Fort Drum, AKA USS No-Go. This “concrete battleship” was completed in 1918 and guarded the entrance to Manila Bay. It was later used during the defence of the Philippines

Fort Drum in 1983, with the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the background
14-inch guns and turret undergoing testing at Sandy Hook Proving Ground before installation at Fort Drum

Fort Drum (also called El Fraile Island and nicknamed “The Concrete Battleship“), is a heavily fortified island situated at the mouth of Manila Bay in the Philippines, due south of Corregidor Island. The reinforced concrete sea fort, shaped like a battleship, was built by the United States in 1909 as one of the harbor defenses at the wider South Channel entrance to the Bay during the American colonial period.

It was unique among forts built by the United States between the American Civil War and early World War II, as it was both a sea fort and having turrets. It was captured and occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and was recaptured after U.S. forces ignited petroleum and gasoline in the fort, the conflagration killing 68 Japanese soldiers and leaving it permanently out of commission. It was five days before U.S. soldiers could enter the fortress because of the heat.

The now-abandoned fort was named after Brigadier General Richard C. Drum,[1] who served with distinction during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, and died on October 15, 1909, the year of the fort’s construction. The island and the other former harbor defenses of Manila Bay fall under the jurisdiction of the City of Cavite in Cavite Province.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Drum_(Philippines)

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