Endicott
Era, 1891-1928 (including the Taft Era and World War I)
As the United States completed its westward expansion
and continued to industrialize in the late 1800’s, the government
turned its attention to establishing the United States among
the world’s great military powers. The Navy expanded to become
a truly international force, and the Army assumed responsibility
for the defense of the nation’s coasts and ports. President
Cleveland established the Endicott Board in 1885 for the purpose
of modernizing fortifications. Chaired by Secretary of War William
Endicott, the board recommended new defenses at 22 U.S. seaports.
The new reinforced-concrete gun batteries that resulted are
known as Endicott batteries, and in fact the Endicott Era of
coastal defenses lasted 50 years, with some modification, until
the end of World War II.
The Endicott Board deemed San Francisco Harbor second only to
New York’s in strategic importance. As a result, an extensive
series of forts, batteries, and guns were proposed for the harbor
entrance, occupying both shores of the Golden Gate. In the Presidio
of San Francisco construction began in 1891, when ground was
broken for Battery
Marcus Miller. On the north side of the Gate, Battery Spencer
followed in 1893. Batteries were subsequently built south of
the Presidio at Fort Miley (Land’s End), north of the Golden
Gate at Forts Baker and Barry, and in the inner-harbor, at Fort
McDowell (Angel Island) and Fort Mason.
The Spanish-American
War and the Philippine-American War that followed (1898-1902)
increased the pace of military spending on the West Coast. In
1905, President Roosevelt asked his Secretary of War William
Taft to head a board to update Endicott defenses. The Taft Board
recommended further innovations including minefields, electrification,
searchlights and telephonic communication. This development
culminated in a targeting system, known as fire control, which
used widely spaced observation posts scattered along the coast.
These posts, called base-end stations, had 3-man crews that
provided range, bearing and speed information to artillery crews,
who then used this data to triangulate on and target a moving
enemy ship.
In 1912, Fort Winfield Scott
was formally established on the western portion of the Presidio
to serve as a coast artillery post. It contained approximately
63 guns mounted at 15 gun batteries and was the headquarters
for all other coast artillery posts in the Bay Area until they
were disarmed after World War II.
The Coast Artillery soldiers lived in barracks within marching
or driving distance of their gun batteries. Many considered
the duty a privilege because it was close to the social life
of San Francisco. The officers were trained at the Army’s elite
coast artillery school in Fort Monroe, Virginia. The soldiers
maintained the massive guns and practiced firing at targets
miles out to sea. They received reports on their accuracy from
pilots of the Army Air Corps flying overhead. The biplanes flew
from Crissy Army
Air Station, established in 1921 on the Bay Shore of the
Presidio.
World
War II Era, 1937-1948
Although airplanes were a minor factor in World
War I, their threat prompted the Army to make additions to the
defense system, including small, rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns
and camouflage. The existing batteries could be covered with
vegetation-colored netting, but if detected, they remained vulnerable
to aerial bombing. Thus, the next, and last, generation of seacoast
guns was mounted under thick concrete shields covered with vegetation
to make them virtually invisible from above. Sixteen-inch guns,
which fired 2,000 pound projectiles to a maximum range of 25
miles, were intended to keep the newest battleships from reaching
striking range. Work on the first battery for guns of this type
in the U.S. began in 1936 at Battery Davis in Ft. Funston, south
of the Golden Gate. The first test firing took place in 1940,
from Battery Townsley in Ft. Cronkhite, north of the Gate and
residents of San Francisco complained that the concussion broke
their windows!
As World War II approached,
the Army made further improvements to the Harbor Defenses of
San Francisco. Additional base-end stations, mines, searchlights,
and anti-aircraft guns were installed. After Pearl Harbor, the
entire Western Defense Command was placed on high alert, but
the three West Coast attacks that did occur caused only minor
damage. In 1942, a Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery
near Goleta, Southern California, another sub fired upon Ft.
Stevens, Oregon, and a balloon launched by the Japanese exploded
in forest near Brookings, Oregon. The most important wartime
development in coastal defense was radar, which vastly improved
enemy detection and fire control around San Francisco Bay.
But World War II was much more than a time of "improvements"
to weaponry. A vast change in the nature of warfare also occurred.
Of greatest pertinence to harbor defense, the war was fought
and ultimately won from the air. New types of warfare included
amphibious assault on undefended coasts, carrier-based air attack,
high-elevation bombing and atomic warfare. Defending a harbor
against ships became a superfluous activity, and even before
the war ended, some seacoast guns were scrapped to become new
weapons, and soldiers of the heavy artillery were transferred
to anti-aircraft or even infantry duties.
Just 2 years after the war, all guns remaining in the seacoast
defenses of San Francisco were declared surplus, and the last
weapons were removed in 1950. The Coast Artillery was deactivated
that same year.
