AMERICAN SAMOA

Blunts Battery | Breakers Battery | Matautu Ridge Battery

ABOUT AMERICAN SAMOA

¤ HARBOR DEFENSES of PAGO PAGO

¤ Blunts Battery
(1910's, 1941 - 1944), Blunts Point, near Utulei
Two guns are still located here, one on Matautu Ridge 50 feet above the lower gun. The lower gun is currently a public park, and the upper gun is private property. Both guns are 6-inch naval guns in concrete emplacements that were manned by a U.S. Marine Defense Battalion. Blunts Point is also known as Tulutulu Point.
Matautu Ridge Battery, which consisted of two guns (a 3-pounder and a 3-inch field gun), was manned by personnel from Tutuila Naval Station during World War I. Two German naval vessels were seized at Pago Pago at the beginning of WWI.

¤ Breakers Battery
(1941 - 1944), Breakers Point, near Utulei
Two 6-inch naval guns are still located here on the opposite side of the harbor entrance from Blunts Battery, and were manned by a U.S. Marine Defense Battalion.

¤ NOTE: Several 3-inch naval and AA guns were also used by the Marine Defense Battalion, which first arrived in March 1941.

Special thanks to Al Grobmeier of the Coast Defense Study Group for providing info on the Pago Pago defenses.

NOTE: The eastern half of the Samoan Islands has been a U.S. territory since 1900. The islands were jointly administered by Germany, Great Britain, and the United States between 1889 - 1899. Swains (Quiros) Island (formerly Gente Hermosa) was annexed in 1925 from the British colony Gilbert and Ellice Islands.