16-inch/50-caliber M1919 gun
The 16 inch gun M1919 (406 mm) was a large coastal artillery piece installed to defend the United States' major seaports between 1920 and 1946. It was operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Only a small number were produced and only seven were mounted; in 1922 and 1940 the US Navy surplussed a number of their own 16-inch/50 guns, which were mated to modified M1919 carriages and filled the need for additional weapons.
16-inch gun M1919 on barbette mount M1919, Fort Duvall, Boston, Massachusetts.
16 in Mark III coastal defense gun on a proof mount at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
A casemated 16-inch gun. Almost all batteries were casemated by 1940, including the M1919 gun batteries in New York and near Boston.
United States Army Coast Artillery Corps
The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artillery during World War I.
Practice loading of a 10-inch gun on a disappearing carriage at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, NY, a typical Endicott period installation.
Typical Endicott period battery with components labeled.
USAMP Major Samuel Ringgold, built in 1904, which planted practice groups of mines in the Columbia River during the 1920s. (National Archives and Records Administration)
US-manned 155mm GPF gun of Battery F, 55th Coast Artillery, France 1918
