Several weeks back, I visited Fort Worden, a long-closed Coast Artillery Corps base in Port Townsend, WA. It was built in 1903 to protect the entrance to Puget Sound, and almost all of the early fort structures are still intact, including enormous concrete casemates for the gun batteries. Fort Worden had "Disappearing" guns up to 12". Other CAC installations had guns up to 16". There were even large mortars there. The guns themselves are long gone. There is also an excellent Coast Artillery Corps museum. It has a lot of small arms on display, many of which were foreign, never used by the U. S. Military. Included were a couple of German Maxims and a Japanese MG. There was one S&W M1917 on display which appeared to have been re-blued. Fort Worden was decommissioned in 1953. It is now a Washington state park. It was said that there were well over 100 Coast Artillery posts on both coasts of the US, and in other locations. None ever fired a shot in anger as aircraft and missiles made such installations obsolete.

My question is just from what nations did the United States expect a naval attack on its shores to require that level of fortification? I can't think of any likely candidates.

In 1942 a Japanese submarine fired on Fort Stevens, located on the Oregon coast.

The coast artillery batteries on both sides of the Columbia River were there to protect the entrance to the river.

The US had imperial ambitions during the years leading up to that time frame. Perhaps they were preparing for retaliation from the major military powers they were provoking.
The Coast Artillery was formed just four years after the Spanish-American War.

I can't help but think that John Browning got the idea for the "parallel ruler" action of the Colt 1900 self-loading series from the "disappearing guns". The barrel movement is IDENTICAL.

• Britain
• Japan
• Germany
• Spain

The primary concern was seaborne invasion obviously by any country with a Navy large enough and powerful enough for such an invasion to make any sense.

Fort Worden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Been there a few times.

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This soldier was a friend of my dad. The 209th Coastal Artillery Corp. was a National Guard unit from upstate NY (Buffalo area) and I assume were there to protect the Great Lakes American side from any attacks. Notice the date on the photo. I'd say he's PO'd and ready to take on the Axis enemy.

Nice '03. Can't tell if it's an A-1 because his hand covers the small of the stock.

I belong to the Coast Defense Study Group, a small organization which organizes tours and publishes four issues a year. Got interested when I explored a fort in Narragansett, RI, as a teen. Check out the website.

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Took one of those coastal cruises up & down Maine a couple of years ago; great scenery and lobsters. Just about every port city in Maine has coastal forts; lots of them! Story from the cruise director was that they were built back during the civil war. Apparently they were expecting a southern invasion, or something. The Maine coastal forts don't have anything fancy like disappearing cannon; just lots of gun ports amid thick stone walls. And an occasional seal. -S2

If you get the chance, check out Fort Casey in Whidbey Island. It's one of the three forts covering Puget Sound, (Casey, Worden and Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island.) Fort Casey used to have one of the disappearing 12" guns mounted in one of the batteries. I think they had one of the mortars also.

Here's some photos of Fort Casey: fort casey whidbey island - Bing images

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From a picture of a 12" disappearing gun in the Fort Worden museum. All the guns are gone, but the concrete remains:


One of the other CAC forts on Whidbey Island across from Fort Worden had 16" guns. A couple of 16" shells from another CAC fort at Port Angeles WA are on display in front of the Fort Worden museum. The guide said that the guns were good for about 250 shots before they had to be removed and sent back for re-lining. That must have been a major job to remove them. Can't imagine how it was done back then. There is still an active Navy ammunition depot on Whidbey Island across from Fort Worden. You can see it from Fort Worden. The guide said the same types of guns were on Corregidor at the time of the Japanese invasion furing WWII. Only problem was that the guns were pointed out to sea, and the Japanese attacked by land behind them. One of the 16" shells:

The Japanese fire was so inaccurate that the US commander did not order return fire, according to local lore because he was worried that the muzzle flashes of his guns would show the enemy where the actual targets were.

The coastal fortifications at Ft. Stevens to protect the mouth of the Columbia actually go back to the Civil War, when Confederate raiders did operate in the Pacific. We have an annual CW reenactment on Labor Day weekend at Ft. Stevens Park, which I participated in for many years; the battlefield was right next to the river and the spectator bleachers were on top of the old earthworks, pretty much the only Civil War-related location you could come up with out here.

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The US had reason to prepare for Japanese attack as early as 1939, but the general public was just not willing to accept that. My Dad was mobilized a year before Pearl.

One of my uncles was a mechanic in the Coastal Artillery.
He got caught in a we need bodies now!
Wound up in the assault force landing on Attu.
Got his feet frozen, was evacuated by submarine.

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Had two great uncles in the CAC captured on Corregidor. Kimball from WV

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Between the two World Wars the Coast Artillery Corps also incorporated the air defense units of the Army. One of them was the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment (AAA), a National Guard unit from New Mexico. They were activated in mid 1941, and sent to the Philippines to provide air defense for Clark Field and Manila. They had obsolete equipment: 3 inch M 1926 guns which used the same tube as the M 1916, instead of 90mm M1s, and a smaller searchlight. The regiment was something like 1800 men strong, and only 36 had been KIA before the surrender at Bataan. They went into captivity, made the Death March, had horrible things happen to them, and when liberated in 1945, less than 900 of them remained. In the 1950s, I served with a Captain who had been a Sergeant in the Machine Gun Battery (water cooled 50s).

Been there several times. Very nice day trip. I have photos buried somewhere...

The MEXICANS were worried enough that the Japanese would invade and dig their own canal that they built fortifications at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. General Manuel Mondragon who designed the Mondragon straight pull and semi-auto rifles was involved in arming of the fortifications.

Battery, 155mm Port Aransas. There were two emplacements on top of the sand hills. Nazi U-boat (s) was/were active in the Gulf of Mexico.

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We have a bunch of them in the S.F. area. From Daly City to Marin, not to mention the Nike bases.

Lots of fun to walk around and observe the magnitude of the works.

Great shot. If the original pic was ever for sale--it would fetch more than a few "pretty pennies."

In its day the CAC was a prestige outfit. Before aircraft and guided missiles, the CAC was about as high-tech as the Army got, and had sophisticated weapons and fire control equipment that didn't exist elsewhere in the Army. It took well educated and trained personnel to operate them. The big benefit to a posting in the CAC was that as a soldier, you got to sleep in a bed in the barracks every night and got good chow in the mess hall every day. Not much in the way of marching and digging trenches and latrines was required.

Not to mention getting to hang out at the beach

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These two never fired a shot in anger:

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