by Igor Kulakov » August 17th, 2012, 10:29 am
94th Coastal Artillery (AA) Regiment
94 1941 Cp Davis, NC regular army AA inact May 1943 South Pacific
Semi-Mobile
на 7 дек 41 - Camp Davis, Wilmington, North Carolina
94th Coastal Artillery (AA) Regiment
(
The 209th AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion (Self-Propelled, or SP) began WW II as the 94th
Coast Artillery Regiment. The 94th was a pre-war outfit activated April 17, 1941 at Camp Davis,
NC. Camp Davis was the AAA School. The men who initially made up the three batteries of the 94th
were from the upper Midwest - Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois. The first AA equipment they
trained on was the 37mm gun carriage, a side-loading small multi-purpose cannon pulled by a
2 1/2-ton truck. It took multiple rounds in trays and required a 3- to 4-man crew. They also
had M15 halftracks; these `tracks had a 37mm gun mounted with two .50 machine guns. The GIs
subsequently transitioned to the Swedish 40mm Bofors, which was carriage-mounted, trailer-
mounted, and based on halftracks. The 40mm consisted of two guns, which were top loaded, four
rounds to a "clip" and hand-fed down into a hopper. The Bofors required a five-man crew: two
gunners who traded off working the guns, while the other, the elevation/transversal screws; a
loader, who pushed the ammo into the weapon; the assistant loader, who handed the ammo to the
loader from the ammo boxes; and a corporal, who supervised the crew. Aircraft pulling sleeves
provided the live-target practice need by the regiment.
The 94th then transitioned to the M-16, which was a halftrack featuring four .50-caliber
machine guns. The weapons system was based on a gasoline-driven Maxon turret that could rotate
360 degrees very quickly. The turret rested on a raised platform; the sides of these
particular `tracks were hinged for side clearance. The .50s, electrically operated, could fire
400-500 rounds per minute, and each weapon had a 200-round ammo box affixed. Extra ammo was
carried in a small trailer pulled by each `track. There were four-man crews assigned to each
`track; a driver, two loaders, and the gunner. The gunner entered the turret from above and to
the rear, and sat in a rather cramped position.
Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the 94th moved up to Newport News, VA and Sandy Hook, NJ to
supplement coastal artillery batteries. On February 18, 1942, the 94th Coast Artillery (CA)
Regiment departed the NY Port of Embarkation and steamed south toward Florida. Also on board
were the 197th and 208th CA Regiments. Because of the threat from German submarines, the single
ship delayed in the vicinity of Cuba, and then sailed down to Buenos Aries for a stopover. Now
escorted by a single U.S. Navy ship, the troopship steamed across the Atlantic, around Capetown,
South Africa, and into the Indian Ocean. They landed at Perth, Australia on March 28, 1942.
They made a few stops along Australia's southern coast before their first 14th Anti-Aircraft
Command assignment: guarding an American-Australian airfield at Cairns. U.S. B-17s and Aussie
fighter aircraft were based at the field. The Japanese air threat to Australia was never
realized, but the 94th CA remained in Australia until it was committed to New Guinea in late
May 1943.
New Guinea brought the first of many split assignments. Different batteries were attached to
different units for various operations. The threat by Japanese aircraft was thoroughly negated
in the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations (SWPTO) by 1943, so the AA mission expanded to
that of ground support - lining up its self-propelled vehicles and laying down automatic weapons
fire against suspected and actual enemy positions. The 94th, with its M-16s, saw action at
Salamaua in June 1943 and the airfield near Lae (Nadzab) in September 1943. The 94th was
assigned to guarding the U.S. airfield at Nadzab until being utilized in a ground-support role
at Hollandia in September 1944.
On October 5, 1944 the 2nd Battalion, 94th CA was redesignated the 209th AAA Automatic Weapons
Battalion (Self-Propelled). Over the next couple of months, weapons systems were overhauled,
replacements came in, and the battalion prepared for the next mission - the assault on the
Philippines. The 209th was committed to the invasion on January 8, 1945, supporting infantry
troops in Lingayen Gulf. Fighting was so fierce that some of the AA troops were utilized as
infantrymen. Once objectives were seized, the battalion regrouped and was again relegated to
airbase defense.
Once the war against Japan ended, the prewar members of the battalion were discharged. The
209th AAA AW Bn (SP), with replacements, was deployed to Japan as Occupation troops, and was
inactivated May 20, 1947 in Japan.
)