WW2 16-inch/50 Coast Defense Batteries at Fort Story

Fort Story received authorization for two new 16-inch coast defense batteries in 1939 and 1940, built in a newer standard design that differed from the fort’s 1922 16-inch howitzer batteries, Pennington and Walke. Protected against naval shelling and aerial bombardment, the two batteries housed four 16-inch/50 guns in thick steel-reinforced concrete casemates set about 500 feet apart, with armored shields, protected powder and projectile storage rooms, power and air-conditioning spaces covered by up to 20 feet of sand, and plotting rooms placed in a separate bombproof structure away from the guns’ noise and blast. Known as the 100-Series Battery Construction, this design was used for Battery Ketchum (#120) and unnamed Battery #121, built at Fort Story in 1941-1943 within sight of the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse. The guns used in the Chesapeake Bay defenses were U.S. Navy guns made available to the U.S. Army because of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 limits on new warship construction, and they could fire 45,155 yards, or about 25 miles. Although the guns are gone, the emplacements served until 1948 and remain in use today by several U.S. Navy tenants.

Virginia Beach, Virginia · United States