FORT SILL, Okla. (Aug. 15, 2013) -- The Army's first mobile, dedicated anti-aircraft gun was the Model 1918 3-inch. Several hundred were built, but the only surviving gun is now on display at the Army Air Defense Artillery Museum at Fort Sill.
"This is probably the rarest piece in our collection," said Jonathan Bernstein, ADA Museum director. "Since I came here last year, I've been looking at getting a couple of our really unique pieces restored, and this gun was my number priority."
Although the museum has had the gun in its collection since 1989 at Fort Bliss, Texas, it was never displayed because it was so badly corroded. The gun was just restored, and Aug. 2 joined the other 150 large artifacts available for viewing at the museum.
Fort Sill's gun is No. 48 and was built by New Britain Machine Company in Connecticut, according to the manufacturer's placard on the gun. The service history of this specific gun is not known, Bernstein said. It has been restored with the unit crest of the 63rd Coastal Artillery Regiment of Fort MacArthur, which used this type of gun in defense of the Southern California coast.
"The best photographs that I have of one in service have the complete set of markings of the 63rd," Bernstein said.
RESTORATION
The ADA Museum staff sends many of their pieces to Fort Sill's Directorate of Logistics for cosmetic restoration and they do a phenomenal job, Bernstein said. However, because the M1918 was so badly corroded it was sent to a contractor, American Aero Services in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
"Sending it to a professional restorer was the way to go because they know how to handle the corrosion issues without causing more damage to the gun, he said.
"The gun is now fully functional," said Bernstein, as he turned a handle to control the azimuth, "but obviously it's fragile."
ADA ROOTS
At the beginning of the 20th century, the biggest threat to the [JUMP]United States was foreign battleships steaming off its shores and bombarding U.S. cities with artillery hence coastal artillery defense.
In 1903, the airplane was introduced. By 1911 the military was already experimenting with ship-launched airplanes.
"The writing was pretty much on the wall that any future threats were going to be parked even further off our shores out of the range of coastal artillery guns," Bernstein said, "and, that they could launch aircraft on our cities all day."
To counter the aircraft threat, the Army used coastal artillery crews as AA gun crews because they were used to hitting moving targets (ships), as opposed to field artillery gun crews which fired at fixed points, he said.
GUNCREW
The three-inch gun took a crew of about 12 people to fire, Bernstein. It took four crewmen just to aim the gun: two performing traverse (azimuth) and two positioning its elevation. Crews could fire about 20 rounds a minute. There were four guns to a battery.
The gun fired a flak shell with a timed fuse, he said. "The gunners knew the speed of the shell, and so they would cut the fuse to determine the altitude that the flak round would detonate."
The Model 1918 never saw action because it came into service in December 1918, just after World War I ended, and it was phased out in 1928.
ADA MUSEUM
The Model 1918 is on display, and will eventually take its permanent place in the 100-year ADA timeline. The exhibit before it will be the World War I French 75mm Model 1897, a field artillery gun modified for AA fire. After it will be an anti-aircraft searchlight exhibit, Bernstein said.
To see the 3-inch AA gun and other ADA artifacts, visit the temporary ADA Museum in Bldg. 4908 Post Road, near the air traffic control tower. Its entrance is on the east side of the facility. Museum hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Beginning Aug. 25, the museum will be closed to the public through September, and it will reopen Oct. 1 in Bldgs. 1505 and 1506 at Randolph and Bateman roads. For more information, email: air.defense.artillery.museum@mail.mil or call 580-442-0424.
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