Coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti - ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortification s . It was long held as a general rule of thumb that one shore - based gun equaled three naval guns of the same caliber , due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for significantly higher accuracy than their sea - mounted counterparts . Land - based guns also benefited in most cases from the additional protection of walls or earth mounds . History . One of the first registered uses of coastal artillery was in 1381 — during the war between Ferdinand I of Portugal and Henry II of Castile — when the troops of the King of Portugal used cannon s to defend Lisbon against an attack from the Castilian naval fleet . The use of coastal artillery expanded during the Age of Discoveries , in the 16th century ; when a colonial power took over an overseas territory , one of their first tasks was to build a coastal fortress , both to deter rival naval powers and to subjugate the natives . The Martello tower is an excellent example of a widely used coastal fort which mounted defensive artillery , in this case muzzle - loading cannon . During the 19th century China also built hundreds of coastal fortresses in an attempt to counter Western naval threats . Coastal artillery could be part of the Navy ( as in Scandinavian countries , war - time Germany , and the Soviet Union ) , or part of the Army ( as in Anglophone countries ) . In the United Kingdom , in the later 19th and earlier 20th Centuries , coastal artillery was the responsibility of the Royal Garrison Artillery . In the United States , coastal artillery was established in 1794 as a branch of the Army and a series of construction programs of coastal defenses began : the " First System " in 1794 , the " Second System " in 1804 , and the " Third System " or " Permanent System " in 1816 . Then , following the Spanish American War and the report of the Endicott Board , U . S . harbor defenses were greatly strengthened and provided with new , rifled artillery and minefield defenses . Shortly thereafter , in 1907 , Congress split the field artillery and coast artillery into two separate branches , and created a separate Coast Artillery Corps ( CAC ) . The first decade of the 20th Century , the United States Marine Corps established the Advanced Base Force . The force was used for setting up and defending advanced bases , and its close ties to the Navy allowed it to man coast artillery around these bases . World War II . During the Battle of Drøbak Sound in April 1940 , the German navy lost the new heavy cruiser " Blücher " , one of their most modern ships , to a combination of fire from various coastal artillery emplacements , including two obsolete German - made Krupp 280 mm ( 11 in ) guns and equally obsolete Whitehead torpedo s . The Blücher had entered the narrow waters of the Oslofjord , carrying 1 , 000 soldiers and leading a German invasion fleet . The first salvo from the Norwegian defenders , fired from Oscarsborg Fortress about 1 mile ( 1 , 600 meters ) distant , disabled Blücher ' s main battery and set her afire . Fire from the smaller guns ( 57 mm to 150 mm ) swept her decks and disabled her steering , and she received several torpedo hits before the fires reached her magazines and doomed her . As a result , the remainder of the invasion fleet reversed , the Norwegian royal family , parliament and cabinet escaped , and the Norwegian gold reserves were safely removed from the city before it fell . In December 1941 , during the Battle of Wake Island , US Marines fired at the Japanese invasion fleet with their six 5 - inch ( 127 mm ) guns , sinking the Japanese destroyer " Hayate " by scoring direct hits on her magazines , and scoring eleven hits on the light cruiser " Yubari " , forcing her to withdraw , and temporarily repulsing Japanese efforts to take the island . Singapore was defended by its famous large - caliber coastal guns , which included one battery of three guns and one with two guns . Prime Minister Winston Churchill nicknamed the garrison as " The Gibraltar of the East " and the " Lion of the Sea " . The coastal guns were supplied mostly with armour - piercing ( AP ) shells and few high explosive ( HE ) shells . AP shells were designed to penetrate the hulls of heavily armoured warships and were ineffective against personnel . The Japanese attacked Singapore from Malaya in December 1941 , and although the 15 - inch guns were placed to fire on enemy ships to the south , most of them could turn northwards and they fired at the Imperial Japanese Army invaders . Military analysts later estimated that if the guns had been well supplied with HE shells , the Japanese attackers would have suffered heavy casualties , but the invasion would not have been prevented by this means alone . The Japanese defended the island of Betio in the Tarawa atoll with numerous 203 mm ( 8 - inch ) coastal guns . In 1943 , these were knocked out early in the battle with a combined USN naval and aerial bombardment . Nazi Germany fortified its conquered territories with the Atlantic Wall , they built a string of reinforced concrete pillbox es along the beaches , or sometimes slightly inland , to house machine gun s , antitank guns , artillery ranging in size up to the large 38 cm naval guns . The intent was to destroy the Allied landing craft before they could unload . During the Normandy Landings in 1944 , shore bombardment was given a high importance , using ships from battleships to destroyers and landing craft . For example , the Canadians at Juno beach had fire support many times greater than they had had for the Dieppe Raid in 1942 . The old battleships HMS " Ramillies " and " Warspite " and the monitor HMS " Roberts " were used to suppress shore batteries east of the Orne ; cruisers targeted shore batteries at Ver - sur - Mer and Moulineaux ; eleven destroyers for local fire support . In addition , there were modified landing - craft : eight " Landing Craft Gun " , each with two 4 . 7 - inch guns ; four " Landing Craft Support " with automatic cannon ; eight Landing Craft Tank ( Rocket ) , each with a single salvo of 1 , 100 5 - inch rockets ; eight Landing Craft Assault ( Hedgerow ) , each with twenty - four bombs intended to detonate beach mines prematurely . Twenty - four Landing Craft Tank carried Priest self - propelled howitzer s which also fired while they were on the run - in to the beach . Similar arrangements existed at other beaches . On June 25 , 1944 the U . S . battleship " Texas " engaged German shore batteries on the Cotentin Peninsula . Battery Hamburg straddled the ship with a salvo 240mm shells , eventually hitting the " Texas " twice ; one shell damaging the conning tower and navigation bridge and the other penetrating below decks but failing to explode . Return fire from the " Texas " knocked out the German battery . Allied efforts to take the port of Toulon in August 1944 ran into " Big Willie " , a battery consisting of two turrets taken from the French battleship " Provence " , each mounting a pair of 340 mm naval guns . The range and power of these guns was such that the Allies dedicated a battleship or heavy cruiser to shelling the fort every day , with the battleship " USS Nevada " eventually silencing the guns on August 23 , 1944 . Post - World War II . After World War II the advent of jet aircraft and guided missile s reduced the role of coastal artillery in defending a country against air and sea attacks while also rendering fixed artillery emplacements vulnerable to enemy strikes . In countries where coastal artillery has not been disbanded , these forces have acquired amphibious capabilities . In constricted waters , mobile coastal artillery armed with surface - to - surface missile s still can be used to deny the use of sea lanes .