WWII Coastal Defenses:What the American's had that was never used.

I did not know this before, The U.S. did in fact have some defense against naval invasion.

Basically it was forts along the coasts(western) armed primarily with 16-14 inch guns capable of fighting Battleships.

However these batteries were subjectable to aerial assault and naval carriers, enemy bombers would make short work of the cannons.

Here is some additional info and pics:Linky Linky

Shattered OUT...

Interesting pics in the link. I'm glad the US never had to use those defenses. I think it's better that we took the fight to our enemies home rather than trying to defend our own from them.

Shattered, if you are ever in SF, go across the Golden Gate and into the Marin headlands. You can hike around all these coastal batteries and bunkers. They even have an Nike Ajax SAM battery that you can tour as well. Its a pretty cool sight. I also believe Alcatraz had some gun emplacements at one time as well.

there's a pic of some of our coastal defences in the ats.com banner. camp hero at montauk used to have some pretty big guns before it became an air force early warning radar base (or something more sinister). i've been there myself and seen the old emplacements.

-koji K.

Yeah after Pearl Harbor the Californians were hysterical that an impending invasion or attack on them was imminent. To calm them down the government placed defenses including Anti Aircraft batteries, Ant ship gun, fighter squadrons and various other things.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Yeah after Pearl Harbor the Californians were hysterical that an impending invasion or attack on them was imminent. To calm them down the government placed defenses including Anti Aircraft batteries, Ant ship gun, fighter squadrons and various other things.

Alot of these were pre WWII Westpoint. But yeah, they got pretty worked up about it!

Well I saw on the History Channel(never failed me) that the cannons were subjectable to enemy aircraft(no mention of AA guns).

And WestPoint, yeah, most of the forts were in fact pre-WWII.

Shattered OUT...

P.S. the troops that armed these cannons were called Cosmoliners because the oil used to maintain the cannons was called cosmoline and the troops were usually covered by it so they got a freaky name.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by ShatteredSkies]

Those coastal defenses were not from World War Two but earlier times, I'd say around 1900. They were obsolete by WWII.

Yeah I see a lot of stuff on the History Channel. The retracktable guns were pretty interesting. I think at one point Alcatraz was a fortress that was then converted into a prison.

If any one wants a crash course on WWII defenses in California and wants to see a funny movie, watch 1941 By Steven Spielberg. But a lot of defenses were added after Pearl Harbor even though there were some pre WWII.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
If any one wants a crash course on WWII defenses in California and wants to see a funny movie, watch 1941 By Steven Spielberg. But a lot of defenses were added after Pearl Harbor even though there were some pre WWII.

The Smaller guns I believe were added, but the forts and larger emplacments were already there.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by taibunsuu
Those coastal defenses were not from World War Two but earlier times, I'd say around 1900. They were obsolete by WWII.

Well if you think about it, the cannons were in fact used as primary defense in WWII I do not think the U.S would keep obsolete weapons as defense.

They were all decomishened Post-war era in the 1950's.

So they weren't exactly obsolete at the time, just never used(never had to).

Shattered OUT...

Well I remember there were numerous flak guns around LA. It reminds me of an incident were unidentified flying objects were spotted detected over LA. The flak guns fired at them thinking they were Japanese but nothing ever came down except flak which caused thousands of dollars in property damage.

Originally posted by cyberdude78
Well I remember there were numerous flak guns around LA. It reminds me of an incident were unidentified flying objects were spotted detected over LA. The flak guns fired at them thinking they were Japanese but nothing ever came down except flak which caused thousands of dollars in property damage.

Really? When was this? Do you have any additional information?

Shattered OUT...

Heres a link I found with a quick google search.
shop.alienzoo.com...
I first saw this on the History Channel and this site describes what I remember seeing so the sites reliable enough. Anywho it was some time during WWII. Enjoy.

hey guys not to burst ur buble, but i jus heard on one of those history channel shows that those coastal defenses were infact fake things set up to calm civilian fears but who knows..

I imagine that the U.S. wouldn't give up California without a fight. Did you know that it had a greater GDP than the Arab League? One of the richest states, and it would've sooner been reduced to rubble than surrendered to the Japanese. Besides, they wouldn't have been able to hold it.

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
Well I saw on the History Channel(never failed me) that the cannons were subjectable to enemy aircraft(no mention of AA guns).

And WestPoint, yeah, most of the forts were in fact pre-WWII.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by ShatteredSkies]

Well, most of the Japanese infantry weapons were made in the 1930s, before the conquest of Manchuria, so that made us even.

Originally posted by cyberdude78
Well I remember there were numerous flak guns around LA. It reminds me of an incident were unidentified flying objects were spotted detected over LA. The flak guns fired at them thinking they were Japanese but nothing ever came down except flak which caused thousands of dollars in property damage.

They saw Venus. I'm not kidding.