90-MM Gun

During World War II, the U.S. Coast Artillery used batteries of four 90mm guns, with two mobile and two fixed, in anti-motor torpedo boat and anti-aircraft roles. Fort Miles had three such batteries during the 1940s: Batteries 5A and 5B near what is now the Point parking lot, and Battery 7 at Cape May, NJ. The displayed M2 gun differed from the original Fort Miles guns because it had a slightly more automated shell feed system that could fire 23 rounds per minute, and its barrel could depress to 10 degrees for use as an anti-tank gun, unlike the Fort Miles M1/A1 and M1/M3 guns. The gun had a range of 11.9 miles, fired 24-pound armor-piercing and 23-pound high-explosive shells at a rate of 20 rounds per minute, required a crew of 13 men per gun, and used a shell delivery system in which two men manually carried shells from a truck with a special sling while the gun expelled the metal casing upon firing. At Fort Miles, these guns served from December 1943 to June 1945.

Delaware · United States