Battery Davis (San Francisco, California)

 military, place with historical importance

Funding for the Fort Funston battery of two 16-inch guns became available and construction began in October 1936. The barrels or tubes for the guns were ones which had been manufactured for mounting on the 35,000 ton battle cruiser U.S.S. Saratoga whose construction was stopped by the Treaty of Washington; instead, the ship was converted into an aircraft carrier, a type or vessel not proscribed by the treaty. Construction of the battery involved excavation of 113,598 cubic yards of sand and the placing of 24,933.6 cubic yards of concrete and 1,868,549 pounds of reinforced steel at a cost of $860,440.24. The job was completed on February 15, 1939.

Named Battery Richmond P. Davis for a distinguished Coast Artillery officer, these guns had a maximum range of 44,000 yards or more than 26 miles, an effective range of 44,000 yards, and a minimum range of 6,000 yards. -They had a field of fire of 145 degrees. The gun barrel weighed 146 tons, and the two guns were located 600 feet apart. The battery was test-fired in 1938, turned over to the Coast Artillery Corps in September 1940, and had a special manual devoted to this particular battery. A 35-man gun crew was assigned to the battery in World War II, and it was eventually given a radar range-finding system. The guns were periodically fired for practice, though never in anger; its presence served as a massive deterrent to attack by an enemy. By 1948 the guns were considered obsolete, a victim of air power and nuclear weapons. They were cut up into five foot sections -for scrap by the Richard Pierce Industrial Engineering Company of San Francisco.

The 20 November 1957 map documenting the Fort Funston Military Reservation shows that Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 30th Antiaircraft Artillery Group used Battery Davis to house an AN/TTS-1D Surveillance Radar. This Site was known as SF-61R.


The interior portions of the battery were sealed in the '90s to deny access to squatters and vandals.

www.cdsg.org/cdsgrep/funston.htm
www.militarymuseum.org/BtyDavis.html