Historic California Posts, Camps,
Stations and Airfields
Fort Funston: Battery Walter Howe
History
by Gordon Chappell, Regional Historian,
Pacific West Region, National Park Service
About 1890 the army engineers planning new
defenses of San Francisco Bay proposed to build two mortar batteries
on a tract of land between Laguna de la Merced (Lake Merced or,
more properly, Lake of Mercy) and the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern
corner of San Francisco. The Spring Valley Water Company, owner
of the yet undeveloped land, was amenable to a 'friendly' condemnation
suit, and in this manner the government acquired in December 1900
roughly 45 acres at $900 per acre, and established the Lake Merced
Military Reservation. However no construction took place until
World War I provided the stimulus, when in February 1917 the Engineers
commenced building a temporary battery for four 12-inch mortars,
with the guns for it to come from Batteries Stotsenburg-McKinnon,
Pits 3 and 4. The battery is significant because of its unusual
straight line configuration (a result of the practical difficulties
of having four crews working simultaneously in a four mortar pit),
and because it was the very last mortar battery in service in
the United States
Battery Howe apparently retained its mortars
until 1945, this "temporary" battery thus far outlasting
the armament of many "permanent" mortar batteries Today,
however, nothing remains of Battery Walter Howe. It was destroyed
when the City of San Francisco expanded it water treatment facilities
to the north of the old fort.
ROTC
Cadets firing a 12 inch mortar in the 1930's
Photograph
courtesy of Brian B. Chin
Model 1890 Mortar
on M1896 Carriage
Battery Walter
Howe
by Sgt. Maj. (CA) Dan Sebby, Military
Historian, California Military Department
Also in February 1917, the US Army Corps
of Engineers (USACE) commenced building a temporary battery for
four 12-inch seacoast mortars, with the ordnance for it coming
from Batteries Stotsenburg and William McKinnon at nearby Fort
Winfield Scott. On 30 January 1919, the battery was turned over
to the Coast Artillery Corps by the USACE. The mortar battery,
in which the four guns were uniquely arranged in a straight line,
was named for Brigadier General Walter Howe who had died in 1915.
The only concrete in the emplacement was in the gun platforms;
as the plotting room was a wooden building. Battery Walter Howe
would retain its mortars in an operational capacity until 1945,
and was the last operational seacoast mortar battery in the U.S.
Army's Coast Artillery Corps. . This "temporary" battery
far outlasted the armament of many "permanent" mortar
batteries.
Battery
Howe, Circa 1941
Battery Walter
Howe
by Justin Ruhge
In February 1917 the Corps of Engineers
made available $20,861 for the purpose of constructing temporary
emplacements at Lake Merced for four 12-inch mortars to come
from Battery McKinnon (pits 3 and 4) at Fort Winfield Scott.
Because of its "temporary" nature it actually survived
to become the last mortar battery in the United States.
It was not provided with the standard
concrete parapets or traverses nor were its magazines covered
over in the ordinary fashion. Rather, the entire installation
was sited behind a small hill about 30 feet high and the magazines
were simply a pair of rectangular buildings, roughly 25 by 60
feet, constructed of reinforced concrete two feet thick.
Aside from these non-permanent aspects,
Battery Walter Howe was unique in that its four weapons were
emplaced in a straight line at 30-foot intervals, rather than
in a square as had been described in foregoing sections of this
work. This form of emplacement resulted from a finding many years
before that all four mortars in a pit were, as a rule, seldom
used. The reason was that the loading process had been found
to be a somewhat chaotic affair, with dozens of men trying to
handle the four half-ton projectiles rapidly within a small,
crowded area. Since no one mortar in a pit could be fired until
all four had been loaded and the area cleared, the rate of fire
was limited to the rate of loading of the piece or pieces most
difficult to reach, and these were invariably the two forward
mortars in the square. As a result, it had become common practice,
prior to World War I, to use only two of the four weapons in
each pit, usually the rear pair; and in some instances the two
forward pieces had been inactivated or removed altogether. This
very situation, in fact, had made mortars available for construction
of Battery Howe, whose weapons were taken from the forward halves
of the two pits of Battery McKinnon at Fort Winfield Scott.
The four mortars arranged in a straight
line were turned over to the Coast Artillery Corps troops on
January 30, 1919. The work to that date had cost $8,356. The
concrete work consisted of the platforms only. The plotting room
was a wooden building, measuring 12 by 19 feet with a tar and
gravel roof, situated about 200 feet to the southeast of the
mortars. It contained a 110-degree M 1915 plotting board. Two
fire control stations supported the battery. One, designated
BCI BISI, was a wooden station located on the left flank of the
battery at an elevation of 98 feet. The second, designated B2S2
was a single dug-in type on Sutro Heights at an elevation of
145 feet.
General orders 135, dated October 25,
1917, named the new battery in honor of Brigadier General Walter
Howe, Artillery Corps, who had died in 1915.
Battery Howe was removed in 1945. No visible
trace of the battery remains.
Report of
Completed Works - Seacoast Fortifications
