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Battery Barnes BCN-240
Twin six-inch armored turret guns
 


An example of the  newly designed 6" Coast Artillery Gun identical to the ones installed at Battery 240 is currently
on exhibit at Fort Columbia
in Chinook, Washington.

Beginning in about 1940 the United States began to take another serious look at the state of it's coastal defenses. As a result of that re-evaluation dozens of forts around the country were slated for modernization.
 
The work was slow but America's entry into World War Two accelerated the building program. In April of 1942 work began at the Point Vicente Military Reservation about eight miles north of Fort MacArthur. This new battery was designed to cover the northern entrance to the Catalina Channel.
 
By the beginning of World War Two, the army had abandoned the practice naming it's guns for famous people from it's past. Instead the vast majority of the new batteries are just referred to by their construction codes. Battery 240 is the 40th battery of the 200 series construction plan.
 
In January 1948, section II of General Order 1 issued by the War Department, renamed Battery 240 to honor Colonel Harry C Barnes, of the US Army Coast Artillery Corps. Less than a year later, the guns would be removed and the equipment sold for scrap.
 
The Point Vicente Military Reservation remained in government hands until 1977, first as a training area, and later as the Launch and administration area for NIKE missile site LA-55. Today all of the NIKE era buildings have been slightly remodeled and now used as the City Hall for the community of Rancho Palos Verdes. The NIKE missile launch area is used as a city storage and maintenance yard and Battery Barnes is owned by the US Coast Guard who uses it as a radio beacon and aid to navigation.
 

Battery Barnes is named for Colonel Harry C. Barnes, who entered US Army service as a captain with Company "I," First Territorial Volunteer Infantry, 1898-99. He Re-entered the military service in 1899 as first lieutenant in the 34th Volunteer Infantry; in service during the Philippine insurrection 1899-1901; promoted to captain and decorated with the Silver Star medal for gallantry in action. He remained in the military and later he was transferred to the Coast Artillery Corps where he rose to the grade of colonel; served in the American expeditionary forces during World War 1 as colonel of artillery and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

The Guns of Fort MacArthur

    Battery Osgood - Farley
    Battery Leary Merriam
    Battery Barlow - Saxton
    Battery Lodor
    Battery Erwin

    Battery Eubanks

    Battery 127 (Paul D Bunker)

    Battery 128

    Battery 240 (Harry C. Barnes)
        Photos of the battery today
        Battery details

    Battery 241

    Battery 242 (Harry J Harrison)

    90mm AMTB

    155 GPF Mobile Guns

    Anti-Aircraft (Fixed and Mobile)

Missile Systems of Fort MacArthur

    The Nike Program


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