![]() The automotive and armor testing activities were greatly enlarged, and the antiaircraft gun testing mission was expanded. Work at the Ballistic Research Laboratory achieved increasing prominence in the nation’s scientific community. Seven thousand acres, which extended APG almost into the city limits of Aberdeen, were added in 1942, as were 1,800 acres when Spesutie Island was acquired in 1945.ĭuring World War II, personnel grew to a peak strength of 27,185 military and 5,479 civilians as all fields of research, development, and training expanded and facilities were increased to meet the heavy workload of wartime. ![]() By 1941, the need for testing facilities had grown so much that the government was forced to acquire additional acreage for APG. 328 was completed in 1941 to house the new Ballistic Research Laboratory, or BRL, and provided the facilities to conduct research and experimentation in ballistics and fire control. The techniques these tables provided improved the adequacy of aerial bombing.Ī number of new and diverse activities were assigned to APG beginning in the 1930s and stretching into the 40s and 50s. ![]() The airfield, named Phillips Army Air Field in honor of APG’s second commander, was used by aircraft that supported the creation of bombing tables. Military and civilian personnel conducted developmental testing of powders, projectiles and bombs, and the study of interior and exterior ballistics. When World War I ended in November of that same year, APG’s peacetime mission shifted to emphasize research and development of munitions. The mission was later expanded to include operation of an Ordnance training school and developmental testing of small arms. Beginning in January 1918, the new proving ground at Aberdeen would proof-test field artillery weapons, ammunition, trench mortars, air defense guns and railway artillery. 20, 1917, and immediately began building testing facilities. The government took formal possession of the land at Aberdeen on Oct. ![]() It took an act of Congress and two presidential proclamations, providing financial compensation for the 35,000 acres of upland and 34,000 acres of swamp and tidal lands, to persuade the farmers to leave their property. The search eventually landed on an area along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay near the city of Aberdeen, Maryland. The Army needed a larger, less populated space than what was then available at Sandy Hook Proving Ground at Fort Hancock, New Jersey. As a result of entering World War I in April 1917, the Army urgently required a new site for testing war munitions. Aberdeen Proving Ground was established in 1917 as an answer to an immediate need for national defense. ![]()
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