World War II ruins, bunkers and fortifications in the US.
Latest hand-picked WWII news.
WWII bunker in Marin Headlands sealed off (video)
The National Park Service sealed off a concrete WWII-era bunker, which stood in defense of the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay harbors in the Marin Headlands. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area took over the property in the 1970s and eventually closed off the main entrances to the bunekr, but people have been sneaking in ever since. Recently, volunteers were invited to photograph the enclosure before it was sealed off.
(kqed.org)
A tour of San Francisco Bay's hidden fox holes, trenches and military fortifications
San Francisco was once America's most important Pacific coast port, which explains why the Presidio is filled with trenches and fox holes. "This is the best preserved WW2 landscape in the lower 48 states," states Stephen Haller, a National Park Service historian. The gun nests were dug into rocky substrate, which explains why they have remained in good shape all these decades.
(cnet.com)
Man with metal detector finds World War II bunker in California
Roy Cogburn discovered a WWII underground bunker during a routine day using his metal detector in Venture County, California. "I was just using my metal detector to find some occasional jewelry and coins... when I found an old shell... I started digging in the sand, and before I knew it, I had reached a hard surface." Bunkers were built on local beaches during World War II to keep a lookout for submarines and to stop any invasion. The bunker is now being turned into a museum, and the local chapter Veterans of Foreign Wars is asking for WW2 memorabilia that could be installed at the museum.
(vcreporter.com)
WWII Fire Control Tower - History attraction opens in Cape May Point, New Jersey
The World War II Lookout Tower: Fire Control Tower No. 23 Museum & Memorial opens to the public on March 27, and from 12pm to 3pm Coastal artillery reenactors from Cape Henlopen State Park will be out at the tower. Fire Control Tower No 23 - built in 1942 - is located on Sunset Blvd in Lower Township near Cape May Point. Cape May went from beach town to a pivotal part of America's homefront defense efforts during the war years. In 2008-2009, Cape May's Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) restored New Jersey's last World War II Lookout Tower, an significant part of Cape May's WW2 history.
(capemaycountyherald.com)
World War II arms bunker in Tampa hides marijuana grow house [video]
They weren't expecting to find a piece of military history in the back yard of the single-story home. On Jan. 9, narcotics detectives searched a rundown house in Tampa. At first it seemed as if their tipster had been wrong. Then they opened the door of a wooden shed in the back yard. They saw a ladder and a 3-foot hole in a concrete floor, and light. Going down, they came upon a marijuana grow house in a place they didn't even know existed: a 2,000-square-foot underground bunker built to store munitions during World War II. The area once housed the 3rd Fighter Command and B-17 bombers.
(tampabay.com)
Installing stairs in restored WWII tower a tall obstacle to overcome
Restoring a solid concrete World War II artillery tower for history tours is one thing. Figuring a way to get visitors to the top is quite another. During WWII, the soldiers (much younger and fitter than the general public of today) climbed a series of wooden ladders to ascend the 71-foot tower. The challenge was how to make the top of Fire Control Tower No. 23 accessible, because an elevator would have ruined its WWII appeal. The solution was a spiral staircase. The next problem was fastening it to the walls which could take a direct shell shot. The Fire Control Tower was manned but never used in battle because the Nazis and Japanese never attacked the U.S. mainland.
(pressofatlanticcity.com)
World War II observation post reconstructed - American homefront at war
When World War Two started in 1939 there was no radar to alert cities of enemy attacks so observation posts were manned with people who would watch for enemy activity. There were 16,000 posts all around the United States manned by around 8,000 people. Now a group of residents in Petersburgh is reconstructing what was once a WW2 observation post. "As far as we know, this is the only one in existence in New York state," said Mason Hubbard. "We are using everything we can salvage from the original post to reconstruct it to an exact replica," added Rolland Hewitt, whose father constructed the original post on the family's land back in the 1940s.
(troyrecord.com)
Ewa Marine Corps Air Station may disappear under developments
John Bond points out the stretches of asphalt and concrete where WW2 fighters once roared into the sky at the former 'Ewa Marine Corps Air Station. There's not much left to see of the airfield but the original runways are still there. Tucked away in a jungle are also dozens of arched concrete aircraft barriers. It's what happened here on Dec. 7, 1941, and how that ignored military history could be paved over by future development. The amateur historian imagines how up to 24 Japanese Zeroes attacked, hitting some of the first blows in the minutes before Pearl Harbor was attacked.
(leatherneck.com)
WWII buffs fighting to save a legacy of World War II - Aircraft hangars
It was a rite of passage for many World War II B-29 bomber pilots. Before heading overseas to fight, they trained at one of the Army Air Corps bases that filled Kansas and Nebraska. The towns that surrounded these bases flourished as the bases grew. But 60 years later the hangars are falling apart. World War II buffs, armed with little more than a respect for military history, are fighting to save them. They're battling against the ravages of time, weather and neglect - not to mention a general lack of public interest - to keep the hangars open because, they say, they are a monument to history.
(wired.com)
Relive WWII at Fort Miles, whose coastal defenses helped guard the home front
Dressed in Army-green pants and a short fatigue jacket, Mike Rogers snaps to attention next to an artillery piece. He wears the insignia of the 261st Coast Artillery's 2nd Division. Based at Delaware's Cape Henlopen 1940-1945, the 261st guarded the mouth of Delaware Bay and the maritime approaches to Wilmington and Philadelphia. 6 decades later, Henlopen's great mounded dunes still hide a warren of bunkers and gun emplacements. Set up along the ocean shore, 11 concrete spotting towers rise above the beaches. In 1940, with war already breaking out, America moved to fortify the mouth of Delaware Bay.
(fredericksburg)
Secret World War II-era fortification in San Francisco Bay reopen
Battery Townsley, the World War II fortification in Marin that could launch shells that weighed as much as a Volkswagen over 30 miles, will be reopened to the public, fittingly on Veterans Day, after being closed for decades. The battery's guns were active 1940-1948 and stood in defense of the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay harbors. 1965-1975 it was used to test the force of nuclear blasts without using nuclear weapons. "It's part of the fabric of our history that is important to understand," said Greg Jennings, member of the Coast Defense Study Group, which has worked to reopen the site. The group studies coastal defenses and fortifications.
(marinij)
City of Encinitas OKs preserving view from WWII lookout hill
From a shack on a Leucadia hilltop, Richard Scott would watch the Pacific Ocean during World War II for Japanese aircraft and submarines. Last night, the Encinitas City Council approved amending the city's general plan to designate the site, known in WWII circles as Station White, as a historical view corridor. All that remains is a plaque, installed in 2006, which pays tribute to Sheriff `Mac` McDermott, who established the observation post in 1942 after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. McDermott recruited Scott to join 40 others to become civilian volunteers in the Corps of Observation, which trained to become aircraft spotters.
(signonsandiego)
Tours in secret World War II nuclear city - Oak Ridge was not on maps
Visiting a nuclear city may be an unusual attraction but the U.S. Department of Energy is finding interest in a uranium plant once so secretive it had no address and was not on maps. From June to September visitors can tour parts of the facility at Oak Ridge which was set up in 1943 and ran 24 hours a day separating uranium 235. It was part of the Manhattan Project that produced atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945. But during World War II staff recruited there had little idea how their work fitted into the bigger picture. "I didn't know what I was doing or why I was doing it.," said Gladys Owens.
(reuters.com)
West Coast trenches and fortifications to stop Japanese invasion
The Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, produced devastation in Hawaii -- and panic on the West Coast. Anything seemed possible. The attack had come out of the sky without warning. What if Pearl Harbor was only the first target? What if the Japanese navy was off California ready to strike? On the night of Dec. 7, the Army assigned every available soldier at the Presidio of San Francisco to get to work digging slit trenches and field fortifications to stop a Japanese invasion. Trenches were dug on the bluffs above the Golden Gate. Machine guns were sited to cover Baker Beach on the western edge of the city.
(sfgate)
"German Village" in Utah may soon collapse
Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested building it. It was designed to match structures in Nazi Germany. Utah prisoners helped construct it quickly. Then the Army hit it for years with incendiary bombs, flame-throwers and chemical-agent tests. Now, "German Village" — where the Army tested how weapons would work on German architecture and materials during WWII — is finally about to collapse. The Army is proposing to let it do so, rather than repair it to allow its inclusion on the National Register for Historic Places.
(deseretnews)