A former coworker was one of the reenactors that brought this gun in. It was a huge to do. He was cleaning it after it was installed and it dropped a notch and smacked his noggin. Fortunately all he got was a concussion. He told us how the beach had to be covered with pitch to keep half the beach from obscuring the view in order to fire a second round within an hour or more. Keep on reminding us of those who kept us safe.
Nice tour of the gun and operation but needs 30 seconds of background with map showing location and field of fire over the water as well as a discussion of the general purpose. Keep up the good work preparing these videos, though. Well done.
It would have been nice to know which Ship that particular 12in gun came off of in the video. That would have been a good homage to the ship that once carried it.
Hi Tim, The crews at Fort Miles trained regularly with their artillery, but the larger guns like the 12-inch in the video were only fired a handful of times throughout the entire war. This was because of the cost involved in firing the big guns, and the wear-and-tear that test firing inflicted on the gun itself. In training, they fired at ribbons being towed behind ships out on the open water. I don't remember the exact number, but they had an accuracy of over 90%, making them the best coastal artillery in the entire country at the time. However, these ratings come only from training exercises, as Fort Miles was never attacked.
So they could fire using electricity, yet they decided to put the trigger right by the gun? lol. This gun was only fired once at a merchant ship that didn't get the message to turn around, it was aimed high, as a warning.
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A former coworker was one of the reenactors that brought this gun in. It was a huge to do. He was cleaning it after it was installed and it dropped a notch and smacked his noggin. Fortunately all he got was a concussion. He told us how the beach had to be covered with pitch to keep half the beach from obscuring the view in order to fire a second round within an hour or more. Keep on reminding us of those who kept us safe.
Nice tour of the gun and operation but needs 30 seconds of background with map showing location and field of fire over the water as well as a discussion of the general purpose. Keep up the good work preparing these videos, though. Well done.
It would have been nice to know which Ship that particular 12in gun came off of in the video. That would have been a good homage to the ship that once carried it.
This gun came from the USS Wyoming. They were removed shortly after WWI. We found one at Dahlgren Naval Surface Weapons Center!
but what did they shoot at and did they ever hit anything? TIA
Hi Tim,
The crews at Fort Miles trained regularly with their artillery, but the larger guns like the 12-inch in the video were only fired a handful of times throughout the entire war. This was because of the cost involved in firing the big guns, and the wear-and-tear that test firing inflicted on the gun itself.
In training, they fired at ribbons being towed behind ships out on the open water. I don't remember the exact number, but they had an accuracy of over 90%, making them the best coastal artillery in the entire country at the time. However, these ratings come only from training exercises, as Fort Miles was never attacked.
So they could fire using electricity, yet they decided to put the trigger right by the gun? lol. This gun was only fired once at a merchant ship that didn't get the message to turn around, it was aimed high, as a warning.
It was fired with either a magneto or with a lanyard.