Warbird scrap yards, end of WWII

[Cubs]

I think this was posted before but, here goes anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHIo75I-Vg

[lestweforget]

In the Stephen Ambrose book Wild Blue , there is a passage near the end where the B-24 pilot George McGovern sees a similar newsreel after the end of the war. He sees the actual Lib he flew bulldozed into a heap and the waste angers him greatly. When you think of the care that was taken of these aircraft in service, that is understandable. I always think it is sad that more were not saved for prosterity, even just a few of the more notable ones. I suppose that after the war maybe people did not want to be reminded of such things, especially when you look at the huge cost of the air war. At least some are still around, from all sides , that we can look upon to help us remember these brave souls.

[Django]

pretty neat to see footage of some of the surviving panels that were cut and saved, now in the CAF museum.

[Jack Frost]

I suppose that after the war maybe people did not want to be reminded of such things, especially when you look at the huge cost of the air war.

The GI's wanted to come home and get on with their lives. Most everyone had enough of war and wanted to enjoy the peace. Scrapping most of the war machinery made economic sense to at least get a little money back from the tremendous fiscal costs of the war. The human costs were virturally unrecoverable.

We should be glad that examples of those machines were saved. Saving them for museum displays was not much of a consideration by the powers that were in charge and there was no great interest from the general public in doing so. Life went on.

[B17news]

"obsolete or worn out aircraft"....



B

[pilot06]

I surprised no one mentioned the buzzing photo ship. Looked like some B-26 Marauders down there.

Patrick

[marine air]

Did you notice that P-40 being lifted by the crane appears to have two cockpits? Is it a TP-40N? Surely that one could have found a home.

[gary1954]

please excuse me while I clean up the vomit I just put on the floor

[Second Air Force]

Just a bit of useless information, but that film was shot at Walnut Ridge AAF, Arkansas. They have a nice, new museum building and lots of artifacts from the war, both training and the post-war scrapping project.

Good eye, marine air--I see two sliding canopies as well!

Scott

[The Inspector]

Back in the late '70's I worked for the big 'B' @ Renton on 727's. One of my fellow inspectors was a nephew of Fred Noonan and he told me many times that his last duty in the USAAF was to pick up brand new P-51's @ Dallas and ferry them to somewhere in Oklahoma. When he landed, taxied and parked as directed, he had about 3 minutes to get his flight kit out of the airplane and get off the wing as there was already a buldozer crew hooking a chain around the still very warm MERLIN