Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Bob Beville)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Seacoast Mortars and Nukes
Summary: confirm mortar re-arrangement
Message-ID: <8891@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Aug 89 03:58:07 GMT
References: <8630@cbnews.ATT.COM* <8675@cbnews.ATT.COM> <8800@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: Bob Beville 



	From the tour brochure of the Fort Stevens State Park:
	"BATTERY CLARK (1899) - Named for William Clark of the Lewis and Clark
	Expedition, this is the only mortar battery at Fort Stevens. Originally
	Battery Clark was armed with eight 12-inch mortars; then in 1917 four
	of the mortars were moved across the river to Battery Guenther in Fort
	Canby.  The move was made to provide mortar fire froma another location
	at the mouth of the Columbis River and to make the operation of Battery
	Clark more efficient.  With eight mortars, about thirty men were re-
	quireed to operate each pair of guns.  As a result, the gun pits were
	overcrowded, dangerous and inefficient.  The removal of four mortars
	removed these problems and about the same number of shots could be
	fired with the new arrangement..."

	The museum has a eight minute film showing the firing of these
	mortars... you can 'see' the concussion wave flow thru the gunners
	standing by with their mouths open and ears covered; the trees in
	the background get a wave-jolt, too.

	And while we are at it, the formal name for those "disappearing"
	cannon apparatus''  in the large concrete gun pits
	is the "Buffington-Crozier" DC(disappearing carriage) mount.

	SOURCES:
	_The Cape Forts_ Guardians of the Columbia_ by Marshall
	Hanft, Oregon Historical Society Press, 1986, 2nd Printing.

	_SILENT_SIEGE_II_ Japanese Attacks on North America in World War II
	by Bert Webber, Webber Research Group, 1988

	Tour Brochure, Fort Stevens State Park.

	that's -OWARI- from GLOWWORM-7-9-4
	best regards, rbeville@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
	Bob Beville, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR 97077