German U-Boats & Fort Williams | History Traveler Episode 105

i'm here at uh cape elizabeth just outside of portland maine and in the last video i mentioned that the area that i was in was the home to a place called fort williams so there's some military history right here in this area but the military history doesn't start with fort williams as a matter of fact this this area right here uh was called portland head and in 1776 whenever the revolution started well people were posted right here to watch for the british in case they tried to come into this area well later on in the late 1800s early 1900s a series of fortifications were built right here in this area as part of something called the endicott program which i talked about on another video so today we are going to be trudging around here uh at the former location of fort williams looking at some of the batteries that were built right here in this area [Music] now there are several batteries here at fort williams but we're not going to be able to see them all today because well i'm just a little bit short on time i fly out today and if i missed my flight that would be unfortunate so we're going to see as much as we can but the first of the batteries that we're going to take a look at is this one right here this is battery blair now battery blair was completed in 1903 as a part of the you know endicott program where they were trying to bolster us coastal defenses and uh originally they had two 12-inch guns that that would have been mounted here and i think we're looking at where one of those guns would have been mounted and kind of a unique design it would have been on something called a disappearing carriage so the gun would have actually set down low and it could have been loaded by by the men who were manning this battery and then it would elevate up above the parapet you could fire on your target and then after it fired it would lower back down that keeps the gun protected and also makes it easier for the the men to load it so yeah two 12-inch guns so that would have been the largest uh largest guns available at the time designed to take out battleships and cruisers interesting here's a really good look at what the battery would have originally looked like so again like all of this right here is is gone um so we're looking at a little bit of a shell of what the battery used to look like but here you can see what one of those disappearing guns would have looked like so here's one right here in the elevated position and here's one after it's been fired now i'm going to freely admit that i don't know everything that there is to know about this structure but i'm guessing that this room right here is where the man pulling the lanyard would have been situated so you got this little port coming out right here that's that's my guess but i i could possibly be wrong so don't don't torch me if i'm not correct about that but uh let's go ahead and walk up here and take a look at the view from this battery oh wow very very nice there's the lighthouse that we were looking at in the last video quite the view from up here though would have had a commanding view of this whole area now this battery saw service uh through world war one and kind of into the world war ii uh the day after pearl harbor they decided to do a test fire and i guess it didn't go so well and the battery was decommissioned after that so here if we if we get up top you can see where uh where those guns would have been okay now i mentioned that there were two different 12-inch guns here at battery blair uh after this battery was was decommissioned uh they ended up burying this thing and they excavated the part that i just showed you well here is the unexcavated part where the second gun would have been um here here at the battery so you can kind of see this little ring-shaped structure right in here that's where the gun would have been and then of course would have continued on over into this area all right i'm gonna go take a look at another battery now all right so the the battery that we're coming up on now is called battery kai's spelled k-e-y-e-s which some people might pronounce keys but i knew a guy one time by the last name of k-e-y-e-s it was pronounced kai so anyway that's what i'm that's what i'm saying uh but this one right here this battery that we're coming up on is the only one here at fort williams that saw service throughout world war ii all right so this is battery kai's now the primary purpose of this battery would have been to protect the minefield that would have been laid in in the harbor uh just out in front of us so yeah it's named after a guy by the name of erasmus kais who was a main resident and rose to the rank of general during the civil war so yeah we're gonna jump up here and take a little look around all right we're gonna go up here and take a quick look around now uh battery kai's was set up with two rapid-firing three-inch guns and they wanted to have the rapid fire uh to shoot at any like fast moving patrol boats and i think we're looking at one of the gun pits right here where those three inch guns would have been mounted and i'm guessing that there's one just on the other side as well so if you get up here yeah it looks like there's quite a bit of growth so it's really hard to to see the cape but over here in this direction is portland and yeah it looks like i got a little bit of a clearing here that i can step into this is the area that battery kai's would have been watching over and protecting so they had 24-hour watch for u-boats and for german patrol boats things like that this whole area would have been mined and they also would have had like anti-submarine nets cast over from one end to the other if we go back over here that other gun position yeah here's what looks to be the other position of that uh rapid-firing three-inch gun very very interesting that this area played such a critical role uh in world war ii in the battle of the atlantic as a matter of fact in one of the earlier videos i mentioned that about nine miles out that way there was a a u.s ship that was sunk by a u-boat so the war wasn't just fought in europe it was right off our shores as well [Music] okay we're back down here behind the battery now this building that we're looking at here uh in front of me to the right of the battery would have been where the the rangefinder would have been to find distance to targets this is the mine control station and then down here on the bottom is a magazine and storehouse and then off here to the left is where they would have had a searchlight very very interesting all right well that was battery kai's right here at fort williams in portland maine kind of interesting kind of cool that you know you don't have to travel all the way to europe or the south pacific in order to like personally witness some world war ii history you can come to a place like this and uh and see it for yourself so anyway glad that we stopped here today really interesting it's it's kind of helping me to form a little bit more of a complete picture of the history of world war ii and the history of our country all right well heading off to the next spot [Music] all right well i am whoa about to get wet [Music] you

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 23,817

Keywords: history, history channel, wwii, battle of the atlantic, bunkers, portland maine, world war ii, u-boats, fort, jd huitt, history underground, history traveler, travel, portland head, fort williams, ft williams, u-boat

Id: q1udB6tGm7Q

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020