Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields
Harbor Defenses of Los Angeles: Pacific Palisades Tactical Battery 1
 
 
155mm Batteries, Harbor Defenses of Los Angeles
by Justin Ruhge


The first 155-mm battery at Fort MacArthur was Battery Hogsdon. This battery of two 155 mm GPFs was built in 1928 and located in front of the Korean Friendship Bell on the Upper Reservation north of Point Fermin. One of these mounting rings is visible in front of Battery 241. The other is used as part of a playground.

In 1942, a program began to place 155-mm batteries from Santa Barbara to Bolsa Chica. Each battery consisted of two or three mounting rings, known as Panama Mounts, that allowed the guns to be rotated 360 degrees, and underground ammunition storage bunkers and sleeping quarters for the troops. The batteries were transferred in 1943 and 1944 and cost on average about $10,000 each.

Locations of these Panama Mounts and the 155-mm batteries are: Pacific Palisades, Playa Del Rey, El Segundo/Hyperion, Redondo Beach, Rocky Point, Long Point, Fort MacArthur, Bolsa Chica, Costa Mesa, Port Hueneme, Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Barbara. Some of these locations were built for 3 guns but only two were delivered. Some of the installations are still visible in 2004 while others have been removed or are buried in the sand on the beach.

The guns from this battery may have been transferred to Tactical Battery 7 on Fort Mac Arthur's Upper Reservation.

 
M1918 155mm Gun
 
The gun was designed during World War I by Colonel Louis Filloux to meet France's urgent need for modern heavy artillery, and became the standard heavy field gun of the French Army from 1917 until World War II. It was also adopted by the United States as the M1917, and a close derivative of it was made in and used by the US as the M1918 through World War II.
 
It was also manufactured in the USA from 1917, after the US switched to metric artillery based on French patterns. It was used by the United States Army and United States Marine Corps as their primary heavy artillery gun under the designation 155 mm Gun M1917 (French-made) or M1918 (US-made) until 1942, when it was gradually replaced by the 155 mm M1A1 'Long Tom'.
 
During World War II, some US-made guns were used for coast defense of US and allied territories, such as Australia and Bermuda, typically on "Panama" mountings - circular concrete platforms with a raised centre section, with the carriage tires pivoting around the center section and the split trails spread out on rails at the platform's edge.
 
 
Report of Completed Works - Seacoast Fortifications
 
 
Report of Completed Works - Seacoast Fortifications: Tactical Battery 1
 
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Posted 1 March 2016