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Coast Defense Mortar
The 12-inch coast defense mortar was a weapon of caliber emplaced during the 1890s and early 20th century to defend US harbors from seaborne attack. In 1886, when the Endicott Board set forth its initial plan for upgrading the coast defenses of the United States, it relied primarily on mortars, not guns, to defend American harbors. "Sea-Coast Mortar Fire", Report of a Board, in ''Journal of the United States Artillery'', Vol. 7, No. 3, 1897. Over the years, provision was made for fortifications that would mount some 476 of these weapons, although not all of these tubes were installed. Ninety-one of these weapons were remounted as railway artillery in 1918-1919, but this was too late to see action in World War I. The railway mortars were only deployed in small quantities, and none overseas. The fixed mortars in the Philippines saw action in the Japanese invasion in World War II. All of the fixed mortars (except four) in the United States were scrapped by 1944, as new weapons replac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of cannons were highly important to military affairs and generally represented the areas of highest technology and capital cost among materiel. The advent of 20th-century technologies, especially military aviation, naval aviation, jet aircraft, and guided missiles, reduced the primacy of cannons, battleships, and coastal artillery. In countries where coastal artillery has not been disbanded, these forces have acquired amphibious capabilities. In littoral warfare, mobile coastal artillery armed with surface-to-surface missiles can still be used to deny the use of sea lanes. It was long held as a rule of thumb that one shore-based gun equaled three naval guns of the same caliber, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allo ... [...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 instrum ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Ruckman
Fort Ruckman was a U.S. Coast Artillery fort located in Nahant, Massachusetts. Originally called the Nahant Military Reservation, the fort was laid out in 1904-1907 and covered an area of about 45 acres just northwest of Bass Point, on the southwest side of the Nahant peninsula. During the 1920s, this area was renamed in honor of Maj. Gen. John Wilson Ruckman, a former Colonel in the Coast Artillery. The fort was decommissioned after World War II and the property was sold to the town and to private owners beginning in about 1947. The fire control tower indicated on the map was used as part of the Army/Lincoln Labs Nike program-related radar research and development during the late 1940s and early 1950s and at one point had a large radar antenna on its roof. A Nike target tracking radar was also erected on Bayley's Hill (the eastern edge of the fort) during the 1950s. During World War II, Fort Ruckman was part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston, and housed the Group Command post ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wilson Ruckman
John Wilson Ruckman (October 10, 1858 – June 6, 1921) was a major general in the United States Army. Early life Ruckman was born at Deers, Illinois, a flag-station just southeast of the University of Illinois. Biographies, however, usually list his place of birth as Sidney, Illinois (Champaign County). His parents, Thomas and Mary O'Brien Ruckman, were farmers. His uncles, John W. and Wilson Ruckman served the Union Army with distinction in the American Civil War (Company A, Illinois 35th Infantry). After three semesters at the University of Illinois, Ruckman was appointed from the 14th Congressional District of Illinois for acceptance to the United States Military Academy. His nomination was made by Republican Congressman Joseph Cannon. Career Ruckman graduated from West Point (1883), the U.S. Artillery School (1892), the U.S. Army War College (1915), and the U.S. Naval War College (1916). Ruckman was assigned to Fort Hamilton, New York (1883–1890) and developed a frien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Banks (Massachusetts)
Fort Banks was a U.S. Coast Artillery fort located in Winthrop, Massachusetts Winthrop is a town in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,316 at the 2020 census. Winthrop is an ocean-side suburban community in Greater Boston situated at the north entrance to Boston Harbor, close to Logan .... It served to defend Boston Harbor from enemy attack from the sea and was built in the 1809 during what is known as the Board of Fortifications#Endicott Board, Endicott period, a time in which the coast defenses of the United States were seriously expanded and upgraded with new technology. Today, the fort's mortar battery is on the National Register of Historic Places. The fort was active during World War II as the site of the Harbor Defense Command Post (HDCP) for the Harbor Defenses of Boston, and was greatly expanded with numerous temporary structures (see 1938 map at top left). Because of its campus-like appearance and the fact that it was located ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Totten (Queens)
Fort Totten is a former active United States Army installation in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the Willets Point peninsula on the north shore of Long Island. Fort Totten is at the head of Little Neck Bay, where the East River widens to become Long Island Sound. While the U.S. Army Reserve continues to maintain a presence at the fort, the property is now owned by the City of New York. History Civil War era Construction began on the Fort at Willets Point in 1862 (named Fort Totten in 1898), after the land was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1857 from the Willets family. The fort is close to the Queens neighborhoods of Bay Terrace, Bayside, Beechhurst and Whitestone. The original purpose was to defend the East River approach to New York Harbor, combined with the preceding Fort Schuyler, which faces it from Throggs Neck in the Bronx on the opposite side of the river entrance. The fort was among several forts of the third system of seaco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Larcom Abbot
Henry Larcom Abbot (August 13, 1831 – October 1, 1927) was a military engineer and career officer in the United States Army. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was appointed brevet brigadier general of volunteers for his contributions in engineering and artillery. In 1866 he received additional brevet appointments as major general of volunteers and brigadier general in the Regular Army. He conducted several scientific studies of the Mississippi River with captain, later Major General Andrew A. Humphreys. After his retirement, Abbot served as a consultant for the locks on the Panama Canal. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1863. Military life Abbot attended West Point and graduated second in his class, which included Jeb Stuart and G. W. Custis Lee) with a degree in military engineering in 1854. He initially wanted to join the Artillery, but shortly after graduation, a classmate convinced him to choose the Engin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
