Last updated: March 10, 2021
Place
Battery Kingman
Quick Facts
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Amenities
2 listed
Cellular Signal, Information
To out range enemy battleships, the U.S. Army Ordnance Department developed a new barbette gun carriage that allowed 12-inch caliber guns to fire at a high angle, just like battleship guns. Mounted on large, round concrete platforms located out in the open, the battery's 12-inch guns could fire their half ton, armor piercing projectiles over 20 miles in any direction. Battery Kingman is a good example of a World War One designed barbette gun battery. The battery was constructed during 1917, but it's two 12-inch guns did not arrive until December 1918, just one month after World War One had ended. The long range gun batteries were the fort's first line of defense against battleships from 1919 through the end of World War Two. Battery Kingman's guns and carriages were scrapped in 1948.
Gun Battery Design
The design of the battery was simple. The battery had two circular concrete gun emplacements, one on the north side and one on the south side, spaced 420 feet apart from each other. Between the two gun emplacements the army engineers built a large rectangular shaped reinforced concrete blockhouse called a traverse. The traverse contained rooms for storage of ammunition, plotting rooms where soldiers could plot where enemy ships were headed, latrines, and heating and generator buildings. The north and south ends of the traverse had open ends so that supply trains could deliver ammunition and anything the battery needed to operate. The army covered the traverse hill with dirt and planted trees, shrubs and grass to prevent erosion by wind and rain and to make the hill look more natural looking.
Battery Casemate
During World War Two, Battery Kingman's two gun emplacements were enclosed with thick concrete walls and ceilings called casemates. The casemates protected the guns from being bombed by enemy airplanes.
Brigadier General Dan C. Kingman
Battery kingman was named in honor of Army Chief of Engineers Brigadier General Dan C. Kingman. He retired March, 1916. He died in November 1916 in Atlantic CIty, NJ.