Battery Harris

Battery Harris was a two-gun 16"/50 caliber M1919 gun Coastal Artillery battery at Fort Tilden, Rockaway, NY. It was directly serviced to the magazines at each casemate by the Fort Tilden Military Railroad, the tracks making a cross through the lateral corridor behind the gun. This had evolved from its initial design as one of the first dispersed batteries; the two unprotected guns were spaced at 850 feet, about twice the 420 feet of earlier batteries.  As the dispersed battery concept was improved, the spacing at later works increased to 950 and finally 1050 feet at Fort Story.  The weakness of these installations to counter-battery and aerial attack was noted from the first.  When eventually casemated in 1940, the distance between the guns made it impractical to use a separate shared magazine.