The Last Big Guns at Fort MacArthur By Jim Shneer

The Last Big Guns at Fort MacArthur

By Jim Shneer

The last and largest of Fort MacArthur's big guns became operational during the middle of World War II. Massive concrete casemates to accommodate the new guns were built at White Point, just below 25th Street and east of Western Avenue. Construction began in 1942, and the battery entered service in 1944.

Annotated Google map

Battery 127 (Google maps)

These fortifications, unlike their predecessors were designed to provide overhead protection for the weapons and their crews. The roofs of these fortifications are 12' thick.

This battery, Battery 127, was named Battery Bunker after Army Colonel Paul Delmont Bunker. It was equipped with two 16" naval guns with barrels 67' long. The total weight of the gun, the carriage and its base ring plus the carriage's protective shield was 586.25 tons. Of that, 158.42 tons recoiled when the gun fired and 493.04 tons moved when the gun traversed. The guns could hurl a shell weighing 2100-2300 pounds up to 25.7 miles. So a shell fired from this battery could hit Avalon on Catalina Island or the ocean beyond Twin Harbors; and had you been able to aim it northward, downtown Los Angeles.

Range of the guns at White Point had they been able to fire in any direction

Note the size of an adult standing near the front of the western casemate (author's collection)

Close-up view of the front of the western casemate (author's collection)

These Mark ll naval guns were originally designed and built to be the main armament for the South Dakota class battleships and the Lexington class battlecruisers. Both classes, started but incomplete, were cancelled as a condition of the 1922 Washington Naval treaty which the victorious allies agreed upon in order to limit the continuing naval arms race. As a result, about seventy 16" guns were surplus. Most were stored for future use and 20 were released to the Army for seacoast defense.

When the design of the Iowa Class battleships began in 1938, the US Navy's Bureau of Ordnance assumed these ships would use the surplus guns. However, the Bureau of Construction and Repair assumed that the ships would carry a new, lighter, more compact 16" gun and designed the ships with barbettes too small to accommodate the Mark ll. As a result of these two organizations' failure to communicate during the design of these ships, all the remaining Mark ll guns were released to the Army.

Although the guns are long gone, scrapped in the late 1940s, the fortification remains intact standing above and easily accessed from the White Point Nature Reserve.

Drawing of Battery 127 showing dimensions of the structure and how interior space was used

Jim is a former aerospace engineering manager who, since retiring, has become an author and speaker on a variety of military subjects. To read more about his work, please visit https://easyreadernews.com/the-battle-that-didnt-happen/. To learn about the military history of Fort MacArthur and Palos Verdes, please visit http://www.lulu.com/shop/james-shneer/exploring-the- military-history-of-fort-macarthur-and-palos-verdes/paperback/product-23784472.html to purchase a copy of his recent book.