Big WWII-era gun comes to Golden Gate

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Big WWII-era gun comes to Golden Gate

U.S. MILITARY

Carl Nolte

Updated 11:34 p.m., Sunday, September 30, 2012

• The 16-inch gun is clearly visible on the battleship Missouri during the Japanese surrender ceremony that marked the end of World War II. The historic gun will soon be placed on permanent display at Marin County's Battery Townsley. Photo: Courtesy Library Of Congress, Library Of Congress / SF
• The 16-inch gun is clearly visible on the battleship Missouri...
  
  
• - / SF
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• Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. inspect a retired Navy gun Friday before securing it onto a trailer. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
• Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. inspect a retired Navy gun...
  
• On September 28, 2012 (Left) Glen Amant inspects and adjusts the balance of the Navy gun as it is being secured, (right) Frank Pavia (project manager) oversees the gun being secured. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 (Left) Glen Amant inspects and adjusts the...
  
• On September 28, 2012 in Marin Headlands, Calif. Glen Amant (Ironworker general foreman) rests his hand inside of the historic Navy gun from the USS Missouri. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 in Marin Headlands, Calif. Glen Amant...
  
• On September 28, 2012 in Marin Headlands, Calif. Ton Trent (below), a trailer technician, works with Glen Amant (above), Ironworker general foreman, to secure the old Navy gun for its trip to Battery Townsley in the Marin Headlands. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 in Marin Headlands, Calif. Ton Trent (below),...
  
• On September 28, 2012 (From left): Tom Trent (Trailer technician), Glen Amant (Ironworker general foreman), Ron Rabello (Heavy haul driver) help to secure the retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri before its trip to Battery Townsley in the Marin Headlands. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 (From left): Tom Trent (Trailer technician),...
  
• On September 28, 2012 (From Left): Ron Rabello (Heavy haul driver), Tom Trent (Trailer technician), Glen Amant (Ironworker general foreman), help to secure the retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri before its trip to Battery Townsley in the Marin Headlands. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 (From Left): Ron Rabello (Heavy haul driver),...
  
• On September 28, 2012 in Marin Headlands, Calif. a park ranger inspects the old Navy gun before as it is secured to be moved to Battery Townsley in the Marin Headlands. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 in Marin Headlands, Calif. a park ranger...
  
• On September 28, 2012 workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. place rubber mats to protect the retired Navy gun from being scratched and to secure it for its trip to Battery Townsley in the Marin Headlands. Workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. secure a retired Navy gun from the USS Missouri Friday morning in the Marin Headlands. "Our goal today is to have it all secured on the truck to move it Monday morning" said Jim Morgan, the general superintendent overseeing the weapons movement. The Navy gun was driven from Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to the Marin Headlands, for a total distance of 550 miles. Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle / SF
  
• On September 28, 2012 workers from Bigge Crane and Rigging Co....
  

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One of the largest American naval guns ever built was parked by the side of the road at Fort Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands through the weekend, on its way to be the centerpiece of a display of historic fortifications that protected San Francisco Bay in World War II.

The big gun is here after a two-day trip from a naval weapons station at Hawthorne, Nev. Because of its size and weight, it had to travel by night on special 32-wheel trailers over Donner Summit on Interstate 80 and then up the Waldo Grade at the north end of the Golden Gate and through the narrow tunnel between Sausalito and the Marin Headlands.

It arrived an hour before dawn Friday and parked near an old Army warehouse on the edge of Rodeo Lagoon awaiting a move Monday, up a winding road to a former fortification called Battery Townsley on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It will be refurbished and painted and put on display in the coming months at Battery Townsley.

The gun emplacements that once ringed the Golden Gate are now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, but in its day, Battery Townsley, and a similar top-secret battery at Fort Funston near the San Francisco Zoo, housed big guns to protect San Francisco from enemy naval forces.

They were manned by specially trained Army troops day and night, and the fortifications were patrolled by armed sentries to keep civilians away. The big guns occasionally fired practice salvos at targets far out to sea, and though the booms from the guns could be heard all over the area, they were never mentioned in public.

Veteran of the Missouri


The gun that will go on permanent display is exactly like those big guns.
The gun is 68 feet long, weighs 236,240 pounds and could fire shells weighing 2,700 pounds at targets up to 25 miles away.

This particular gun has a history of its own - it was one of nine on the battleship Missouri during World War II and the Korean War. It was mounted on the ship's No. 2 turret and is clearly visible in pictures of the Japanese surrender signed on board the Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945.

The gun was taken off the ship and replaced by newer guns when the Missouri was recommissioned in the 1980s. The Navy stored a number of big guns at an arsenal in Nevada, where they were gradually sold for scrap. The Missouri gun was transferred to the National Park Service at no cost.

"Getting this gun is something we thought about for years," said John Martini, a retired park ranger who was one of several volunteers who refurbished Battery Townsley over the past five years.

He said the big gun would be an important part of public displays at the refurbished gun battery. "A gun battery without a gun would be like a railroad museum without a locomotive," he said.


Celebrating history


Bringing the gun back to the Marin Headlands "is not a celebration of war," said Frank Dean, superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. "It is a celebration of protecting America. It is an important part of our national history."

The gun was moved from Hawthorne by Bigge Crane and Rigging Co., the same firm that moved the original guns from military arsenals to San Francisco and Marin in 1938. Those old guns were considered obsolete and were removed in 1948 and subsequently scrapped.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: cnolte@sfchronicle.com






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