Coastal artillery gun at Fort Columbia State Park

Fort Church was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

coastal defense fort in

Little Compton, Rhode Island Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, Rhode Island, Tiverton, and on the east by the t ...

. Together with

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the w ...

near

Point Judith Point Judith is a village and a small cape, on the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island, United States, on the western side of Narragansett Bay where it opens out onto Rhode Island Sound. It is the location for the year-round ferry service that ...

, it superseded all previous heavy gun defenses in the

Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay The Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps Harbor Defense Command, harbor defense command. It coordinated the coastal defence and fortification, coast defenses of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island from ...

History

Fort Church was built as part of a general modernization of US coast defenses that began in 1940 with the outbreak of war in Europe and the

Fall of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...

. The fort was named for Colonel

Benjamin Church Benjamin Church may refer to: * Benjamin Church (physician) (1734–1778), effectively the first Surgeon General of the U.S. Army * Benjamin Church (ranger) (1639–1718), considered the father of the U.S. Army Rangers * Benjamin Church (carpenter) ...

(1639–1718), considered a forerunner of the

United States Army Rangers The United States Army Rangers are U.S. Army personnel who have served in any unit which has held the official designation of "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the Ranger School, even if they have never served in a ...

and buried in Little Compton.FortWiki article on Fort Church
/ref> The goal was to replace all previous heavy weapons, many of which were over 35 years old, with long-range

16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun The 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun and the near-identical Mark 3 were guns originally designed and built for the United States Navy as the main armament for the South Dakota-class battleship (1920), ''South Dakota''-class battleships and s. The succe ...

s. Lighter weapons would be replaced by 6-inch guns on high-angle shielded barbette carriages. Ammunition

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

and the 16-inch guns would be in

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" ...

d bunkers to protect against air attack. Fort Church also had a rare casemated 8-inch gun battery.Berhow, p. 204 The fort was intended to protect the approaches to

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. S ...

and its easternmost arm, called the

Sakonnet River The Sakonnet River is a tidal strait in the state of Rhode Island which flows approximately between Mount Hope Bay and Rhode Island Sound. It separates Aquidneck Island from the eastern portion of Newport County. Etymology "Sakonnet" is ...

, as part of the

. It was mirrored by

near

. Three reservations were acquired for Fort Church 1939–1942, which was initially named the Sakonnet Point Military Reservation. The North Reservation was at the Sakonnet Golf Club, the East Reservation was near Briggs Marsh and South Main Road, and the South Reservation was near Sakonnet Point itself. Battery Gray, or Battery Construction Number (BCN) 107, was on the North Reservation and had two 16-inch guns. Battery Reilly was on the East Reservation with two casemated 8-inch guns. BCN 212 with two 6-inch guns was on the South Reservation, along with two "

Panama mount The Panama Mount is a form of gun mount for fixed coastal artillery developed by the U.S. Army in Panama during the 1920s. Widely used during the buildup to and during World War II by the United States military, it was typically equipped with ...

s" (circular concrete platforms) for towed 155 mm guns. Battery Gray was named for Major Quinn Gray. Battery Reilly was named for Captain Henry J. Reilly (1845–1900), who was killed at Peking, China in the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

. In 1948, with the war over, Fort Church's guns were scrapped along with almost all other US coast artillery weapons.

Present

The batteries at Fort Church have all been buried or built over.

References

* *

External links

List of all US coastal forts and batteries
at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
FortWiki, lists all CONUS and Canadian forts

at ArlingtonCemetery.net, an unofficial website {{Forts in Rhode Island

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Buildings and structures in Little Compton, Rhode Island Former installations of the United States Army 1942 establishments in Rhode Island 1948 disestablishments in Rhode Island

History

Present

See also

References

External links