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<title>Bermuda Base Command</title>

<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Bermuda Base Command</span></span>

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</style><table class="infobox" style="width:25.5em;border-spacing:2px;"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="background-color:#C3D6EF;color:inherit;text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;font-size:110%;">Bermuda Base Command</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image" style="text-align:center;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa;line-height:1.5em;"><div class="infobox-caption">1942–1943 Shoulder Sleeve Insignia</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="padding-right: 1em;">Active</th><td class="infobox-data">April 1941–c. 1948</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="padding-right: 1em;">Country</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="United_States" title="United States">United States</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="padding-right: 1em;">Branch</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="United_States_Army" title="United States Army">United States Army</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="padding-right: 1em;">Type</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Command_(military_formation)" title="Command (military formation)">Command</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="padding-right: 1em;">Part of</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Eastern_Defense_Command" title="Eastern Defense Command">Eastern Defense Command</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

<p>The <b>Bermuda Base Command</b> was a command of the <a href="United_States_Army" title="United States Army">United States Army</a>, established to defend the <a href="British_Overseas_Territory" class="mw-redirect" title="British Overseas Territory">British Colony</a> of <a href="Bermuda" title="Bermuda">Bermuda</a>, located 640 miles off <a href="Cape_Hatteras" title="Cape Hatteras">Cape Hatteras</a>, <a href="North_Carolina" title="North Carolina">North Carolina</a>. It was created in April 1941 when United States Army troops were sent to the island.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Development_of_Imperial_defenses_of_Bermuda">Development of Imperial defenses of Bermuda</h3></div>

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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Bermuda_Garrison" title="Bermuda Garrison">Bermuda Garrison</a></div>

<p>Although the <a href="British_Army" title="British Army">British Army</a> had maintained a small detachment in Bermuda since 1701 (an independent company, or, later, a detachment from the Bahamas' independent company), Bermuda's military defence had been left by the English and British governments largely in the hands of its own <a href="Bermuda_Militias_1612%E2%80%931815" class="mw-redirect" title="Bermuda Militias 1612–1815">militia</a> until the Royal Navy took an interest in the colony as a base. Vast sums were poured into improving the fortifications and batteries the new Bermuda Garrison inherited from the militia, and building new ones. Two large army bases were established, known as <a href="St._George's_Garrison%2C_Bermuda" title="St. George's Garrison, Bermuda">St. George's Garrison</a> and <a href="Prospect_Camp%2C_Bermuda" title="Prospect Camp, Bermuda">Prospect Camp</a>, and various smaller facilities, including <a href="Warwick_Camp_(Bermuda)" class="mw-redirect" title="Warwick Camp (Bermuda)">Warwick Camp</a>, Clarence Barracks on <a href="Boaz_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="Boaz Island, Bermuda">Boaz Island</a>, <a href="Ordnance_Island%2C_Bermuda" class="mw-redirect" title="Ordnance Island, Bermuda">Ordnance Island</a>, and a secret munitions depot on <a href="Agar's_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="Agar's Island, Bermuda">Agar's Island</a>, among others. By the 1860s, the expense began to cause grave concerns for the British government. A sizeable portion of Imperial defence expenditure had been lavished on Bermuda. Roughly five hundred artillery pieces had been emplaced, but the number of artillerymen needed to man them all was far greater than that available. Rapid advances in artillery in the latter 19th Century meant that many of the guns, and even the fortifications themselves, were obsolete by the time they were ready for use. Following the <a href="Crimean_War" title="Crimean War">Crimean War</a>, fought with too little funds and too few professional soldiers, the government was faced with the task of redeploying much of the British Army back from Imperial garrisons to protect the increasingly imperilled <a href="United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland" title="United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland">United Kingdom</a>, without weakening Imperial defences to the point of encouraging native insurrections or foreign invasions.

</p><p>The Bermuda government had allowed the militia to lapse following the American <a href="War_of_1812" title="War of 1812">War of 1812</a>, and the British government failed for decades to implore or goad it to raise a new reserve for the regular army. It succeeded in doing this by ransoming its approval of the American investment required for the erection of the <a href="The_Fairmont_Hamilton_Princess" class="mw-redirect" title="The Fairmont Hamilton Princess">Princess Hotel</a> in the 1880s, which the local government intended to be the flagship of its nascent tourism industry, and of the widening of a shipping channel required for <a href="St._George's%2C_Bermuda" title="St. George's, Bermuda">St. George's</a> to remain a useful port. The local government raised two part-time units, the <a href="Bermuda_Militia_Artillery" title="Bermuda Militia Artillery">Bermuda Militia Artillery</a> to reinforce the <a href="Royal_Garrison_Artillery" title="Royal Garrison Artillery">Royal Garrison Artillery</a>, and the <a href="Bermuda_Volunteer_Rifle_Corps" title="Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps">Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps</a> to reinforce the regular infantry battalion. These units were raised under legislation drafted by the national <a href="Government_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="Government of the United Kingdom">government</a> and passed to the colonial legislature, the <a href="House_of_Assembly_of_Bermuda" title="House of Assembly of Bermuda">House of Assembly</a>, to en-act. As national security and defence were not areas of governance delegated to local government, the British Government maintains control of all British military units, including colonial units, although it has preferred to work through local governments to enact legislation and the British Parliament has, throughout the history of the empire, attempted to place the financial burden of defence on the local governments, obliging colonial governments to make payments towards the costs of regular garrisons (which most were reluctant to do, knowing that the regular garrison units might still be re-deployed elsewhere on the outbreak of war), not providing regular garrisons to colonies deemed unimportant to Imperial defence strategy, or prodding local governments to both raise and fund reserve home-defence units which ultimately remained under British Government control, via the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the colony.

</p><p>As an <a href="Imperial_fortress" title="Imperial fortress">Imperial fortress</a>, the British Government could not ignore Bermuda's defence, and as the local government had refused for decades to be bullied or duped into shouldering any part of the cost of the garrison, it fully-funded the new reserve units, which were considered fully parts of the British Army rather than Auxiliary forces (as the Yeomanry, Militia, and Volunteer force in the British Isles and British Empire originally were, and most in the British Overseas Territories remain), and which were necessarily incorporated into the regular garrison with their roles defined in the Imperial Defence Plan.

</p><p>Following the First World War, with the removal of the threat posed to Britain maritime supremacy by the German navy, a peace that was presumed to be lasting, and a policy of economic austerity to recover from the cost of the war, the British Army was reduced below its pre-war capacity, with most colonial garrisons either removed or slashed. As Bermuda, with its Royal Naval Dockyard and, should it be captured, its potential usefulness to an enemy as a base to be used against British shipping, could not be left undefended, the War Office re-organised the local reserves from Militia and Volunteer units to Territorial units (the BVRC converted in 1921 and the BMA in 1928, though neither unit's name was updated to reflect the change) to enable the withdrawal of regular units, and funded new reserve units, which included the <a href="Bermuda_Volunteer_Engineers" title="Bermuda Volunteer Engineers">Bermuda Volunteer Engineers</a> (created in 1930), and the <a href="Bermuda_Militia_Infantry" title="Bermuda Militia Infantry">Bermuda Militia Infantry</a> and the Home Guard

(both created during the Second World War).

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="British_naval_and_military_establishment_in_Bermuda_in_1941–42">British naval and military establishment in Bermuda in 1941–42</h3></div>

<p>By the time war was declared in 1939, the professional component of the army garrison had been reduced to the Commander-in-Chief (normally a Lieutenant-General or Major-General, who also held the office of civil <a href="Governor_of_Bermuda" title="Governor of Bermuda">Governor of Bermuda</a>) and his Aide-de-Camp (usually a Lieutenant of the corps or regiment from which the Commander-in-Chief had been removed on becoming a substantive Major-General), a <a href="Staff_officer" class="mw-redirect" title="Staff officer">Command Staff</a>, a detachment of infantry from whichever battalion was stationed at <a href="Jamaica" title="Jamaica">Jamaica</a> (from the 1st Battalion, <a href="Sherwood_Foresters_(Nottinghamshire_and_Derbyshire_Regiment)" class="mw-redirect" title="Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment)">Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment)</a>), a detachment of <a href="Royal_Engineers" title="Royal Engineers">Royal Engineers</a>, a detachment of the <a href="Royal_Army_Service_Corps" title="Royal Army Service Corps">Royal Army Service Corps</a>, 25 Company of the <a href="Royal_Army_Medical_Corps" title="Royal Army Medical Corps">Royal Army Medical Corps</a>, a detachment of the <a href="Royal_Army_Ordnance_Corps" title="Royal Army Ordnance Corps">Royal Army Ordnance Corps</a>, and a detachment of the <a href="Royal_Army_Pay_Corps" title="Royal Army Pay Corps">Royal Army Pay Corps</a>.

</p><p>The Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers had withdrawn their regular companies entirely in 1928, leaving their roles to their part-time reserves (the <a href="Bermuda_Militia_Artillery" title="Bermuda Militia Artillery">Bermuda Militia Artillery</a> and <a href="Bermuda_Volunteer_Engineers" title="Bermuda Volunteer Engineers">Bermuda Volunteer Engineers</a>). These units being small, only a single battery, the two <a href="BL_6-inch_Mk_VII_naval_gun#Coast_defence_gun" title="BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun">6 inch guns</a> at <a href="St._David's_Battery" class="mw-redirect" title="St. David's Battery">St. David's Battery</a>, was maintained <i>ready-for-war</i>, although a second battery (another two 6 inch guns at <a href="Warwick_Camp_(Bermuda)" class="mw-redirect" title="Warwick Camp (Bermuda)">Warwick Camp</a>) was added on the commencement of hostilities. These few aging artillery pieces lacked the range and firepower that would be needed to fend off a capital ship, and the activities of German <a href="Commerce_raider" class="mw-redirect" title="Commerce raider">commerce raiding</a> <a href="Pocket_battleships" class="mw-redirect" title="Pocket battleships">pocket battleships</a> and cruisers were of great concern, especially as Bermuda became a forming-up point for trans-Atlantic convoys. The Atlantic activities of the <a href="German_cruiser_Admiral_Scheer#Atlantic_sortie" title="German cruiser Admiral Scheer"><i>Admiral Scheer</i></a> in Autumn and Winter, 1940, were particularly alarming. Other inviting targets in Bermuda included the dockyard, and the <a href="RNAS_Boaz_Island_(HMS_Malabar)" class="mw-redirect" title="RNAS Boaz Island (HMS Malabar)">Royal Naval Air Station on Boaz Island</a>, the <a href="Royal_Air_Force" title="Royal Air Force">Royal Air Force</a> <a href="Royal_Air_Force%2C_Bermuda_(1939%E2%80%9345)" class="mw-redirect" title="Royal Air Force, Bermuda (1939–45)">Darrell's Island airbase</a>, the trans-Atlantic telecommunications cable of <a href="Cable_%26_Wireless_plc" title="Cable & Wireless plc">Cable & Wireless</a>, and facilities which aided trans-Atlantic navigation by ships and aircraft.

</p><p>In 1942, with the buildup of American units and artillery in Bermuda, as well as the containment of the German and Italian surface fleets to home waters, the moratorium on drafts overseas from the local units (which had been emplaced after a BVRC contingent had been sent to the <a href="Royal_Lincolnshire_Regiment" title="Royal Lincolnshire Regiment">Lincolnshire Regiment</a> in England (with BMA and BVE attachments joining their respective corps) in June 1940) was lifted. As a consequence, in 1943 a Command Training Battalion was composed from contingents of volunteers from the BVRC and the BMA and BMI to prepare for deployment to Europe (the BVRC element traveled to England as a rifle company to join the Lincolnshire Regiment). The BMA and BMI soldiers were sent to North Carolina as the training cadre for the newly formed <a href="Caribbean_Regiment" title="Caribbean Regiment">Caribbean Regiment</a>, serving thereafter as part of that regiment in Italy, North Africa, and Palestine.

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Support_of_the_Allies_by_the_neutral_USA">Support of the Allies by the neutral USA</h3></div>

<p>The United States Navy had been leased <a href="White's_Island" title="White's Island">White's Island</a> during the last year of the <a href="First_World_War" class="mw-redirect" title="First World War">First World War</a> as its <a href="United_States_Naval_Station_White's_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="United States Naval Station White's Island, Bermuda">Base 24</a>, to service submarine hunters (and other small vessels that required a staging post in order to cross the Atlantic Ocean) it was deploying in the Atlantic to protect shipping to Europe. It was also permitted to operate a supply station on Agar's Island. These facilities had both been closed on the end of hostilities.

</p><p>During the early years of the Second World War, the US Government, under President <a href="Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt" class="mw-redirect" title="Franklin Delano Roosevelt">Franklin Delano Roosevelt</a>, sought to aid Britain and her allies again, although internal US politics kept it from being a legal participant until Japan, Germany, and Italy <a href="Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor" title="Attack on Pearl Harbor">declared war upon it</a> at the close of 1941. The support the neutral US had provided to Britain included co-operating on various levels of foreign policy, enabling Britain to purchase war materiel from American manufacturers, co-operating on counter-espionage (all trans-Atlantic mails from the US to Europe were secretly landed at Bermuda for inspection by British censors searching for secret communications that enabled the discovery of Axis spies in the USA), the US Navy and the US Army Air Forces were taking an increasing role in protecting allied shipping from German U-boats (the first US Navy vessel lost in the war, the destroyer <a href="USS_Reuben_James_(DD-245)" title="USS Reuben James (DD-245)"><i>Reuben James</i></a>, part of the <a href="Neutrality_Patrol" title="Neutrality Patrol">Neutrality Patrol</a>, was sunk by the German U-boat <a href="U-552" class="mw-redirect" title="U-552">U-552</a> while escorting <a href="Convoy_HX_156" title="Convoy HX 156">Convoy HX 156</a> across the Atlantic from <a href="Halifax%2C_Nova_Scotia" title="Halifax, Nova Scotia">Halifax</a> in October, 1941), and relieving British forces from guarding strategic neutral territories, and her own overseas territories, allowing British forces to be redeployed to more active theatres of war. This last included the agreement by which Britain handed over to the US the duty of guarding Iceland from German invasion, the first American units <a href="Occupation_of_Iceland" class="mw-redirect" title="Occupation of Iceland">arriving there</a> on 7 July 1941. The <i>Reuben James</i>, at the time of her loss, was operating from the new naval base constructed by Britain at <a href="Hvalfjordur%2C_Iceland" class="mw-redirect" title="Hvalfjordur, Iceland">Hvalfjordur</a>.

</p><p>As the war expanded (Germany had invaded the Soviet Union at the end of June), and Britain's purchases from US factories seriously upset the <a href="Balance_of_trade" title="Balance of trade">balance of trade</a>, Roosevelt's government considered new ways to assist the Allied war effort without violating US neutrality, or the sensibilities of isolationist voters. The most important result was the <a href="Lend-Lease" title="Lend-Lease">Lend-Lease Agreement</a>, and its precursor, the <a href="Destroyers_for_Bases_Agreement" class="mw-redirect" title="Destroyers for Bases Agreement">Destroyers for Bases Agreement</a>, by which the US Government loaned war materiel (primarily 50 First World War-era destroyers) to the British Commonwealth (and later to other allies) in exchange for 99-year leases of land in British territories for the purpose of building US military and naval bases. This was portrayed to American voters as a major coup for the US, gaining at little cost the use of bases that would be invaluable to US national security for the next century. Not emphasised was that this had the sleight-of-hand effect of placing the defence of those territories in US hands, allowing British forces to be redeployed to more active theatres, and that the construction of these bases would involve the US paying for and carrying out improvements to road networks and infrastructure in these territories, from which Britain would benefit.

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="American_airbases_in_Bermuda">American airbases in Bermuda</h3></div>

<p>The Destroyers for Bases Agreement was originally meant to give the US leases in a number of West Indian territories. Ultimately, neither of the two most important base locations, both from the perspective of defending the United States from attack, and for the purposes of aiding and protecting air and sea transport across the Atlantic, was in the West Indies. As they were not originally part of the Agreement, the 99-year leases granted to the US for bases in Bermuda and <a href="Newfoundland" class="mw-redirect" title="Newfoundland">Newfoundland</a> were consequently free, with no destroyers or other war materiel received in exchange.<sup id="cite_ref-PollackMar1998_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-PollackMar1998-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-PollackApr1998_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-PollackApr1998-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>Two bases were planned for Bermuda, a US Navy base to cater to both shipping and flying boats, and a United States Army Air Forces airfield to allow landplanes to use Bermuda as a trans-Atlantic staging post as only seaplanes had previously been able to. When American surveyors arrived in 1941, the Bermudian government was horrified to learn that tentative plans called for depopulating and levelling most of the West of the archipelago and infilling the <a href="Great_Sound%2C_Bermuda" class="mw-redirect" title="Great Sound, Bermuda">Great Sound</a> to create an airfield. The <a href="Governor_of_Bermuda" title="Governor of Bermuda">Governor of Bermuda</a> made desperate protestations to the British Government, and a less catastrophic plan was drawn up.<sup id="cite_ref-PollackMar1998_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-PollackMar1998-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-PollackApr1998_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-PollackApr1998-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>The US Navy's <a href="Naval_Air_Station_Bermuda_Annex" class="mw-redirect" title="Naval Air Station Bermuda Annex">Naval Operating Base</a> was a peninsula created by levelling and joining two small islands together, and to the mainland. Like Darrell's Island, it served only seaplanes. Whereas the RAF, <a href="Imperial_Airways" title="Imperial Airways">Imperial Airways</a>, and <a href="Pan_American_World_Airways" class="mw-redirect" title="Pan American World Airways">Pan American World Airways</a> used Darrell's only as a staging point for trans-Atlantic flights, the US Navy based a patrol squadron at its base to maintain air patrols within the area (a role that had been performed 'til then on an ad hoc basis by the <a href="Fleet_Air_Arm" title="Fleet Air Arm">Fleet Air Arm</a> at <a href="Boaz_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="Boaz Island, Bermuda">Boaz Island</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>The US Army established <a href="Fort_Bell" class="mw-redirect" title="Fort Bell">Fort Bell</a> on <a href="St._David's_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="St. David's Island, Bermuda">St. David's Island</a>. The main purpose of this base was originally to host the engineers building the air station, which was achieved also by levelling small islands, infilling waterways, and creating a single landmass contiguous with St. David's Island. The airfield became active as <a href="Kindley_Air_Force_Base#World_War_II" title="Kindley Air Force Base">Kindley Field</a> in 1943. As per the agreement, this airfield was used jointly by the US Army Air Forces and the Royal Air Force (which transferred its Transport Command from Darrell's Island, although its Ferry Command remained at the flying boat base).

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="US_Army_ground_forces_in_Bermuda">US Army ground forces in Bermuda</h3></div>

<p>In addition to the airbases, the US built up a large garrison to protect its new assets and the entire archipelago from attack or invasion. US Army coast and <a href="Field_artillery" title="Field artillery">field artillery</a> batteries were put in long-term emplacements around Bermuda, from <a href="St._George's_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="St. George's Island, Bermuda">St. George's Island</a> to <a href="Southampton_Parish%2C_Bermuda" title="Southampton Parish, Bermuda">Southampton</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This greatly supplemented the artillery defenses of the <a href="Bermuda_Militia_Artillery" title="Bermuda Militia Artillery">Bermuda Militia Artillery</a>, the active forts of which contained only four <a href="BL_6-inch_Mk_VII_naval_gun" title="BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun">6-inch guns</a> in April 1941, at <a href="St_David's_Battery" title="St David's Battery">St David's Battery</a> and <a href="Warwick_Camp_(Bermuda)" class="mw-redirect" title="Warwick Camp (Bermuda)">Warwick Camp</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201856_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201856-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>The <a href="United_States_Army_Coast_Artillery_Corps" title="United States Army Coast Artillery Corps">United States Army Coast Artillery Corps</a> deployed <a href="Coastal_defence_and_fortification" title="Coastal defence and fortification">coastal defense</a> weapons in Bermuda beginning in April 1941. A <a href="Harbor_Defense_Command" title="Harbor Defense Command">Harbor Defense Command</a> was established to coordinate these weapons with each other and with British defenses. Battery F, <a href="52nd_Air_Defense_Artillery_Regiment" title="52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment">52nd Coast Artillery Regiment</a> (Railway 8-inch gun) and Battery B, 57th Coast Artillery Regiment (155 mm gun) (Mobile) initially manned the guns.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanton1991458–460,_478_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStanton1991458–460,_478-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Company G, <a href="11th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)" title="11th Infantry Regiment (United States)">11th Infantry Regiment</a>, arrived at the same time for ground defense.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild2000389–390_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild2000389–390-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> On 20 February 1942 the US coast artillery units in Bermuda were combined as the <a href="27th_Coast_Artillery_(United_States)" title="27th Coast Artillery (United States)">27th Coast Artillery Battalion</a> (Composite); these were Battery F, 52nd CA and Batteries B, G, and H (searchlight) of the <a href="53rd_Coast_Artillery_Regiment_(United_States)" class="mw-redirect" title="53rd Coast Artillery Regiment (United States)">53rd Coast Artillery Regiment</a>; the latter three had been redesignated from components of the 57th CA in July 1941. By June 1941 the company of the 11th Infantry was replaced by the 3rd Battalion, 89th Infantry Regiment and Battery A, 214th Field Artillery Battalion, at Fort Langton with four <a href="M101_howitzer" title="M101 howitzer">105 mm howitzers</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanton1991214_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStanton1991214-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In April 1942 the Bermuda Base Command was placed under the US <a href="Eastern_Defense_Command" title="Eastern Defense Command">Eastern Defense Command</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild200039_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild200039-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The 27th CA Battalion was inactivated in Bermuda on 1 June 1944.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanton1991484_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStanton1991484-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>The US coast artillery firing batteries included:<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p>

<th>Location

</th>

<th>No. of guns

</th>

<th>Gun type

</th>

<th>Carriage type

</th>

<th>Years active

</th></tr>

<tr>

<td>Scaur Hill Fort</td>

<td><a href="Railway_gun" title="Railway gun">railway</a> M1918</td>

<td>1941-1944

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><a href="Fort_Victoria%2C_Bermuda" title="Fort Victoria, Bermuda">Fort Victoria</a></td>

<td>railway M1918</td>

<td>1941-1944

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>Turtle Hill</td>

<td>towed with "<a href="Panama_mount" title="Panama mount">Panama mounts</a>"</td>

<td>1942-1946

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td><a href="Cooper's_Island%2C_Bermuda" title="Cooper's Island, Bermuda">Cooper's Island</a></td>

<td>towed with "Panama mounts"</td>

<td>1942-1946

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>Tudor (Stone) Hill</td>

<td>shielded barbette M1</td>

<td>1943-1946

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>Fort Victoria</td>

<td>shielded barbette M1</td>

<td>1943-1946

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>Fort Victoria</td>

<td>fixed T2/M1</td>

<td>unknown

</td></tr>

</tbody></table>

<p>The railway guns were placed on short sections of track that were not connected to rail lines.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50_5-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The 6-inch batteries at Tudor Hill and Fort Victoria were known as Battery Construction Numbers 283 and 284, respectively. The 90 mm guns were dual-purpose, and were called Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat guns.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225_13-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Postwar">Postwar</h3></div>

<p>The United States Army would continue to garrison Bermuda for the remainder of the war. Following the end of hostilities, the ground forces were withdrawn, other than those required for the defense of Fort Bell and Kindley Field. On 1 January 1946 the US Army Air Transport Command took control of the entire base. The airfield ceased to be distinguished within the base, as the name Fort Bell was discontinued, and Kindley Field was applied to the entire facility.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The US Army finally exited Bermuda in 1948, when the US Army Air Forces became the independent <a href="United_States_Air_Force" title="United States Air Force">United States Air Force</a>, and Kindley Field <a href="Kindley_Air_Force_Base" title="Kindley Air Force Base">Kindley Air Force Base</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p>

<ul><li><a href="Caribbean_Defense_Command" class="mw-redirect" title="Caribbean Defense Command">Caribbean Defense Command</a></li>

<li><a href="Greenland_Base_Command" class="mw-redirect" title="Greenland Base Command">Greenland Base Command</a></li>

<li><a href="Iceland_Base_Command" title="Iceland Base Command">Iceland Base Command</a></li>

<li><a href="Newfoundland_Base_Command" class="mw-redirect" title="Newfoundland Base Command">Newfoundland Base Command</a></li>

<li><a href="Seacoast_defense_in_the_United_States" title="Seacoast defense in the United States">Seacoast defense in the United States</a></li>

<li><a href="Alaska_Defense_Command" title="Alaska Defense Command">Alaska Defense Command</a></li>

<li><a href="Alaska_Highway" title="Alaska Highway">Northwest Service Command</a></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Citations">Citations</h3></div>

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<li id="cite_note-PollackMar1998-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-PollackMar1998_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-PollackMar1998_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Generously Given, Gladly Received: The US Bases in Bermuda and Charles Fahy</i>. By Ross David Pollack. The Bermudian. Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. March, 1998.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-PollackApr1998-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-PollackApr1998_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-PollackApr1998_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>A Strong Base of Inestimable Value: The US Bases in Bermuda and Charles Fahy, Part II</i>. By Ross David Pollack. The Bermudian. Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. April, 1998</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The Flying Boats Of Bermuda</i>, by Colin A. Pomeroy. Printlink Ltd., P.O. Box 937, Hamilton, HMDX, Bermuda. <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">

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</style><a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-9698332-4-5</bdi>.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The Andrew And The Onions: The Story Of The Royal Navy In Bermuda, 1795–1975</i>, Lieutenant Commander Ian Stranack, The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-921560-03-6</bdi></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50_5-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50_5-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201845–50_5-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFMcGovernHarris2018">McGovern & Harris 2018</a>, pp. 45–50.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201856-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcGovernHarris201856_6-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFMcGovernHarris2018">McGovern & Harris 2018</a>, p. 56.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStanton1991458–460,_478-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanton1991458–460,_478_7-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStanton1991">Stanton 1991</a>, pp. 458–460, 478.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild2000389–390-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild2000389–390_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFConnEngelmanFairchild2000">Conn, Engelman & Fairchild 2000</a>, pp. 389–390.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStanton1991214-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanton1991214_9-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStanton1991">Stanton 1991</a>, p. 214.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild200039-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConnEngelmanFairchild200039_10-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFConnEngelmanFairchild2000">Conn, Engelman & Fairchild 2000</a>, p. 39.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStanton1991484-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanton1991484_11-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStanton1991">Stanton 1991</a>, p. 484.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Gaines, pp. 26-28, 33</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225_13-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBerhow2015225_13-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFBerhow2015">Berhow 2015</a>, p. 225.</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nasabermuda.com/kindley.htm">Bermudians at NASA Tracking Station Cooper's Island, Bermuda: <i>The History of Kindley Air Force Base</i></a></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Bermuda Forts 1612–1957</i>, Dr. <a href="Edward_C._Harris" class="mw-redirect" title="Edward C. Harris">Edward C. Harris</a>, The <a href="Bermuda_Maritime_Museum" class="mw-redirect" title="Bermuda Maritime Museum">Bermuda Maritime Museum</a> Press, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-921560-11-7</bdi></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20120728/ISLAND09/707289964"><i>Wings that were never clipped</i></a>, an article on Captain Frederick Walter "Clip" Clipper, US Army, US Air Force, by Dr. <a href="Edward_C._Harris" class="mw-redirect" title="Edward C. Harris">Edward C. Harris</a>. <a href="The_Royal_Gazette_(Bermuda)" title="The Royal Gazette (Bermuda)">The Royal Gazette</a>. Published 28 July 2012</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.today/20140227193654/http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/medicalsupply/chapter7.htm"><i>MEDICAL SUPPLY IN THE WAR AGAINST THE EUROPEAN AXIS</i>, United States Army Medical Department Office of Medical History</a></span>

</li>

</ol></div></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Bibliography">Bibliography</h3></div>

<ul><li><cite id="CITEREFBerhow2015" class="citation book cs1">Berhow, Mark A., ed. (2015). <i>American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide</i> (Third ed.). McLean, Virginia: CDSG Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-0-9748167-3-9</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFConnEngelmanFairchild2000" class="citation book cs1">Conn, Stetson; Engelman, Rose C.; Fairchild, Byron (2000) [1964]. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071225041653/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/index.htm#contents"><i>Guarding the United States and its Outposts</i></a>. United States Army in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/index.htm#contents">the original</a> on 25 December 2007<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">12 June</span> 2018</span>.</cite></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://cdsg.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/FORTS/CACunits/CACreg1.pdf">Gaines, William C., Coast Artillery Organizational History, 1917-1950, <i>Coast Defense Journal</i>, vol. 23, issue 2</a></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFMcGovernHarris2018" class="citation book cs1">McGovern, Terrance; Harris, Edward (2018). <i>Defenses of Bermuda 1612–1995 (Fortress 112)</i>. New York: Osprey Publishing c/o Bloomsbury Publishing.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFStanton1991" class="citation book cs1">Stanton, Shelby L. (1991). <i>World War II Order of Battle</i>. Galahad Books. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-88365-775-9</bdi>.</cite></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181109070825/http://www.bermuda-online.org/milquit.htm">Forbes, Keith Archibald, American Military Bases in Bermuda from 1941 to 1995</a></li></ul>

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</style><span class=" nourlexpansion"><a class="external text" href="geo:32.333333333333336,-64.75"><span class="geo-default"><span class="geo-dms" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location"><span class="latitude">32°20′N</span> <span class="longitude">64°45′W</span></span></span><span class="geo-multi-punct"> / </span><span class="geo-nondefault"><span class="geo-dec" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location">32.333°N 64.750°W</span><span style="display:none"> / <span class="geo">32.333; -64.750</span></span></span></a></span></span>

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