Posted on 03/14/2009 10:53:12 AM PDT by SmithL
In the dunes amid trees and brush next to Baker Beach in San Francisco is what looks like an old, rusted pipe sticking mysteriously out of the sandy ground.
Beachgoers, picnickers and children clambering in the bluffs around the beach have ambled by the steel pole for more than six decades, unaware that it represents one of the scariest moments in San Francisco history.
The pole was used to mount a 30-caliber, water-cooled machine gun, while the caved-in trench next to it provided cover for a crew of four soldiers ready to strafe the beach and waters at the first sign of any invading Japanese.
It is a remnant of an unprecedented military escalation during World War II that led to the preservation of the very beaches that were in so much jeopardy then.
"Here you are, a stone's throw from Lincoln Boulevard and the Sea Cliff neighborhood and you find the fortifications of World War II that were largely forgotten," said Steve Haller, the historian for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, standing next to the pole in a quiet glen surrounded by a panorama of ocean, beach and coastal cliffs. "This was a fighting pit for machine guns."
Many people know that gun placements and pill boxes designed to repel an attack still line the beaches of San Francisco and Marin County, but there is more than meets the eye.
In the dunes and on the bluffs, hidden in deep brush and on cliff faces, are dozens of weathered foxholes, gun mounts, machine-gun nests, old sand bags, rusty barbed wire and other reminders of a dark time in history.
Haller said 50 to 60 concealed gun mounts and fortifications have been found on and around beaches in San Francisco and Marin in the past year alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The California coast has a lot of fascinating military fortifications and armaments hidden away. Once, my Webelos group was invited to camp with a Boy Scout Troop inside one of Battery Chamberlin’s bunkers. It was a great place to camp, but I wish I’d been forewarned about the clothing-optional beach that the Battery overlooks.
Well, since the U.S. will be totally bankrupt soon, we won’t need a defense. Nothing left to defend.
What we haven;t given away, the Mexicans will take away.
That’s the spirit that tamed the American West!
Cities of the Underground filmed in one of these hidden bunkers underneath The Presidio and Golden Gate Park.
Fascinating, just incredible.
Ed
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.