Bombardment of Fort Stevens: Difference between revisions
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* Webber, Bert ''Retaliation'' Oregon State University Press (1975) {{ISBN|0-87071-076-1}} |
* Webber, Bert ''Retaliation'' Oregon State University Press (1975) {{ISBN|0-87071-076-1}} |
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* [http://history1900s.about.com/library/prm/bljapanesebombwc1.htm/ ''Aviation History'' article] |
* [http://history1900s.about.com/library/prm/bljapanesebombwc1.htm/ ''Aviation History'' article] |
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* ''Fort Stevens''. The Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. http://www.cdsg.org/HDCRdata/stevensx.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-23. |
* ''Fort Stevens''. The Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. https://web.archive.org/web/20081222170438/http://www.cdsg.org/HDCRdata/stevensx.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-23. |
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* ''Fort Stevens State Park''. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php. Retrieved on 2008-11-23. |
* ''Fort Stevens State Park''. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php. Retrieved on 2008-11-23. |
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Revision as of 05:17, 23 July 2017
Bombardment of Fort Stevens | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the American theater and the Pacific Theater of World War II | |||||||
American service men inspecting a shell crater after the Japanese attack on Fort Stevens. | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Japan | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
unknown | Tagami Meiji | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Land: 2 artillery pieces 1 fort Air: 1 aircraft | 1 submarine | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Minor damage | None |
The Bombardment of Fort Stevens occurred in June 1942, in the American Theater of the Pacific Theater of World War II. An Imperial Japanese submarine fired on Fort Stevens, which defended the Oregon side of the Columbia River's Pacific entrance.
Bombardment
The Japanese submarine I-25, commanded by Tagami Meiji, had been assigned to sink enemy shipping and attack the enemy on land with their 14 cm deck gun. Transporting a Yokosuka E14Y seaplane, the submarine was manned by a crew of 97.[1] On 21 June 1942, I-25 had entered US coastal waters, following allied fishing boats to avoid the mine fields in the area.
Late that night, Commander Meiji ordered his crew to surface his submarine at the mouth of the Columbia River. His target was Fort Stevens, which dated to the American Civil War and armed with now more or less obsolete Endicott era artillery, including 12-inch coast defense mortars, and several of 10 in (250 mm) disappearing guns.[2]
Meiji ordered the deck gun crew to open fire on Fort Stevens' Battery Russell. Surprisingly, his shots were harmless, in part because the fort's commander ordered an immediate blackout. The commander also refused to permit his men to return fire, which would have revealed their position.[3]
Most Japanese rounds landed in a nearby baseball field or a swamp, although one landed close to Battery Russell and another next to a concrete pillbox. One round severed several large telephone cables, the only real damage that Meiji caused. Seventeen 5.5 in (140 mm) explosive shells had been fired at the fort.[4]
American Army Air Corps planes on a training mission spotted the I-25 and called in her location for an A-29 Hudson bomber to attack. The bomber found the I-25, but she successfully dodged the falling bombs and submerged undamaged.[5]
Aftermath
Even though there were no injuries and very little damage, the Japanese attack on Fort Stevens helped create the 1942 West Coast invasion scare. Thereafter, rolls of barbed wire would be strung from Point Adams southward in case of an invasion. The wrecked steamer Peter Iredale was entangled in the wire and would remain so until the war's end.
The Fort Stevens shelling was the only time that a continental United States military installation was attacked by the Axis Powers during World War II.[6]
See also
- Bombardment of Madras
- Bombardment of Orleans
- German attacks on Nauru
- Bombardment of Ellwood
- "Battle of Los Angeles"
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Hackett, Bob, and Sander Kingsepp (2002). "HIJMS Submarine I-25: Tabular Record of Movement" (Web page). CombinedFleet.com. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Webber, Bert Retaliation Oregon State University Press (1975) ISBN 0-87071-076-1
- Aviation History article
- Fort Stevens. The Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. https://web.archive.org/web/20081222170438/http://www.cdsg.org/HDCRdata/stevensx.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-23.
- Fort Stevens State Park. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php. Retrieved on 2008-11-23.
External links
- Fort Stevens State Park, official website from Oregon Parks and Recreation Department
- Use dmy dates from May 2011
- Conflicts in 1942
- Naval battles of World War II involving Japan
- Naval battles of World War II involving the United States
- Clatsop County, Oregon
- History of Oregon
- Battles of World War II involving the United States
- American Theater of World War II
- Battles and conflicts without fatalities
- 1942 in Oregon
- June 1942 events