There's a state park at the very southern end of Virginia's Eastern Shore, near where you get on the bridge-tunnel to go to Norfolk and Virginia Beach. It is billed as a nature preserve but there wasn't any explanation for an overlook on top of a mound rising up over what is otherwise sand and marsh and low, scrubby trees.
Nobody mentioned that, oh by the way, the tree-covered mound was actually a WWII-era gun emplacement, complete with the barrel of one of the battleship-sized batteries, without the mount and the top of the concrete emplacement is actually the scenic overlook. Very cool of them to mount a projectile in front of the muzzle, too, to give the whole effect. Note the size of the 5'6" wife in the distance for size comparison, standing beside another projectile.
Someone else looking on exclaimed, "S--t! You could level Portsmouth from here!" and a couple of other people nodded in agreement. Not a bad idea at all, if you have ever visited Portsmouth, Virginia. Urban renewal aside, the gun, emplacement and projectiles remain a nice reminder of the poor guys who spent months in what must have been a pretty desolate post, watching the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, swatting mosquitos, and probably just itching to fire this thing.

Looks like a fun place to visit. Nice pic.

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Wonder if it's OK to shoot +P in it?

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

No, no, no, you fool!

Here's the new +P version.

Wow that is a big gun barrel that is!

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I believe it's a 16 inch gun similar to the ones
used on the North Carolina & South Dakota Class Battleships
(the Main battery on the Iowa class were 16 inch too, but slightly bigger)

Here is a document the gives the history
of Virginia's WWII Coastal Defenses

http://www.fsgfort.com/uploads/pdfs/...%20F36%20M.pdf

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

A rare photo of that area during the war.....



On a serious note, that is a neat bit of history!

I always hated those... trigger pull is a bit gritty.

Once Went to a briefing at Ft. Monroe.
The briefing room was originally a powder magazine.
It was way down below the ground!

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Think it will shoot as far as DC?

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

I believe the New Jersey had 16" guns too.

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The New Jersey was one of the Iowa class ships.

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Release the Kraken

At one time, up until WWII, the Coastal Artillery was a very important part of the U. S. national security program. If you were in the military, it was considered a high-prestige posting to serve at one of the coastal artillery batteries. Then of course heavy bombers and guided missiles came along and made it all obsolete.

I wonder how many rounds are in the course of fire for qualification for a coastal artillery badge?

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I'm curious - since it uses magnets and no powder, what causes the large muzzle flame?

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

It's just burning air. Bad***** qauntified.

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On Sullivan's Island, SC next to Fort Moultrie (revolutionary war and interesting in its own right) are coastal batteries that were built in the late 1800s and upgraded during WWII with guns of 16" planned but the only ones actually installed were 12", 6" and 90mm. Also of interest is the complex bunker system underneath that is great to explore and run around in. Windswept sandy beach, sea oats, grassy fields make it a nice serene spot at present. If anything goes down it may become a military post again. Right behind the fort and batteries are huge sand hills that are actually old bunkers. They are being used for various community needs and one is even a residence. I used to do business with the guy that lived in it who owned a plastics manufacturing firm. (The guy started in 1952. He was WAY ahead of his time). His house was marked by a mailbox that was made of plexiglass.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

That was all kinds of neat! I especially liked the pics of the 16" Howitzer. Never saw one before.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

I lived walking distance from Fort Moultrie in the mid/late 60's as a kid. Many, many days I played all over that place. What a great memory ...

Here is a document the gives the history
of Virginia's WWII Coastal Defenses

http://www.fsgfort.com/uploads/pdfs/...%20F36%20M.pdf[/QUOTE]

Great document!
Did not know that Army had ships called 'Mine Planters.'

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine...ice_(U.S._Army)

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The Japanese surrender was signed on the USS Mousuri with her 16" guns.

When they fired all the 16" guns it would pick the ship up and move it to the opposite side of aim

Reminicent of the Guns of Navaronne !!!
Cool stuff.
I had no idea we had gun emplacements like that on
our shores.

Chuck

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Iowa class were 16" 50 caliber.
The older ones were 16" 45 caliber.
The Japanese battle ship Yamato had 18.1" 45 caliber guns.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Luckily, the Yamato's main guns were only fired during one engagement with little effect.

Trivia: The original PC was developed at IBM's Boca Raton facility which was on Yamato Road!

That gun looks like it has good stopping power at close range. Does anyone think this would make a good bear gun?

That brings back memories. For over a year, around 1964 I was stationed at Cape Charles Air Force Station which used the old 16 inch gun emplacement land. Some of us explored the gun emplacements: the briars in the brush were over our heads. I remember the vast thickness of the concrete over the gun mounts. No guns were there in 1964, wonder where that tube came from. They also had observtion towers scattered aorund, and there was at least one near the Air Station, and another visible on an island when you drove the Bridge-Tunnel. It would be interesting to see how the whole system worked. I imagine there were a lot of 16 inch gun batteries in the Norfolk/Portsmouth area to protect the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

It's probably worth a lot less because it has been refinished. Did they make a snubby version for pocket carry?

The Yamato & the Bismark were both stopped by air craft.
But give ether the air cap that our Iowa class BB's had, they would have come out on top all the way till we decommissioned them.
And the Iowa class did have no problem with +P+ ammo!

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

This picture was taken on board the USS Wisconsin, another of the Iowa class ships, a few years ago. Those guns are HUGE! Biggest guns I've ever seen. The second is my wife standing much closer to the aft turret. Gives you a better sense of scale. That was some kind of impressive!

It still does!

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They say everything's bigger in Texas, cept for the USS Texas's guns. Ive been toold they were only 15 inchers. :-(( But, they were used to good effect at Normandy. :-))

forgive my ignorance, but how can a 16" gun be 50 caliber?

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I don't understand the caliber designations or why they don't correspond to the different inch sized guns.
Isn't caliber based on fractions of an inch?
Forgive my non-naval education.

Caliber represents the tube length in multiples of bore diameter. So a 16" 45 cal gun would have a tube 720" long (I hope, math in head is dangerous)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

16" 50 caliber is 16" X 50 = 800" or 66.7 feet long.

There was one of the shells at Earl, NJ on the pier the ammo ships were while my unit worked there.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Did the 16" 50s and the 16" 45s use the same projectile?

The USS Massachusetts has a whole bunch of them on display in the main turrets' loading mechanisms. But they all are stenciled with NSNs, which came into being a long time after this ship was decommissioned. A little disparity in the time sequence?

Been on board the Texas the difference between it and the Iowa is interesting,but the Texas was built....in 1895 if I remember right.

View from the Texas's flag bridge:

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Texas's keel was laid down on 17 April 1911 at Newport News, Virginia.
She was launched on 18 May 1912.
The ship was commissioned on 12 March 1914

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

Yes they Both Fired the Mark 8 "Super Heavy" Shell"
but the 16" 50's had more velocity and range

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Yea you're right,looking at the pictures this is what confused me:


Probably from the first one.

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Exactly

Her keel was laid down on 1 June 1889, at Portsmouth, Virginia, by the Norfolk Navy Yard. She was launched on 28 June 1892, sponsored by Miss Madge Houston Williams, granddaughter of Sam Houston; and commissioned on 15 August 1895,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(1892))

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

TEXAS has 14" rifles.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Yes, Ringo, the 14" rifles of USS Texas were used to good effect at Normandy, and in the Pacific as well. She fired literally thousands of main battery rounds on shore bombardment at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as did our other older BBs to support our forces on many island landings.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

P.S. Oops, forgot. USS Texas took part in the North African landings and helped to escort Allied convoys across the Atlantic.