On February 6, 1901, the US Army artillery corps divided into separate field and coast artillery components by General Order 9, War Department, implementing the Army Reorganization Act.
Artillery districts, each consisting of one or more forts and accompanying mine fields and land defenses, were established to protect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and the coasts of Hawai‘i and Puerto Rico. (US Archives)
In January 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt instructed Secretary of War William H Taft to convene the National Coast Defense Board (Taft Board) “to consider and report upon the coast defenses of the United States and the insular possessions (including Hawai‘i.)”
In 1906 the Taft Board recommended a system of Coast Artillery batteries to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed around the Island.
The Army mission in Hawai‘i was defined as “the defense of Pearl Harbor Naval Base against damage from naval or aerial bombardment or by enemy sympathizers and attack by enemy expeditionary force or forces, supported or unsupported by an enemy fleet or fleets.”
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson designated 322 acres in the central portion of Kāne‘ohe’s Mōkapu Peninsula as the Army’s Kuwa‘ahohe Military Reservation. Deactivated at the end of World War I, the reservation was leased for ranching until 1939, when it was reactivated as Fort Kuwa‘aohe.
In December 1940, Fort Kuwa‘aohe was renamed Fort Hase, in honor of Major General William F Hase, who served as Chief of Staff of the Army’s Hawaiian Department from April 1934 to January 1935. It served as headquarters of the Harbor Defenses of Kāne‘ohe Bay.
On the western side of the peninsula, Naval Air Station Kāne‘ohe was established in 1939; a base for squadrons of seaplanes to support the Pearl Harbor fleet was developed.
The work included dredge and fill operations that added 280 acres to the Kāne‘ohe Bay side of the peninsula, as well as filled low-lying areas for runway and hangar construction.
The great bulk of all reef material dredged in Kāne‘ohe Bay was removed in connection with the construction at Mōkapu of the Kāne‘ohe Naval Air Station (now Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i) between 1939 and 1945.
Dredging for the base began on September 27, 1939, and continued throughout World War II. A bulkhead was constructed on the west side of Mōkapu Peninsula, and initial dredged material from the adjacent reef flat was used as fill behind it.
In November 1939, the patch reefs in the seaplane take-off area in the main Bay basin were dredged to 10-feet (later most were taken down to 30-feet.)
It appears that a fairly reliable total of dredged material is 15,193,000 cubic yards. (Do the Math … Let’s say the common dump truck load is 10 cubic yards … that’s a million and a half truckloads of dredge material.)
The Air Station’s runway was about half complete at the time of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. Construction was begun on a modern-design gun battery located on a bluff above North Beach.
Battery Construction Number 301 was a single bombproof reinforced-concrete structure that housed projectile and powder rooms with an earth/sand cover. The plotting room, generator, and storage rooms were also contained within the structure.
This structure of steel reinforced concrete was covered with several feet of earth and was partially dug into the crest of the bluff. It was set atop the bluffs overlooking the beach. Located below the bluff to the front of the battery were the dormitory, mess-hall, recreation rooms, and latrine.
Battery 301’s guns covered the seaward approaches to Kāne‘ohe Bay from this location, 100 yards inland from the Mōkapu shoreline. It was one of the three initial batteries authorized for the Permanent Harbor Defense Project approved for Kāne‘ohe Bay.
Armament consisted of two 6-inch shield barbette carriage long-range guns. The guns were spaced some 210 feet apart and camouflaged with a steel-lattice rooftop appearing structure that rotated with the guns. The range was about 15 miles or 27,000 yards.
The battery’s exterior walls were 6 feet thick, interior wall was 18 inches. The Battery Commander’s structure was built directly on the roof of the main structure between both gun emplacements. The roof was built with two slabs totaling nine feet in thickness, and has a downward stairway leading into the battery and an upward stairway leading to the Commander’s station.
The radar room was located in the Commander’s station with the antenna mounted on the roof of the station. This antenna was disguised as a water tank for concealment. The radar was used to provide range and elevation for targets.
The fire control system for Battery 301 consisted of three stations: Podmore Fire Control Center on Kaiwa Ridge; Station “J” on the west rim of Ulupau Crater; and Heeia Fire Control Center on Puu Maelieli.
The final target practice of Battery 301 was conducted on November 22, 1944, when a regular day target practice was fired expending sixteen rounds. Battery 301 was then placed in a reduced manning status through the end of the war.
In 1946, the battery was designated in General Order Number 96 of the War Department as Battery French in honor of Colonel Forrest J French, who died on March 8, 1944. When Fort Hase was inactivated following the war and placed in caretaking status, Battery French’s guns were placed in experimental ‘mothballs.’
Following the disarming of the battery and its abandonment in the late 1940s, the magazine service structure was taken over by the US Navy for use as a laboratory. (Gaines)
The facility now serves WETS (Wave Energy Test Site). The Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center manages WETS. Established in 2004, WETS is located off the coast of Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i. WETS provides developers a critical real world environment for testing and advancing marine energy systems.
Key features at WETS include the 30-meter test site, deepwater wave energy test sites (comprised of 60 meter and 80 meter berths), Heeia Kea Small Boat Harbor, Dedicated Vessel Approved Mooring Area, Pyramid Rock, Battery French and the MCBH Fuel Pier. (Sea Engineering)
In 2024, marine hydrokinetics pioneer, Ocean Energy USA LLC (part of Ocean Energy Group Ireland), announced that it had successfully deployed its 826-ton wave energy convertor buoy, the OE-35, at the Wave Energy Test Site of the Marine Base (it was touted as “the world’s first electricity grid-scale wave energy device”). (Lots here is from John Bennett, William Gaines, Tomonari-Tuggle & Arakaki)
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