After war broke out on December 7th 1941, the War Department made an immediate effort to shore up the aging defenses around the Los Angeles harbor in preparation for a possible west coast attack by the Japanese. Part of this build up involved the transfer of two eight inch railway guns from the east coast.
 
The rail cars and gun carriages, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, mounted a single MKVI-M3-A2 naval gun on a army designed carriage. These new guns with their forty-seven degree elevation could easily hurl their five-hundred pound projectiles for up to twenty miles. The guns also featured a unique rotating turntable built right on the carriage enabling the gun to fire 360 degrees from the track and without a complicated prepared position like those used for Battery Erwin.
 
The two guns were assigned to the Manhattan Beach Military Reservation, where a spur track and two false sided buildings had been constructed as shelters. The shelters were built to resemble two oversized farmhouses in order to disguise the guns from enemy agents, aircraft, or submarines that might be watching the coast. Upon their arrival, the two guns were integrated into the Harbor Defenses of Los Angeles and given the names Battery Eubanks.
 

The Guns of Fort MacArthur