Today Richard and I visited Fort Stevens. It was pretty interesting. Fort Stevens was used as a coastal artillery location since the Civil War. It was the only place on US soil that was bombarded by the enemy in WWII. A Japanesse submaring lobbed about 20 rounds. The CO of the Fort did not return fire. The reason was that the sub was out of range of his batteries, and he wisely thought it might be prudent to just sit tight and not give away his gun positions. This is a view from a command post looking out over the Columbia River toward the Washington side.
Dave: It was the same submarine launching the air attacks. John: Depends on who you get your information from. I came away from the visit understanding that the guns in place were, well, less than top notch. This article says that the range finding equipment gave an erroneous answer. Either way, we did not return fire.
