaced weapons to a more useful location nearer the entrance to Narragansett Bay. The fort was sited to reinforce new 6-inch gun batteries at Fort Greene in Point Judith and Fort Burnside in Jamestown. Berhow, p. 205 The fort was intended to protect the West Passage of Narragansett Bay as part of the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay. Fort Varnum's main armament was Battery House, two 6-inch M1900 guns on pedestal mounts, completed in 1942. The battery was a relocation of Battery House at Fort Getty Fort Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Board Of Fortifications
Several boards have been appointed by US presidents or Congress to evaluate the US defensive fortifications, primarily Seacoast Defense (US), coastal defenses near strategically important harbors on the US shores, its territories, and its protectorates. Endicott Board In 1885 US President Grover Cleveland appointed a joint Army, Navy and civilian board, headed by Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott, known as the Board of Fortifications (now usually referred to simply as the Endicott Board). The findings of the Board in its 1886 report illustrated a grim picture of neglect of Seacoast defense in the United States, America's coast defenses and recommended a massive $127 million construction program for a series of new forts with Breech-loading weapon, breech-loading cannons, mortars, Floating battery, floating batteries, and Submarine mines in United States harbor defense, submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coast. Coast Artillery fortifications built betwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coast Artillery Fire Control System
In the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps, the term fire control system was used to refer to the personnel, facilities, technology and procedures that were used to observe designated targets, estimate their positions, calculate firing data for guns directed to hit those targets, and assess the effectiveness of such fire, making corrections where necessary. Fire control instruments The Coast Artillery's early fire control instruments supported optical rangefinding and position finding, either horizontal base or vertical base, with both systems usually present for each fort. Early horizontal base rangefinding required two azimuth (a.k.a. bearing or deflection) instruments, preferably widely separated, and a communications system to transmit data to a plotting room and then to the guns. The instruments were often in bunkers called base end stations, as they defined the endpoints of a baseline. A base end station might be a two-story structure with a plotting room or other instrume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Base End Station
Base end stations were used by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps as part of fire control systems for locating the positions of attacking ships and controlling the firing of seacoast guns, mortars, or mines to defend against them. A British equivalent was the position finding cell. Types of base end stations A "true" base end station was one of a pair of stations at either end of a precisely measured (surveyed) baseline. Once simultaneous bearings from each base end station to a target were taken, since the distance between the stations (the baseline) was known, the range to the target from either station could be calculated through triangulation. If the target's bearing from each station was sent to a plotting room and input to a plotting board, the position of the target could be estimated and firing coordinates for a gun battery could be calculated. Some base end stations were located in tall fire control towers (FCTs) Sometimes, the terms "base end station" and "f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. History The gun was designed during the First World War by Colonel Louis Filloux to meet an urgent need for modern heavy artillery and became the standard heavy field gun of the French Army from 1917 until the Second World War. It was also adopted by the United States as the M1917 and a close derivative of it was made in and used by the US as the M1918 through the Second World War. The design adopted the split trail invented by French Colonel Deport in the early 1910s (see Cannone da 75/27 modello 11), and unlike the previous pieces, which had their carriages riveted from machined and/or pressed steel parts, utilized very large steel castings. The gun was also manufactured in the United States from 1917, after the US switched to metric ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Its capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half the country's million people. Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes before Spanish colonists arrived in the 16th century. It broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined the Republic of Gran Colombia, a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela. After Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada eventually became the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the construction of the Panama Canal to be completed by the United States Army Corps of Engine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plotting Room
A plotting room was the co-ordination centre of a fire control system for guns used against enemy ships or aircraft, whether naval guns or coastal artillery. The plotting room received data on ship or aircraft position and motion from fire control instruments or their operators and determined and transmitted the range and bearing (a.k.a. azimuth or deflection) the guns would fire on. Plotting rooms came into use in the early 1900s for coastal artillery and during World War I for warships as gun ranges increased, and were in general use through the 1970s on World War II-era ships (and into the 1990s on the US Navy's s). Warships had plotting rooms for naval fire control for guns from 5-inch to 18-inch calibre, including anti-aircraft use for the smaller guns. On armoured ships such as battleships and cruisers, plotting rooms were located in the armoured citadel, protected by both deck and belt armour. With a few exceptions (mostly in Scandinavia), coastal defence gun ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Point Judith Light
The Point Judith Light is located on the west side of the entrance to Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island as well as the north side of the eastern entrance to Block Island Sound. The confluence of two waterways make this area busy with water traffic and the waters around Point Judith are very cold and dangerous. Historically, even with active lighthouses, there have been many shipwrecks off these coasts. Three light structures have been built on this site. The original tower, built in 1810, was destroyed by a hurricane in 1815. It was replaced in 1816, by another 35-foot stone tower with a revolving light and ten lamps. The present octagonal granite tower was built in 1856. The upper half of the tower is painted brown and the lower half white to make the light structure a more effective daymark for maritime traffic. In 1871, ship captains asked that Point Judith's fog signal be changed from a horn to whistle. This change distinguished the Point Judith light from the Beavertail Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Compton, RI
Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The population was 3,616 at the 2020 census. History Little Compton was originally inhabited by the Sakonnet Indians and their settlement was called Sakonnet or Saughonet. The name has been interpreted in a variety of ways including "where the water pours forth". The first European settlers were from Duxbury, Massachusetts in the Plymouth Colony, which granted them their charter. The ruler of the Native Americans was a female sachem named Awashonks who was friendly to the newcomers and remained so during and after King Phillip's War. With her acquiescence, the new settlers divided the land into standard-sized lots for farms. Among the 29 original proprietors was Colonel Benjamin Church, who would become well known for his role in the late 17t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the East River in New York City, along the North Shore of Long Island, to Block Island Sound. A mix of freshwater from tributaries and seawater, saltwater from the ocean, Long Island Sound is at its widest point and varies in depth from . Shoreline Major Connecticut cities on the Sound include Stamford, Connecticut, Stamford, Norwalk, Connecticut, Norwalk, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport, New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven, and New London, Connecticut, New London. Cities on the New York side of the Sound include Rye (city), New York, Rye, Glen Cove, New York, Glen Cove, New Rochelle, New York, New Rochelle, Larchmont and portions of Queens and the Bronx in New York City. Climate and geography The climate of Long Island Sound is warm t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
