World War 2 In Review: Chesapeake Bay Sector

A 16-inch howitzer at Fort Story, Virginia and fighting men who operate it, April 1942.

by Fort Monroe Casemate Museum

The Civil War brought into use rifled artillery and armored warships. It was evident that the once invulnerable masonry forts, such as Fort Monroe, were no longer adequate for the defense of our seacoast. A new system of fortifications had to be devised. Yet practically nothing was done after the Civil War to bring our seacoast defenses up to date. For years, the Army continued to rely on the old muzzle-loading, smoothbore cannons in the obsolete masonry forts. True, new theories and designs were proposed, but, without funds, the Army could undertake very little new construction and experimentation. The report of the Endicott Board in 1886 marked the beginning of a new phase. It recommended that the armament of the seacoast fortifications be mounted in detached batteries in the rear of earthen parapets, surmounting and protecting concrete bunkers and sheltered firing platforms. This basic idea was diametrically opposed to the close grouping of artillery pieces in the old pre-Civil War forts. The Hampton Roads area, protected by Fort Monroe, was considered fifth in order of urgency, being exceeded in importance only by such places as New York, San Francisco, Boston and the Great Lakes ports.

The actual work of modernization did not get started until 1891. Progress was slow because of the lack of funds. However, the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, with the possibility of an attack on our seacoast by the Spanish fleet, hastened the work of installing rifled, breech-loading artillery. This eventually consisted of 10-inch and 12-inch disappearing guns, 6-inch barbette guns, 3-inch barbette rapid-fire guns and 12-inch mortars. A few 8-inch barbette guns were also mounted, but these were later removed. (A "barbette" is a platform for guns in a fort, high enough to permit firing over the walls.) The 12-inch guns had a useful range of seven to eight miles with a 1,000-pound projectile. The so-called "disappearing" guns were mounted on a carriage, which utilized the energy of recoil to lower the gun back down into the emplacement, where it could be serviced, loaded, concealed and protected from the enemy until raised for the next shot. The 12-inch mortars were grouped four to a pit. These stubby weapons were fired simultaneously to throw their 700-pound projectiles in high arcs to descend almost vertically on the lightly armored decks of warships. This armament was grouped in a series of detached and widely separated batteries built, for the most part, on the Chesapeake Bay shore of Old Point Comfort, the sand spit on which Fort Monroe is located. Their distribution was as follows: Battery Irwin, four 3-inch rapid-fire guns; Battery Parrott, two 12-inch disappearing rifles; Battery Eustis, two 10-inch disappearing rifles; Battery DeRussy, three 12-inch disappearing rifles; Battery Church, two 10-inch disappearing rifles; Batteries Anderson and Ruggles, sixteen 12-inch mortars. Modern batteries were also constructed on Fort Wool, the island fort on the south side of the ship channel, leading from Chesapeake Bay into Hampton Roads.

Between 1906 and 1912, a large number of new buildings were constructed at Fort Monroe. With the separation of the Artillery Corps into Coast and Field Artillery in 1907, the Artillery School at Fort Monroe was reorganized under the name of The Coast Artillery School. The old masonry fort, designed by General Simon Bernard in the early years of the 19th century, was left to stand as an object of sentiment and beauty.

When World War I began in April 1917, Fort Monroe became a beehive of activity. Anti-aircraft guns were mounted. A submarine net was laid across the ship channel stretching from Fort Monroe to Fort Wool. Fort Story was established at Cape Henry at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. In June 1917, 1,200 candidates for commissions in the Coast Artillery Corps reported to Fort Monroe for training. The regular garrison moved out of its barracks and pitched tents on the beach, so that the newcomers could be installed in the barracks and organized into companies. The instruction was based on Coast Artillery procedure, it being assumed that the mechanical methods used in the Coast Artillery could, with some variation, be adapted to field use in France.

The First Training Camp closed on 15 August 1917. Seven hundred and sixty-six of the candidates were commissioned. It was succeeded by the Second and Third Training Camps. The latter opened on 5 January 1918. Instruction was hindered by the very severe winter, but it was strengthened by the arrival of two American officers from the Heavy Artillery School in France and two officers of the French artillery. There also arrived some 8-inch howitzers and 6-inch wheeled mounts to take the place of the fixed guns which had been used for instruction. This made it possible to coordinate the instruction with that given in France and to teach field methods with field materiel. The Third Training Camp was followed by the Fourth, Fifth and finally, the Sixth, which became the Continuous Training Camp.

The French officers on duty with the Training Camp urged the acquisition of a firing range, where artillery practice could be held without the necessity of imagining that a visible target on the water was a target on land concealed from view by the terrain. Mulberry Island on the James River, about fifteen miles northwest of Newport News, was purchased for this purpose, and ground was broken for a camp in April 1918. It was named Camp Eustis in honor of Brevet Brigadier General Abraham Eustis (1786-1843). With accommodations for 19,000 men, Camp Eustis became a training center and a place for concentration of troops destined for overseas service, which were embarked at Newport News.

The establishment of Camp Eustis offered only a little relief for the crowded conditions at Fort Monroe. There was not enough ground on the post to accommodate the many new buildings that were needed to carry on the war effort. A landfill was started along the shores of Mill Creek, north and northwest of the fort. On this land were erected the barracks and study halls for the Sixth, or Continuous, Training Camp. Additional ground was created by a fill between the railroad and street car trestles northwest of the Catholic church. The area of Fort Monroe was thus increased by about twenty-five acres. The Armistice on 11 November 1918, brought an abrupt end to most of this activity. Demobilization preparations were begun at once. The candidates in the Continuous Training Camp were given the opportunity to leave the service at once. Many chose to do so. Others, however, chose to complete their course of instruction. For many months, officers returning from France flocked into Fort Monroe. By 1923, Fort Monroe had returned to a peacetime basis.

Fort Monroe became the headquarters and the station of the Third Coast Artillery District, the Coast Artillery School, the Harbor Defenses of Chesapeake Bay and the Coast Artillery Board. Fort Monroe also assumed many duties in connection with the training of Citizens Military Camps, the Reserve Officers Training Corps Camps, the National Guard Camps and the Organized Reserve. All of these activities made Fort Monroe the hub of the Coast Artillery Corps. With a healthful climate and easily accessible from all parts of the country by boat, rail or automobile, this beautiful post was the natural home for the Coast Artilleryman, for it was the one station to which he came sooner or later.

On the evening of 22 August 1933, an indulgent Nature showed she could be terrible when she chose. A torrential rain accompanied by strong winds from Chesapeake Bay struck the post at high tide. By daylight of 23 August, the post was covered with water. At 10:30 a.m. the tide reached a level of 9.4 feet compared with the normal high of 3 feet. It was necessary to get around the post by rowboat. Many buildings were flooded, damaged and in some cases swept off their foundations. Trees were uprooted, roads blocked, docks damaged, and the entire reservation covered with debris. Miraculously, no one was killed or injured. The Government immediately allocated $1,646,246 for repairs. One million dollars of this money was expended for a concrete sea wall 13 feet high above mean low water, extending along the Chesapeake Bay shore from an area north of Batteries Anderson and Ruggles to a pre-existing sea wall on the Hampton Roads shore.

In World War II, Fort Monroe was destined to play an even greater part than in World War I. It became the headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Sector of the Eastern Defense Command, responsible for the protection of the Hampton Roads area, Chesapeake Bay, the entrance into the bay at Capes Charles and Henry and certain adjacent areas. The headquarters of this vital command was eventually moved from Building 77 into the casemates of the Third Front of Fort Monroe. A signal station was built on the parapet of this front. Joint operations of the Chesapeake Bay Sector and the Fifth Naval District were conducted through a Joint Operations Center, the Harbor Entrance Control Posts, and the Coast Defense Warning Service. The Joint Operations Center was at the headquarters of the Fifth Naval District at the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk. During 1943 alone, 31,944 ships of all kinds passing in and out of the Virginia Capes, were examined, entered or cleared by the harbor entrance control posts. This was an average of eighty-seven ships a day. By the end of the year, some one hundred ships a day were entering or leaving Chesapeake Bay. This included one overseas convoy of sixty to seventy ships every ten days, which assembled in Lynnhaven Roads under harbor defense protection and then passed out to sea under escort. Hampton Roads became, with New York, one of the two major Atlantic bases for overseas operations.

The strength of the Chesapeake Bay Sector fluctuated, but the figures for February 1943 are typical:

Fort Monroe: 5,107

Fort Story: 3,312

Fort John Custis: 776

Little Creek Mine Base: 579

Cape Henry Defense Force: 3,162

Cape Charles Defense Force: 1,008

Camp Pendleton: 1,413

Beaufort (North Carolina) Inlet Defense Force: 1,013

Harbor Defenses of Beaufort Inlet: 527

The armament of the Chesapeake Bay Sector was as follows:

Fort Monroe

two 6-inch guns

two 12-inch guns (removed in 1943), replaced with two 90-mm guns

three 12-inch guns (removed in 1944)

eight 12-inch mortars (removed in 1943)

six 3-inch anti-aircraft guns

Fort Wool

two 6-inch guns (removed in 1943)

six 3-inch guns

Fort Story

two 3-inch guns

four 6-inch guns

two 16-inch guns

four 90-mm guns

two 8-inch railway guns (removed in 1941)

three 3-inch anti-aircraft guns; four 16-inch howitzers

Fort John Custis

two 3-inch guns (removed during the war)

four 6-inch guns

two 16-inch guns

four 90-mm guns

eight 8-inch railway guns (removed in 1944)

The underwater defense project provided an outer defense of twenty groups of mines northeast of Cape Henry, controlled from Fort Story, and an inner defense of six groups of mines in Chesapeake Bay near Thimble Shoals Light, controlled from Fort Monroe. An anti-motor torpedo boat net southwest of Thimble Shoals was emplaced from Fort Monroe on the north to Willoughby Spit on the south with a gate in the main channel. Another anti-motor torpedo boat net was placed across the entrance to the York River. The gate to the nets and the inner mine field were controlled from Harbor Entrance Control Post No. 2 at Fort Monroe. They were normally left open for shipping except on instructions from the Joint Operations Center.

The convoys in Lynnhaven Roads, the naval vessels in Hampton Roads and the many vessels in Chesapeake Bay presented an attractive target for torpedo boat attacks. The problem was complicated by the wide entrance to Chesapeake Bay—some 20,000 yards which was all navigable by light draft motor torpedo boats. The problem was partially met by installing 3-inch rapid-fire batteries at Fort Story (Cape Henry) and Fisherman Island (off Cape Charles). In 1943, these guns were replaced by four new 90-mm radar controlled batteries. One battery was mounted in Battery Parrott at Fort Monroe, replacing the 12-inch disappearing rifles. Two were erected at Fort Story and one went to Fisherman Island.

The German submarine campaign along our coast was very aggressive in 1942. On 14 April the USS Roper destroyed a German submarine, the U-85, off Oregon Inlet (North Carolina). This was the first German submarine sunk by an American destroyer in World War II. Twenty-nine bodies were recovered and brought to the Naval Operating Base in Norfolk. The Chesapeake Bay Sector arranged for burial of these Germans in the National Cemetery in Hampton.

In mid-June 1942, three merchant vessels were sunk and one seriously damaged just inside the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. No evidence of the presence of a submarine could be found. The Navy made several sweeps of the channel, finding a total of thirteen mines. This all occurred within range of the guns at the Capes, but there had been no reports on submarine contacts in the vicinity. It was concluded that a submarine had come in under cover of darkness or poor visibility and had laid the mines some time before the sinkings took place.

World War II brought to Fort Monroe itself a great expansion of facilities. The Coast Artillery School had to be enlarged, requiring construction of temporary barracks, mess halls and classrooms. The post hospital was expanded and renovated. A landfill was started on Mill Creek to provide more land for training. A new military road was built to connect Fort Monroe directly with routes 60 and 168 in the northern part of Newport News, thus bypassing congested business districts of Phoebus, Hampton and Newport News. This nine-and-one-half mile road is today called Mercury Boulevard. A landfill along the west shore of Old Point Comfort made it possible to enter the post in the Mine Dock area. All traffic to the Hotel Chamberlin and the Old Point Comfort Wharf was able to bypass the Mill Creek entrance to the post. The ferry slip of the Old Point Comfort–Willoughby Spit Ferry was moved from its location adjacent to the garage of the Hotel Chamberlin to a point further north on the new road (McNair Drive). This cleared the Mine Dock area for new construction. The Hotel Chamberlin was purchased by the Government in 1942 to be operated for commissioned officers of all branches of the service. This helped to alleviate the shortage of housing confronting the Fifth Naval District and the Chesapeake Bay Sector. After the war, the hotel was purchased by the Richmond Hotels Corporation of Richmond, Virginia.

Throughout World War II, intensive training activities were conducted at Fort Monroe and all the posts of the Chesapeake Bay Sector. On 17 September 1942, the most spectacular exercise took place at Fort Monroe. A provisional infantry rifle company, reinforced by one section of 60-mm mortars, launched a surprise attack on the fort. The defenders were a provisional rifle platoon reinforced by one section of .30 caliber machine guns. Shielded by a mortar barrage simulated by dynamite charges, the aggressor force forded the moat of the old fort, and employing nets, scaled the wall of the fort, overcoming fierce resistance. The attack was covered by a smoke screen. Planes from Langley Field assisted the attackers by dropping flour sacks simulating bombs, making strafing runs, and then dropping cloth dummies to simulate a parachute assault. The radio station and signal section were captured, but the aggressors were stopped within 100 yards of Chesapeake Bay Sector headquarters.

After the end of the war in 1945, there was uncertainty as to the future mission of Fort Monroe, the harbor defenses, and the Coast Artillery as a whole. Early in 1946, the Army in the continental United States was reorganized. It was decided that Headquarters of the Army Ground Forces would be moved to Fort Monroe. The Coast Artillery School was transferred to Fort Winfield Scott, California. The headquarters of the harbor defense command was moved to Fort Story. On 15 June 1946, Brigadier General Rollin L. Tilton turned command of Fort Monroe over to Colonel Logan C. Berry, for General Jacob L. Devers, Commanding General of Army Ground Forces. On 1 October 1946, Army Ground Forces officially began operations at Fort Monroe. Thus began what may be considered the third phase in the history of Fort Monroe. From early 19th century moated, stone fort, to early 20th century Coast Artillery fort, to headquarters of all the ground forces of the continental United States.

Fort Monroe circa 1836.

Fort Monroe circa 1869.

Fort Monroe circa 1919.

Fort Monroe circa 1947.

Fort Monroe circa 1987.

Fort Monroe Plan Endicott Period (1890-1910).

Fort Monroe after 1933, showing Hampton Roads. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division HABS VA,28-HAMP,2—43)

Fortress Monroe, Old Point Comfort and Hygeia Hotel, Virginia.

Fortress Monroe, February 1862.

Cannons at Fort Monroe could not control the Hampton Roads shipping channels, so Fort Wool was constructed on the Rip-Raps shoal.

Fort Monroe once had a Chesapeake and Ohio rail terminal, a trolley on Ingalls Street, and a US Army railroad to service the Endicott batteries.

Fort Monroe Plan.

A moat surrounds Fort Monroe on Old Point Comfort. Photo taken 2007. (US Army photo)

Fort Monroe is at the eastern tip of the Peninsula, next to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

Fort Monroe, Virginia. 3rd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery on parade. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-B817- 7058 [P&P] LOT 4173)

Fort Monroe, Virginia. Officers and ladies on porch of a garrison house. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-DIG-cwpb-03816)

Fort Monroe, Quarters No. 1, 151 Bernard Road, Hampton, Hampton, Virginia. The DeRussy House was the first permanent officer's quarters constructed at the army post. Although built for the commanding officer, the fort construction engineer was the first occupant. Quarters #1 was the site of numerous strategy and defense meeting and has hosted numerous visiting dignitaries. Its proportions and detailing make the DeRussy House one of the most attractive buildings on post and the residence contributes to the definition of the Parade Ground.

Fort Monroe, Parade Ground, Hampton, Hampton, Virginia. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division HABS VA,28-HAMP,2H-1)

Fort Monroe, Parade Ground, Hampton, Hampton, Virginia. View across parade ground, looking southeast to northwest. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division HABS VA,28-HAMP,2H-2)

The "Lincoln Gun," a 15-inch Rodman Columbiad, Fort Monroe, Virginia, 1864. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)

The "Lincoln Gun," a 15-inch Rodman Columbiad, Fort Monroe, Virginia, 1864. (United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.32742)

Fort Monroe was upgraded with Endicott batteries in 1891-1901. Photo taken in 1901.

Fort Monroe, Parade Ground, Hampton, Hampton, Virginia. View of Lincoln Gun (15-inch Rodman), cast 1860; parade ground in background. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division HABS VA,28-HAMP,2H-8)

Fort Monroe around 1905, as seen from The Chamberlin. A photochrom postcard published by the Detroit Photographic Company, circa 1897-1924.

The Chamberlin Hotel (second version, built after a 1920 fire destroyed the first hotel), Old Point Comfort, Virginia, benefitted from a recreational waterfront at Fort Monroe. Postcard published by Dominion News Agency, Newport News, Virginia, circa 1930-45.

View of the USS Indiana (BB-58) in Hampton Roads. The Chamberlin Hotel is in the background. (National Archives at College Park, NARA BS 33571)

Breach of an 8 inch 15 pdr. model of 1902 coastal defense gun at Battery Irwin, Fort Monroe, Virginia. Battery Irwin is one of several batteries of early 20th century (World War I era) coastal defense guns at Fort Monroe, Virginia. While Fort Monroe is probably best known for its important role during the American Civil War, it continued to serve as an active Army installation into the early 21st century, and as a result its uses and equipment continued to evolve, as demonstrated by the coastal artillery still on display.

Battery Church, built between 1897 and 1900, Fort Monroe, Virginia. (U.S. Army Environmental Command photo by Neal Snyder, 2009)

Fort Monroe was designed (perhaps excessively) to resist a siege by a European army. General view of the west rampart and moat, looking from the south. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division HABS VA,28-HAMP,2D—59)

Contemporary color postcard of 155 mm GPF-type guns at Fort Monroe, circa 1930-1945.

This fire control tower, at Fort Monroe, Virginia, is an example of an early (1905-1915) tower built on a tubular steel tower base. (Coast Defense Study Group)

Fort Monroe, Harbor Entrance Command Post (HECP). Fort Monroe housed the Headquarters for the Chesapeake Bay Sector of the Eastern Defense Command, a Joint Operations Center (JOC) and Harbor Entrance Command Post (HECP) #2. The HECP was responsible for examining and clearing all ship traffic entering the Chesapeake Bay. Ship traffic volume reached over a hundred ships a day at the end of 1943. Fort Monroe was also responsible for six groups of mines and two Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) nets controlled by HECP #2. Battery AMTB 23 - Parrott provided protection for the minefields and nets. The facilities at Fort Monroe expanded to meet the increased enrollment in the Coast Artillery School and other training activities. In 1946 the Headquarters of U.S. Army Ground Forces was moved to Fort Monroe and the Coast Artillery School was moved from Fort Monroe to Fort Winfield Scott in San Francisco.

Aerial view of Fort Monroe showing the detached battery emplacements.

Chesapeake Bay Sector, Eastern Defense Command.

Fort Monroe, Battery Parrott AMTB front, World War II (1941-1945).

Anti-aircraft drill, 1938.

Battery DeRussy.

Firing the 12-inch mortars.

Coast artillery practice, Fortress Monroe, Virginia. 12" mortar detachment loading, circa 1918. (US National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 55179673)

Typical US Army Coast Artillery Corps two-gun battery for disappearing guns, probably built circa 1895-1905. (US Army Signal Corps photo)

12-inch disappearing rifle firing. Note the shell coming out of the smoke.

3-inch Gun M1903, Barbette Carriage M1903. Sometimes called 15-pdr. Gun. Located for defense against lightly armored enemy vessels at Fort Monroe, Virginia. (R.D. Fritz)