Constructed by the U.S. Army in 1942, Combat Team Camp Atlantic Beach served as the headquarters of the Harbor Defenses of Jacksonville during World War II. The camp was charged with defending Florida’s Atlantic coast from Axis invasion after the tanker SS Gulfamerica was sunk off Jacksonville Beach and Nazi saboteurs were captured in Ponte Vedra. The 149-acre camp was leased by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and supported rotating infantry and coastal artillery units. In its early days, soldiers slept in tents on wooden platforms, and later wooden huts housed six men each with shutters that could be opened for ventilation. The camp’s anchor unit was the 53rd Coast Artillery Regiment, which manned four 155-mm long-range guns known as Long Toms. Those guns were flanked by 60-foot observation towers. The main camp stood at present-day Selva Lakes, and the gun placements were at what is now Area 7 of Hanna Park. Although it never saw enemy action, the camp remained in service for 18 months until the U.S. military rapidly reduced its beach defense forces in 1944.