Defensive military service branch
Coastal artillery
is the branch of the
armed forces
concerned with operating anti-ship
artillery
or fixed
gun batteries
in
coastal fortifications
.
[1]
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 allowed for significantly higher accuracy than their sea-mounted counterparts.
[
citation needed
]
Land-based guns also benefited in most cases from the additional protection of walls or earth mounds. The range of
gunpowder
-based coastal artillery also has a derivative role in international law and diplomacy, wherein a country's
three-mile limit
of "coastal waters" is recognized as under the nation or state's laws.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
One of the first recorded uses of coastal artillery was in 1381?during the war between
Ferdinand I of Portugal
and
Henry II of Castile
?when the troops of the
King of Portugal
used
cannons
to defend
Lisbon
against an attack from the Castilian naval fleet.
The use of coastal artillery expanded during the
Age of Discoveries
, in the 16th century; when a colonial power took over an overseas territory, one of their first tasks was to build a coastal fortress, both to deter rival naval powers and to subjugate the natives. The
Martello tower
is an excellent example of a widely used coastal fort that mounted defensive artillery, in this case, muzzle-loading cannon. During the 19th century
China
also built hundreds of coastal fortresses in an attempt to counter Western naval threats.
Coastal artillery fortifications generally followed the development of land fortifications; sometimes separate land defence forts were built to protect coastal forts. Through the middle 19th century, coastal forts could be
bastion forts
,
star forts
,
polygonal forts
, or
sea forts
, the first three types often with detached gun batteries called "water batteries".
[3]
Coastal defence weapons throughout history were heavy
naval guns
or weapons based on them, often supplemented by lighter weapons. In the late 19th century separate batteries of coastal artillery replaced forts in some countries; in some areas, these became widely separated geographically through the mid-20th century as weapon ranges increased. The amount of landward defence provided began to vary by country from the late 19th century; by 1900 new US forts almost totally neglected these defences.
Booms
were also usually part of a protected harbor's defences. In the middle 19th century
underwater minefields
and later
controlled mines
were often used, or stored in peacetime to be available in wartime. With the rise of the
submarine
threat at the beginning of the 20th century,
anti-submarine nets
were used extensively, usually added to boom defences, with major warships often being equipped with them (to allow rapid deployment once the ship was anchored or moored) through early World War I. In World War I
railway artillery
emerged and soon became part of coastal artillery in some countries; with railway artillery in coast defence some type of revolving mount had to be provided to allow tracking of fast-moving targets.
[4]
Coastal artillery could be part of the Navy (as in
Scandinavian
countries, war-time
Germany
, and the
Soviet Union
), or part of the Army (as in
English-speaking countries
). In English-speaking countries, certain coastal artillery positions were sometimes referred to as 'Land Batteries',
[5]
[6]
[7]
distinguishing this form of
artillery battery
from for example
floating batteries
.
[8]
[9]
In the United Kingdom, in the later 19th and earlier 20th Centuries, the land batteries of the coastal artillery were the responsibility of the
Royal Garrison Artillery
.
In the United States, coastal artillery was established in 1794 as a branch of the
Army
and a
series of construction programs
of coastal defenses began: the "First System" in 1794, the "Second System" in 1804, and the "Third System" or "Permanent System" in 1816. Masonry forts were determined to be obsolete following the American Civil War, and a postwar program of earthwork defenses was poorly funded. In 1885 the
Endicott Board
recommended an extensive program of new
U.S. harbor defenses
, featuring new rifled artillery and minefield defenses; most of the board's recommendations were implemented. Construction on these was initially slow, as new weapons and systems were developed from scratch, but was greatly hastened following the Spanish?American War of 1898. Shortly thereafter, in 1907, Congress split the field artillery and coast artillery into separate branches, creating a separate
Coast Artillery Corps
(CAC) The CAC was disbanded as a separate branch in 1950.
[10]
In the first decade of the 20th century, the United States Marine Corps established the
Advanced Base Force
. The force was used for setting up and defending advanced overseas bases, and its close ties to the Navy allowed it to man coast artillery around these bases.
Russo-Japanese War
[
edit
]
During the
Siege of Port Arthur
, Japanese forces had captured the vantage point on 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur harbor. After relocating heavy 11-inch (280 mm) howitzers with 500 pound (~220 kg) armor-piercing shells to the summit of the Hill, the Japanese bombarded the
Russian fleet
in the harbor, systematically sinking the Russian ships within range. The Japanese were attacking the city and the Russian ships were trapped in the harbor due to mines, making this one of the few cases of coastal guns being employed in an offensive action.
On December 5, 1904, the
battleship
Poltava
was destroyed, followed by the battleship
Retvizan
on December 7, 1904, the battleships
Pobeda
and
Peresvet
and the cruisers
Pallada
and
Bayan
on December 9, 1904. The battleship
Sevastopol
, although hit 5 times by 11-inch (280 mm) shells, managed to move out of range of the guns. Stung by the fact that the Russian Pacific Fleet had been sunk by the army and not by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and with a direct order from Tokyo that the
Sevastopol
was not to be allowed to escape, Admiral Togo sent in wave after wave of
destroyers
in six separate attacks on the sole remaining Russian battleship. After 3 weeks, the
Sevastopol
was still afloat, having survived 124
torpedoes
fired at her while sinking two Japanese destroyers and damaging six other vessels. The Japanese had meanwhile lost the cruiser
Takasago
to a mine outside the harbor.
World War II
[
edit
]
Norway
[
edit
]
During the
Battle of Drøbak Sound
in April 1940, the
German navy
lost the new
heavy cruiser
Blucher
, one of their most modern ships, to a combination of fire from various coastal artillery emplacements, including two obsolete German-made
Krupp
280 mm (11 in) guns and equally obsolete
Whitehead torpedoes
. The Blucher had entered the narrow waters of the
Oslofjord
, carrying 1,000 soldiers and leading a German invasion fleet. The first salvo from the
Norwegian
defenders, fired from
Oscarsborg Fortress
about 950 meters distance, disabled the center propeller turbine and set her afire.
Fire from the smaller guns (57 mm to 150 mm) swept her decks and disabled her steering, and she received two torpedo hits before the fires reached her magazines and doomed her. As a result, the remainder of the invasion fleet reversed, the Norwegian royal family, parliament and cabinet escaped, and the Norwegian gold reserves were safely removed from the city before it fell.
Singapore
[
edit
]
Singapore
was defended by its famous large-caliber coastal guns, which included one battery of three
15-inch (381 mm) guns
and one with two 15-inch (381 mm) guns. Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
nicknamed the garrison as "The
Gibraltar
of the East" and the "Lion of the Sea". This perhaps compelled the Japanese to launch their invasion of Singapore from the north, via
Malaya
, in December 1941.
It is a commonly repeated misconception that Singapore's large-calibre coastal guns were ineffective against the Japanese because they were designed to face south to defend the harbour against naval attack and could not be turned round to face north. In fact, most of the guns could be turned, and were indeed fired at the invaders. However, the guns were supplied mostly with
armour-piercing
(AP) shells and few
high explosive
(HE) shells. AP shells were designed to penetrate the hulls of heavily armoured warships and were mostly ineffective against infantry targets.
Military analysts later estimated that if the guns had been well supplied with HE shells the Japanese attackers would have suffered heavy casualties, but the invasion would not have been prevented by this means alone.
The guns of Singapore achieved their purpose in deterring a Japanese naval attack as the possibility of an expensive capital ship being sunk made it inadvisable for the Japanese to attack Singapore via the sea.
The very fact that the Japanese chose to advance down from Thailand through Malaya to take Singapore was a testament for the respect the Japanese had for the coastal artillery at Singapore.
However, the lack of HE shells rendered Singapore vulnerable to a land based attack from Malaya via the Johore straits.
Pacific
[
edit
]
In December 1941, during the
Battle of Wake Island
, US
Marine defense battalions
fired at the Japanese invasion fleet with six
5-inch (127 mm) guns
, sinking the Japanese destroyer
Hayate
by scoring direct hits on her magazines, and scoring eleven hits on the light cruiser
Yubari
, forcing her to withdraw, and temporarily repulsing Japanese efforts to take the island.
The
Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays
denied Manila harbor to the invading Japanese until
Corregidor
fell to amphibious assault on 6 May 1942, nearly a month after the
fall of Bataan
. Beyond tying up besieging Japanese forces (who suffered severe supply shortages due to the inability to use Manila as a port), the forts allowed
interception of radio traffic
later decisive at Midway.
The Japanese defended the island of
Betio
in the Tarawa atoll with numerous 203 mm (8-inch) coastal guns. In 1943, these were knocked out early in the battle with a combined USN naval and aerial bombardment.
Atlantic Wall
[
edit
]
Nazi Germany fortified its conquered territories with the
Atlantic Wall
.
Organization Todt
built a string of
reinforced concrete
pillboxes
and bunkers along the beaches, or sometimes slightly inland, to house
machine guns
,
antitank guns
, and artillery ranging in size up to the large
40.6 cm naval guns
. The intent was to destroy Allied
landing craft
before they could unload. During the
Normandy Landings
in 1944, shore bombardment was given a high importance, using ships from battleships to destroyers and landing craft. For example, the Canadians at Juno beach had fire support many times greater than they had had for the
Dieppe Raid
in 1942.
The old battleships
HMS
Ramillies
and
Warspite
with the monitor
HMS
Roberts
were used to suppress shore batteries east of the
Orne
; cruisers targeted shore batteries at
Ver-sur-Mer
and
Moulineaux
; while eleven destroyers provided local fire support. The (equally old) battleship
Texas
was used to suppress the battery at
Pointe du Hoc
, but the guns there had been moved to an inland position, unbeknownst to the Allies. In addition, there were modified
landing craft
: eight "Landing Craft Gun", each with two 4.7-inch guns; four "Landing Craft Support" with automatic cannon; eight
Landing Craft Tank (Rocket)
, each with a single salvo of 1,100 5-inch rockets; eight
Landing Craft Assault
(Hedgerow), each with twenty-four bombs intended to detonate beach mines prematurely. Twenty-four Landing Craft Tank carried
Priest
self-propelled 105mm
howitzers
which also fired while they were on the run-in to the beach. Similar arrangements existed at other beaches.
On June 25, 1944 the American battleship
Texas
engaged German shore batteries on the
Cotentin Peninsula
around Cherbourg. Battery Hamburg straddled the ship with a salvo of 240mm shells, eventually hitting
Texas
twice; one shell damaging the conning tower and navigation bridge, with the other penetrating below decks but failing to explode. Return fire from
Texas
knocked out the German battery.
Allied efforts to take the port of
Toulon
in August 1944 ran into "Big Willie", a battery consisting of two prewar French turrets, equipped with the guns taken from the French battleship
Provence
, each mounting a pair of
340 mm naval guns
. The range and power of these guns was such that the Allies dedicated a
battleship
or
heavy cruiser
to shelling the fort every day, with the battleship
Nevada
eventually silencing the guns on August 23, 1944.
[15]
[16]
Post-World War II
[
edit
]
After
World War II
the advent of
jet aircraft
and
guided missiles
reduced the role of coastal artillery in defending a country against air and sea attacks while also rendering fixed artillery emplacements vulnerable to enemy strikes.
The Scandinavian countries, with their long coastlines and relatively weak navies, continued in the development and installation of modern coastal artillery systems, usually hidden in well-camouflaged armored turrets (for example Swedish
12 cm automatic turret gun
). In these countries the coastal artillery was part of the naval forces and used naval targeting systems. Both mobile and stationary (e.g.
100 56 TK
) systems were used.
In countries where coastal artillery has not been disbanded, these forces have acquired
amphibious
or
anti-ship missile
capabilities. In constricted waters, mobile coastal artillery armed with
surface-to-surface missiles
still can be used to deny the use of sea lanes. The
Type 88 Surface-to-Ship Missile
is an example of modern, mobile coastal artillery. Poland also retains a Coastal Missile Division armed with the
Naval Strike Missile
.
[17]
During the
Croatian War of Independence
in 1991, coastal artillery operated by
Croatian forces
played an important role in defending Croatian
Adriatic
coast from
Yugoslav
naval and air strikes, especially around Zadar, ?ibenik and Split, defeating the
Yugoslav Navy
in the
Battle of the Dalmatian Channels
.
In practice, there is a distinction between artillery sited to bombard a coastal region and coastal artillery, which has naval-compatible targeting systems and communications that are integrated with the navy rather than the army.
Examples
[
edit
]
- In the UK
- British coastal guns outside the UK
- United States of America
- Canada
- Asia
|
- Nazi Germany
- South & Central America
- Australia
- Other
|
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
-
-
Pallada
under fire as the Oil Depot burns
-
Pallada
and
Pobeda
-
The evolution of coastal fortification design, between the 1790s and 1822, can be discerned between
Ferry Island Fort
(in the foreground), with multiple guns arrayed to cover the water westward, and the
Martello tower
in the background, which used a single gun with 360° traverse to cover the area.
-
19th-century coastal artillery guns preserved in
Suomenlinna
fortress in
Helsinki
.
-
British 64 Pounder RML Gun on a Moncrieff disappearing mount, at Scaur Hill Fort,
Bermuda
. The fort housed a fixed battery, meant to serve as coastal artillery, as well as guarding against an overland attack.
-
Schematic of a coastal fortification with a rotating gun turret.
-
Coastal fortification with fixed guns.
-
16-inch Navy MkIIMI gun
(possibly MkIIIMI) firing on a US Army coast defense mount, 1931. The weapon behind it is on a disappearing carriage.
-
Typical US Army World War II installation of a 16-inch casemated gun.
-
A 9.2" RBL (two 6" RBLs are in background) of the
St. David's Battery
(or the Examination Battery),
St. David's Island, Bermuda
in 2011
-
-
St. David's Battery, Bermuda
in 1942, with two 9.2" (left) and two 6" guns
-
A
6" RBL
, and two
9.2" RBLs
, at St. David's Battery, in Bermuda, in 2011
-
-
3 abandoned
BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun
at 7th coastal artillery battery at
Outao
,
Portugal
See also
[
edit
]
Books and articles
[
edit
]
- Chung, Ong Chit (2011).
Operation Matador: World War II ? Britain's Attempt to Foil the Japanese Invasion of Malaya and Singapore
. Hong Kong: Marshall Cavendish International Asia.
ISBN
978-9814435444
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Peter Doyle; Matthew R. Bennett (2002).
Fields of Battle: Terrain in Military History
. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
ISBN
1-4020-0433-8
.
- ^
www.pacioos.hawaii.edu
https://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/voyager/info/three_nautical_mile.html
. Retrieved
2023-06-01
.
- ^
Weaver II, John R. (2018).
A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816?1867
(2nd ed.). McLean, VA: Redoubt Press. pp. 16?17, 24?34.
ISBN
978-1-7323916-1-1
.
- ^
Hogg, Ian V. (2002).
British & American Artillery of World War II
. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. pp. 180?181.
ISBN
1-85367-478-8
.
- ^
George Floyd Duckett
(1848).
Technological military dictionary, German-English-French
. p. 201.
- ^
John Gross Barnard (1861).
Notes on Sea-Coast Defence
. D. Van Nostrand. p.
48
.
land battery.
- ^
Civil War Forificiations Digital Research Library (2004).
"Batteries, River and Coast Defense"
.
Dictionary of Fortification
. Retrieved
14 December
2016
.
- ^
Glenn Tucker (2015).
Chickamauga: Bloody Battle In The West
. Pickle Partners Publishing.
ISBN
9781786251152
.
Hamilton had experimented with an ironclad floating battery, and Stevens had set up an ironclad land battery
- ^
Rutter (1867).
"The Great Ironclad Floating Gun Battery For Bay and Harbour Defences"
. Illustrated Sydney News – via Trove ? National Library of Australia.
[the floating battery] will have all the advantages of a land battery, combined with, the capability of motion
- ^
See "Coast Artillery Organization: A Brief Overview, Bolling W. Smith and William C. Gaines, in a 2008 update to "American Seacoast Defenses," Mark Berhow, Ed., CDSG Press, McLean, VA, 2004. An online version of this article can be found
here
.
- ^
Karig, Commander Walter; Burton, Lieutenant Earl; Freeland, Lieutenant Stephen L. (1946).
Battle Report (Volume 2); The Atlantic War
. New York/Toronto: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. pp. 386?387.
- ^
Burton, Earl (September 2004).
"The Other D-Day: The Invasion Of Southern France"
.
Sea Classics
.
37
(9): 60?70
. Retrieved
2009-06-23
.
- ^
"Altair Agencja Lotnicza"
.
www.altair.com.pl
. Retrieved
29 March
2018
.
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