Come on out to Sandy Hook for a free, family-friendly Fort Hancock Harbor Defense Lantern Tour! The National Park Service and the Army Ground Forces Association (AGFA) will bring you back in time to Friday, May 18th, 1943, to learn about defending New York Harbor against the German Navy and their submarines (called U-Boats) which were operating off the Jersey Shore during WW2. Volunteers from AGFA, uniformed as soldiers of Battery K, 245th Coast Artillery Regiment, U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Hancock in WWII, will escort you on a “First Person” walking tour of Fort Hancock’s main harbor defense locations during WWII:

1) The Harbor Defense Command Post (HDCP), located in the Mortar Battery next to the Light House, where all harbor defense units in the New York Harbor sector were coordinated from.

2) The Harbor Entrance Control Post (HECP), the control station for vessels entering the harbor.

3) Battery Gunnison, the “Exam Battery” for the Harbor Entrance Control Post. This gun emplacement is undergoing a full restoration to its 1943 configuration, featuring two working 6″ M1900 coastal guns and the only restored – and functional – seacoast artillery Plotting Room in the nation. Battery John Gunnison / New Peck is the finest and best preserved and restored Coast Artillery battery in the United States. It will truly become 1943 when you enter inside of it!

The Fort Hancock Harbor Defense Lantern Tour allows visitors to see the daily life of a soldier at Fort Hancock and learn about the nerve-wracking stressful environment that came with the responsibility of protecting New York and New Jersey – the industrial heartland of America during WWII – and 20 million people from the shores of Sandy Hook. The tour will also pass other gun batteries that were part of the World War 2 defenses.

This tour takes place rain or shine, so please watch the forecast and dress accordingly!

Learn more about the
Fort Hancock Harbor Defense Lantern Tour here!

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