Battery 241
Twin six-inch armored turret guns
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Battery 241 at Fort MacArthur in 1943 |
Beginning in about 1940 the
United States began to take another serious look at the
state of it's coastal defenses. As a result of that
re-evaluation dozens of forts around the country became
slated for modernization.
The work was slow but
America's entry into world war two accelerated the building
program. In February of 1942 work
began at Fort MacArthur on a new type of standardized
intermediate range coastal defense battery.
One of the landmark features
of this battery design was the use of both optical
instruments and radar for targeting as well as
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an early mechanical computer for
calculating the firing solution. the 200 series battery was
also relatively inexpensive and quick to build because the
amount of concrete used to protect their magazines was
substantially less than batteries of the previous
generation.
All three
of the 200 series batteries around Fort MacArthur survived
until long after the end of World War Two; but time and
changing defense strategies finally caught up with them. In
1956 the guns met the cutting torch and the last of the big
Coast Artillery guns of Fort MacArthur were turned into
scrap.
Today the battery sits
abandoned just below and in front of the
Korean Friendship Bell. The intricately decorated bell
and pavilion was donated in 1976 to the people of the city
of Los Angeles by the people of the Republic of Korea to
celebrate the bicentennial of the U.S. independence, honor
veterans of the Korean War, and to consolidate traditional
friendship between the two countries. |
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The Guns of Fort MacArthur |
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