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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 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 ...
Due to the diminishing threat of enemy surface attack as World War II progressed, especially on the east coast, of 38 16-inch batteries proposed only 21 were completed, and not all of these were armed. As the 16-inch batteries were completed the older heavy weapons at the harbor defense commands were scrapped, though some 6-inch and 3-inch guns ...
On 7 December 1941 the United States entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Construction ramped up at US facilities in Newfoundland; for coast defense batteries this was primarily at Argentia. The major effort at this time was the construction of Battery 281 and Battery 282 at Fort McAndrew from January through October 1942.
After the war, some of the 6-inch guns were returned to coast defenses, but the 5-inch guns were withdrawn from coast defense service. Most of the 6-inch guns were stored and were eventually deployed in World War II. [9] [11] [10] 8-inch M1888 railway gun with ammunition wagon. 12-inch mortar on M1918 railway carriage.
Defences of a given harbor were initially designated artillery districts, redesignated as coast defense commands in 1913 and as harbor defense commands in 1924. In 1901 the Artillery Corps was divided into field artillery and coast artillery units, and in 1907 the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps was created to operate these defences. [16]
The site's military history began in 1906 as the Deer Island Military Reservation, acquired for fire control and mine field control as part of the Taft program. [2]During World War II, Fort Dawes was initially the site of a target detection radar for the harbor defenses and Battery Taylor (two 3-inch M1902 guns moved from nearby Fort Strong), both completed by late 1942. [2]
In March 1941 United States Army forces arrived in Sitka, and began construction of a coastal defense battery on Makhnati Island, an islet at the western end of a chain of islets extending westward from Japonski Island. To facilitate this work, a causeway 8,100 feet (2,500 m) in length was constructed connecting Japonski to Mahknati via this ...
Although the end of World War I meant a general drawdown in US coast defenses, the Boston area was also chosen for one of the first 16-inch (406 mm) gun batteries built by the United States. This was Fort Duvall on Hog Island (now Spinnaker Island ), south of the Hull peninsula and thus not visible from the ship channel, built 1919-1927.