Coast Artillery Living History
Ft. Hancock, NJ (20-21 May 2005)
Page 2
The second day over 400 people visited the battery before 1400 in the afternoon.
Several large groups spent time with us on the gun deck. With our new wooden
drill round and creation of an expedient "practice powder back"
consisting of PVC pipe wrapped in a sand bag, we conducted an impromptu gun
drill with our visitors. One young visitor holds the "powder bag"
in anticipation of the start of the drill.
The drill round worked quite well. It can be seen in the photo below as SGT Turner closes the breechblock.
PVT Minton mans the gun pointer's position and is looking at a "Celebrity Cruise" ship through the M1904 telescopic sight. Clearly a practice target, the abundance of ships passing in front of the battery enabled the public to see what a gunner would have seen in the 1940s.
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