Through Difficulties: A Brief History of the 54th Coast Artillery Regiment
by John Moseley, Interpreter III, Fort Fisher Historic Site
In October 1941, almost eight decades after the capture of Fort Fisher, a new group of African-American soldiers fighting for the United States arrived at the old fort. Those original African-American soldiers, called United States Colored Troops in 1865, helped capture the Confederacy’s largest earth- work fortification. This new group was not here to capture the fort, they were here to learn how to protect the United States’ coastline from foreign armies, navies and air forces.
The 54th Coast Artillery Regiment was activated at Camp Wallace, Texas February 10, 1941, with men coming from a cadre of black soldiers from Texas, Kansas, and Missouri. The unit was equipped with twenty-four M1918 155-mm guns of French design left over from World War I. The 155-mm gun could fire a 95- pound projectile a little over 10 miles. These guns and their crews were utilized to protect the American coastline from enemy assault. The 54th was the only African-American 155- millimeter coast artillery unit in the United States Army. Over the next couple months, the strength of the regiment was brought up to its required limit of 1,800 soldiers. With the regiment at full strength, they were deemed ready to start training for their primary role.1
Training started in the little town of Holly Ridge, North Carolina at Camp Davis. Boarding trains, they were shipped half way across the country arriving in North Caroli- na on May 22, 1941. The training routine at Camp Davis became more rigorous to shape them into soldiers of the United States Army. It was here, the men were tasked with learning the necessary skills to handle the big guns, from loading, firing, and the science and mathematics of artillery targeting. Some of the men were enrolled in spe- cialist schools to learn radio communications, automotive mechanics, and equipment maintenance. In addition, many of the men were tasked with learning about the Army’s new 37-mm anti-aircraft automatic weapon. The 54th Coast Artillery Regiment would be one of three African-American units to train at Camp Davis during the war.2
By October 1941, the Fort Fisher firing point was opened to assist the soldiers of Camp Davis with the firing of live ammunition. After months of long, hard training, the 54th was ready for live fire training at Fort Fisher. Orders were issued for the entire regiment to move to all equipment to the range. It was at Fort Fisher, the men of the 54th Coast Artillery could take the classroom learning and put it to practical use on targets. During their first 12 days, they devoted their time to firing on waterborne moving targets located 5 to 7 miles out at sea. In addition to their primary weapons, the men learned about and used other weapons such as the Springfield .03 rifle, the M1911A1 .45 caliber pistol, the M-1 Garand rifle, .30 and .50 caliber machine guns, and eight-million candlepower searchlights. For the next 2 months, the 54th CA worked their guns, fired shell into the ocean and held training maneuvers.3
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was feared the Japanese Navy would launch an attack on strategic points along the California coast. In late February 1942, after completing their training at Fort Fisher, the 1st Battalion was ordered to San Francis- co, California. The 3rd Battalion followed not long afterwards. The permanent station of 1st & 3rd Battalions, 54th Coast Artillery Regiment, was Ft. Cronkhite, just south of San Francisco. Until mid-April 1944, the men of these two battalions rotated throughout the shore batteries posted along this part of the California coastline. The men of the 2nd Battalion were ordered to Fort Macon in late July 1942 and stayed there until early September when orders came for them ship out to the Pacific Theater of Operations. Their mission was to protect the air- field at Espiritu Santo which provided bomb- er support for forces at Guadalcanal.
By October 6, the men of the 2nd Battalion, 54th Coast Artillery and their equipment boarded the US Army Transport President Coolidge, along with members of the 172nd Infantry Combat Team, 43rd Division, for New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. As the ship arrived at Espiritu Santo in the morning of October 26, 1942, the USAT President Coolidge struck two underwater mines. The ship was run aground on the beach and the order was given to abandon it. The troops were instructed to leave everything behind and it would all be retrieved over the next few days. Unfortunately, the ship was not on the beach, but stuck on a reef. Ninety minutes after hitting the mines, the list to the port side became worse and the Coolidge slid beneath the waves.4
The battalion lost its equipment and records but fortunately the unit suffered no causalities in the accident. The men were quickly assigned as part of the island’s defense force. While awaiting replacement equipment, they borrowed anything they could and learned to use the various types of equipment including naval guns. Occasional bombing raids, incurring no casualties and little damage, and intensive training in field artillery methods (every available man in the unit was trained as a cannoneer) contributed to the fitness of the unit. On February 1944, the unit moved to Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville where it was assigned to field artillery missions as part of the XIV Corps, thus becoming the first African-American combat support unit to engage the enemy actively in the South Pacific.5
On February 28, 1944, the 2nd Battalion, then in Papua New Guinea, was re-designated the 49th Coast Artillery Battalion. Between 4 February and 29 July, the 49th Coast Artillery Battalion acted as field artillery. They conducted about 400 missions designed for destruction, neutralization, and harassment with their 155-mm guns. During March 1944, a Japanese counterattack was met with extraordinary counterbattery fire which earned the Battalion six Bronze Stars, and a commendation from the XIV Corps Artillery commander, Brig. Gen. Leo Kreber. Unfortunately, 2 men were killed and 3 wounded during this action. Beginning in May, part of the 49th relieved the 3rd Marine Defense Battalion in seacoast defense positions. Battery B remained as field artillery under the operational control of XIV Corps Artillery, attached to the 135th Field Artillery. The 49th continued with Anti-aircraft assignments on Bougainville until late November 1944. During February and March 1945, the 49th Coast Artillery left Bougainville for Finschhafen. By late January 1946, the 49th Coast Artillery Battalion inactivated and the men were finally going home.6
With the loss of the 2nd Battalion, the 54th Coast Artillery Regiment ceased to exist. By mid-April 1944, the 1st and 3rd battalions were removed from their coastal defense mission and re-structured as independent Anti-aircraft battalions. The men of the 1st Battalion were re- designated the 606th Coast Artillery AA Bat- talion and transferred to Camp Livingston in Louisiana. The same day, the 3rd Battalion redesignated the 607th Coast Artillery AA Battalion and transferred to Camp Ruck- er, Alabama. Both units retained their 155-mm guns. With the war progressing away from the shores of the United States, the 606th AA Battalion and the 607th AA Battalion were inactivated on August 3, 1944. For the men of the 54th Coast Artillery regiment who had served in California, many of them returned to those coastal communities the start the post-war lives.7
ENDNOTES:
1 The ROTC Manual: Coast Artillery Volume I. The Military Service Publishing Company: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 1942. Baltimore African-American October 25, 1941
2 Baltimore African American, October 18, 1941 3 Baltimore African American. October 25, 1941
4 December 12, 1942 Report of the Sinking of the SS President Coolidge. http:// www.ibiblio.org/pha/comms/1942-12.html.
5 Lee, Ulysses. The United States Army in World War II: Special Studies – The Em- ployment of Negro Troops. Center of Military History United States Army, Wash- ington, D. C., 1965. Pages 501-502.
6 Griffith, Robert K., Kohn, Robert H., Converse, Elliott V. The Exclusion of Black Soldiers from the Medal of Honor in World War II: The Study Commissioned by the United States Army to Investigate Racial Bias in the Awarding of the Nation's High- est Military Decoration. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1997. Page 148 -150
7 Gaines William C., Coast Artillery Organizational History, 1917-1950 Part I, Coast Artillery Regiments 1-196.The Coast Defense Journal May 2009 Page, 29.
