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Barrett Point is located at the foot of Mount Hayes at the entrance to Prince Rupert Harbour at 54°14′28″N130°20′02″W / 54.24111°N 130.33389°W Coordinates: 54°14′28″N130°20′02″W / 54.24111°N 130.33389°W . It was a coastal fortification during World War II.
The city of Prince Rupert was the nearest railhead to the Alaska and was strategically important to the defence of Alaska and West Coast of Canada. Barrett point battery was the key component of the defences of Prince Rupert in World War II. In 1938 Major Treatt of the Canada War Department, inspected the West Coast of Canada and determined suitable locations for Coastal defences. [1] Barrett Point became the focal point of the defences that included gun batteries at Fredrick Point, Casey Point, Fairview Point and Dundas Point. The fort had 3 gun positions which were first equipped with Mk 12 6" anti-aircraft guns on Mk 7 mounts, later replaced by 3x 6" Mk 24 guns two on Mk5 mounts and one on a Mk5 mount. In addition a 6 pounder Hotchkiss quick firing gun was mounted, as well as 2x 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns. The guns of this fort and the others were controlled by a director station behind and above the centre gun position. Ammunition was stored in an underground magazine accessed by an electrical hoist for each gun. Behind the main battery protected by the hill was hardened generator room and other support buildings. Two searchlight towers front the fort along the shoreline. Bearings from these lights would be fed to the director for fire control. An observation post was established above the fort on top of Mt Hayes.
The guns were manned by the Northern British Columbia heavy battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, later designated the 102nd Coast Battery of the 17th North British Columbia Coast Regiment. It's unclear as to when the battery ceased operations, as war progressed and the threat of attacked diminished, the soldiers manning the defences were drawn down to serve elsewhere. It would appear the guns were removed some time between Sept 1945 and the end of 1946. The last coastal defences along the West Coast of Canada at Fort Rodd Hill [2] were disbanded in 1958.
Much of the Battery fortifications are overgrown but can be seen on foot. Caution is advised as there are unmarked openings and entering the bunker should only be done with the proper equipment.
The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery is the artillery personnel branch of the Canadian Army.
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
Kaien Island is a Canadian island on the coast of British Columbia, just north of the mouth of the Skeena River and to the south of the Alaska Panhandle. The island has an area of about 45 square kilometres, is roughly oval, and about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) long along its long axis. The island consists of a central mountain ridge, surrounded by coastal lowlands, the dominant central peak is Mount Hays reaching 708 metres (2,323 ft), with a secondary peak, Mount Olfield reaching 555 metres (1,821 ft) to the northeast.
Lavernock Battery was built at Lavernock Point, Wales on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission during the late 1860s to protect the ports of the Severn Estuary. It was replaced by a new anti-aircraft battery during World War II that was equipped with four heavy anti-aircraft guns.
Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site is a 19th-century coastal artillery fort on the Colwood, British Columbia side of Esquimalt Harbour,. The site is adjacent to Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site, the first lighthouse on the west coast of Canada. Both the fort and lighthouse are managed and presented to the public by Parks Canada.
The BL 6-inch gun Mark VII was a British naval gun dating from 1899, which was mounted on a heavy travelling carriage in 1915 for British Army service to become one of the main heavy field guns in the First World War, and also served as one of the main coast defence guns throughout the British Empire until the 1950s.
Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until World War II. Before airplanes, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to standing armies or a large navy. After the 1940s, it was recognized that fixed fortifications were obsolete and ineffective against aircraft and missiles. However, in prior eras foreign fleets were a realistic threat, and substantial fortifications were built at key locations, especially protecting major harbors.
The Ordnance QF Hotchkiss 6 pounder gun Mk I and Mk II or QF 6 pounder 8 cwt were a family of long-lived light 57 mm naval guns introduced in 1885 to defend against new, small and fast vessels such as torpedo boats and later submarines. There were many variants produced, often under license which ranged in length from 40 to 58 calibers, but 40 caliber was the most common version.
The BL 9.2-inch Mk IX and Mk X guns were British breech loading 9.2-inch (234 mm) guns of 46.7 calibre, in service from 1899 to the 1950s as naval and coast defence guns. They had possibly the longest, most varied and successful service history of any British heavy ordnance.
Culver Battery is a former coastal artillery battery on Culver Down, on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight, England. The fortification is one of several Palmerston Forts built on the island following concerns about the size and strength of the French Navy in the late 19th century. It was operational during the First and Second World Wars. The battery was closed in 1956.
Coastal defenceand coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against military attack at or near a coastline, for example, fortifications and coastal artillery. Because an invading enemy normally requires a port or harbour to sustain operations, such defences are usually concentrated around such facilities, or places where such facilities could be constructed. Coastal artillery fortifications generally followed the development of land fortifications, usually incorporating land defences; sometimes separate land defence forts were built to protect coastal forts. Through the middle 19th century, coastal forts could be bastion forts, star forts, polygonal forts, or sea forts, the first three types often with detached gun batteries called "water batteries". Coastal defence weapons throughout history were heavy naval guns or weapons based on them, often supplemented by lighter weapons. In the late 19th century separate batteries of coastal artillery replaced forts in some countries; in some areas these became widely separated geographically through the mid-20th century as weapon ranges increased. The amount of landward defence provided began to vary by country from the late 19th century; by 1900 new US forts almost totally neglected these defences. Booms were also usually part of a protected harbor's defences. In the middle 19th century underwater minefields and later controlled mines were often used, or stored in peacetime to be available in wartime. With the rise of the submarine threat at the beginning of the 20th century, anti-submarine nets were used extensively, usually added to boom defences, with major warships often being equipped with them through early World War I. In World War I railway artillery emerged and soon became part of coastal artillery in some countries; with railway artillery in coast defence some type of revolving mount had to be provided to allow tracking of fast-moving targets.
Pacific Command was a formation of the Canadian Army created during the Second World War to strengthen and administer home defence facilities on Canada's Pacific Coast against possible Japanese attack. A second major function was to train reinforcements to be sent to the Canadian divisions in Europe. Pacific Command combined the pre-war Military District No. 11 with Military District No. 13. The command headquarters was initially housed in Esquimalt Fortress near Victoria, but on 30 November 1942 it was moved to the Old Hotel Vancouver in downtown Vancouver.
The British QF (quick-firing) 6-pounder 10 cwt gun was a 57 mm twin-mount light coast defence and naval gun from the 1930s to 1950s.
Digby Island is a small island immediately west of Kaien Island, which is the location of the city of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The island is home to the Prince Rupert Airport and the small community of Dodge Cove. The island is named for Henry A. Digby, an officer on HMS Malacca.
Fairview Point is a point or headland on the west side of Kaien Island on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
The 10-inch Gun M1895 (254 mm) and its variants the M1888 and M1900 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Most were installed on disappearing carriages, with early installations on barbette mountings. All of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped during World War II. Two of the surviving weapons were relocated from the Philippines to Fort Casey in Washington state in the 1960s.
Fort Davis, is a coastal defence fortification close to Whitegate, County Cork, Ireland. Together with similar structures at Fort Mitchel, Fort Camden (Crosshaven), and Templebreedy Battery, the fort was built to defend the mouth of Cork Harbour. Though used as a fortification from the early 17th century, the current structures of the 74-acre site date primarily from the 1860s. Originally named Fort Carlisle and operated by the British Armed Forces, the fort was handed-over to the Irish Defence Forces in 1938, and renamed Fort Davis. The facility is owned by the Department of Defence, and is used as a military training site with no public access.
The 6-inch gun M1897 (152 mm) and its variants the M1900, M1903, M1905, M1908, and M1 were coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1897 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. They were installed on disappearing carriages or pedestal mountings, and during World War II many were remounted on shielded barbette carriages. Most of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped within a few years after World War II.