The Fort MacArthur Museum Association: Battery 128

Battery 128

About 20 miles to the south of Fort MacArthur on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway lies the former Bolsa Chica Military Reservation. This facility was purchased by the US Army as the location for two new state-of-the-art batteries designed to cover the southern approaches to the Los Angeles - Long Beach harbor areas.

Known only by it's construction project number, BCN-128 was designed to be the final "Big Gun" upgrade to Fort MacArthur. Construction of this second 16-inch battery began on April 17th 1943. By this time, the war in the Pacific had turned dramatically to the allied advantage and the threat of attack along the west coast had diminished. Construction was officially halted on January 21, 1944 with the major concrete work finished and most of the infrastructure installed, the guns however would never arrive. On January 5, 1945 the Army Corps of Engineers transferred the unfinished battery to the Coast Artillery, and for a short period of time the facility was used for training a storage.

The Bolsa Chica Reservation was closed in 1948 and the property sat idle for many years. Beginning in the mid 1980's several development projects were proposed and work to demolish Battery 128 had begun. Work has been suspended several times over the years due to the heavy construction and the cost of removing so much reinforced concrete. Today, Battery 128 sits buried under a large mound of earth and debris waiting for a future developer to make another attempt to demolish it.

Photograph showing the progress of the demolition of work at Battery 128

The Guns of Fort MacArthur

    Battery Osgood - Farley
    Battery Leary Merriam
    Battery Barlow - Saxton
    Battery Lodor
    Battery Erwin

Battery Eubanks

Battery 127 (Paul D Bunker)

Battery 128

Battery 240 (Harry C. Barnes)

Battery 241

Battery 242 (Harry J Harrison)

90mm AMTB

155 GPF Mobile Guns

Anti-Aircraft (Fixed and Mobile)

Missile Systems of Fort MacArthur

The Nike Program

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