FtMacArthur10

In addition to the big guns at Osgood-Farley, Fort MacArthur housed eight 12" mortars in an area called Battery Barlow-Saxton. Each mortar was mounted on a 360 degree carriage that turned in the circles shown above. Barlow-Saxton was built starting in 1916 as protection against warships entering Los Angeles harbor. At that time warships did not have armored decks (because there were no airplanes) and mortars, with their high-arcing trajectories, were considered excellent defense against thin-decked attacking ships.