Interesting pictures of old WW2 equipment

[Redtbird]

WWII vehicle boneyards were essentially war machine landfills

Might be fun just to go thru a place like this, if they still existed.

 

[IndyDave1776]

The disgusting thing is that so many things would be either interesting or useful to have available, yet are denied to us even though they are in fact ours, bought with our money.

The linked material alluded to efforts by domestic manufacturers to prevent bringing home such things as vehicles in order not to interfere with new sales (never mind that often such sales would merely put used equipment in the hands of people who couldn't afford new anyway). My understanding is that it is part of the supply contracts for new military vehicles now (i.e., with humvees) that they cannot be sold as surplus on the domestic market. That should be categorically illegal given that, once again, they are ours paid for with our money.

 

[Leadeye]

The disgusting thing is that so many things would be either interesting or useful to have available, yet are denied to us even though they are in fact ours, bought with our money.

The linked material alluded to efforts by domestic manufacturers to prevent bringing home such things as vehicles in order not to interfere with new sales (never mind that often such sales would merely put used equipment in the hands of people who couldn't afford new anyway). My understanding is that it is part of the supply contracts for new military vehicles now (i.e., with humvees) that they cannot be sold as surplus on the domestic market. That should be categorically illegal given that, once again, they are ours paid for with our money.

Rules bought and paid for by special interests represented by the dc law/lobby machine.

 

[miguel]

18 million pounds of scrap brass is piled up at a U.S. Army depot storing unused equipment.

 

[johntheplinker]

Huh, didn't know we were already scrapping B-52s in 1949. (1st pic)

 

[miguel]

Huh, didn't know we were already scrapping B-52s in 1949. (1st pic)

That was my first thought when I saw the photo.

But then I looked again and believed those were B-47s. Note the more pointed nose. But since B-47s were introduced just a few years before the B-52, I'm not sure that makes sense either.

 

[SmileDocHill]

I can't figure out what the items are in the picture just above the pic of all the flat bed trucks. Anyone know?

 

[Alamo]

Huh, didn't know we were already scrapping B-52s in 1949. (1st pic)

Those are B-52s in the photo. Although the wings are similar with the engine pods and another pod out near the wingtip, the horizontal stabilizers are different from the B-47, and the cockpit area is different. Very early B-52 prototype had a cockpit window scheme similar to the B-47, but that was changed before production.

The first B-52 didn't fly until 1954. Even if they were B-47s, it didn't enter service until 1951. That photo is not from 1949, it is from much later, and not from Kingman. More likely Davis-Monthan AFB. A number of B-52s were scrapped as a result of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, this may be a photo of that. The bombers that were scrapped were done so in a manner that Soviet satellites could see them, as part of the verification process. In that photo in the link, you can see the broken up bombers to the right, still recognizable but obviously destroyed.

ETA: Here is another picture of bombers destroyed (in 1991) as part of the SALT. Note they look like the scrapped bombers in the mashable photo.
http://www.myskycollection.com/B52_cocktail_table.php


The US produced more than 300,000 planes during WWII. That's more than are registered with the FAA today. It's stunning that there are so few WWII birds still around.

 

[Dead Duck]

It's still there -

Davis Monthan Air Base - Air Force Boneyard

the BONEYARD? « the pyramid beach roadhouse

 

[Bennettjh]

I'm a huge Jeep fan. I'd love to have one of those that are just sitting there rotting.

It's a shame.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I can't figure out what the items are in the picture just above the pic of all the flat bed trucks. Anyone know?

Best I can figure is that it's the base/cleat for some sort of large artillery... those big, odd-shaped flat panels things would fold down and dig into the earth...

Disclaimer: I have NO idea what they are, I'm just throwing out an educated guess based up what I've seen of current artillery pieces...

 

[Alamo]

I can't figure out what the items are in the picture just above the pic of all the flat bed trucks. Anyone know?

It kinda of looks like some kind of receiver, with a slight parabolic section, maybe folded down onto a semi-portable mount. Like for a long range radio or radar unit. I'm stretching here, but that's what pops to mind.

ETA: CountryBoy19's guess is as good as mine, and probably better!

 

[Alamo]

Many of the aircraft that survived the war were not worth the expense of transportation back to the States, and were dumped or destroyed in their theatre of operation.

I think someone at Mashable lumped together a lot of photos that may or may not have anything to do with the Kingman/Storage Depot 41, but the statement quoted above is dead-on.

My Dad was an US Army Air Forces mechanic in the Pacific during WWII right up until Japan surrendered. He said as soon as that happened everything just stopped, and the number one objective became GOING HOME. Aircraft that they had been busting their butts to fix the day before got scrapped on the spot, anything that couldn't already fly on its own got bulldozed to the side of the runway.

Every ship that could be pressed into service transporting soldiers and marines back to the US did so. Thus, ships in the harbor dropped crates of brand-new airplanes and other equipment over the sides in order to make room to haul soldiers back to the US. (Dad said he came home on a battleship (damned if can remember which one), and it was pretty cramped -- but it rode much more smoothly in heavy seas than the other ships in the convoy.)

 

[Dead Duck]

Kinda reminds me of another travesty -

[video=youtube;zWN6XGUAhZU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zWN6XGUAhZU[/video]

 

[miguel]

I think someone at Mashable lumped together a lot of photos that may or may not have anything to do with the Kingman/Storage Depot 41, but the statement quoted above is dead-on.

My Dad was an US Army Air Forces mechanic in the Pacific during WWII right up until Japan surrendered. He said as soon as that happened everything just stopped, and the number one objective became GOING HOME. Aircraft that they had been busting their butts to fix the day before got scrapped on the spot, anything that couldn't already fly on its own got bulldozed to the side of the runway.

Every ship that could be pressed into service transporting soldiers and marines back to the US did so. Thus, ships in the harbor dropped crates of brand-new airplanes and other equipment over the sides in order to make room to haul soldiers back to the US. (Dad said he came home on a battleship (damned if can remember which one), and it was pretty cramped -- but it rode much more smoothly in heavy seas than the other ships in the convoy.)

Too bad they didn't have eBay and craigslist in '45.

 

[johntheplinker]

Best I can figure is that it's the base/cleat for some sort of large artillery... those big, odd-shaped flat panels things would fold down and dig into the earth...

Disclaimer: I have NO idea what they are, I'm just throwing out an educated guess based up what I've seen of current artillery pieces...

Kind of what I was thinking, possibly sort of anti-aircraft gun mounts.

 

[SSGSAD]

I'm a huge Jeep fan. I'd love to have one of those that are just sitting there rotting.

It's a shame.

INARNG, smashed most of the jeeps, M151, because they were "unsafe".....

 

[74J10]

I don't believe the article is correct in stating "thousands of WWII vehicles are still sitting in boneyards." After the war there was a huge sale of surplus supplies that was produced in the states but not shipped overseas. All the surplus vehicles have been sold off. I have been in the Jeep scene for a long time and there was talk that at one point right after the war you could buy a boxed up Jeep surplus for dirt cheap. That kind of stuff doesn't exist anymore. All the old armor has long been sold off or scrapped. Tank collectors would have bought all of them up by now. Go out to Ropkeys Armor Museum off I-74 just before Crawfordsville and talk to the man that runs the place, he has a lot of stories about finding the old equipment there and how difficult it is to find parts. If these massive boneyards existed it wouldn't be such a struggle. Most of the old aircraft were used as target practice and then scrapped. For example, read up on some of the existing B-29's and B-17's. Most of them have a story about finding them in the southwest and rescuing them before they got shot up in training exercises. And then during the restoration process of most of them they talk about how difficult it was to find any other remaining aircraft from which to source replacement parts. I love historic aircraft and vehicles more than most, but realistically it doesn't make sense for anyone to keep them sitting out there this long. We needed to melt them down and build something new out of them. That aluminum used in the WWII stuff is now your F-16's, F-18's, F-22's, F-35's etc. Those old ships, now super carriers and new destroyers. Steal and aluminum are finite in quantity.

The stuff overseas was left and scrapped in place as we didn't need it and it was cheaper to leave there. As someone else said, we were more concerned with getting soldiers home over equipment, and even that took a year in some cases. My guess is the countries they were left in needed the material to rebuild because everything was destroyed. So in leaving the equipment we probably helped start the rebuild process which we were heavily involved with for a long time also.

M151 MUTTS are not true Jeeps, they were built in the 60's and have independent suspension and unibody construction. They replaced the M38. They were much more unstable than the originals because of the independant suspension and narrow track width. Part of that was because of how they were driven for sure. But part of it was because of the design. Also, some of these made it to the civilian market and can be bought currently.

There are thousands of aircraft left at Davis Montham (which is where the first picture was taken, as other have said, sometime after the B-52 was made). They are mostly Vietnam era. I have spent hours on Google Maps/Earth looking through them and there are a ton of F-4 Phantoms, F-111 Aardvarks, A-10 Warthogs, B-52's, F-5 Tigers, and some F-16's. They offer tours of the boneyard through Pima Air and Space Museum, which has quite a collection also.

You can also buy surplus HMMWV's now. They just started the demilitarization program and they are now regularly sold through government liquidation sites. Supposedly you get paperwork to get a title and can register them in some states. I know a guy that just bough one for around $9000 and it is in pretty good shape really. Humvees for sale in online auction | GovPlanet

Sorry to ramble on but I really enjoy this sort of thing, About Davis Montham, there are 3 basic categories of planes there. 1 is near ready, these are F-16 and A-10s mostly. They can be returned to service in short order if the need arises. Often these are brought back into service as the active fleet racks up airframe time. Once the active aircraft have more hours on their airframes they are phased out in favor of lower airframe time aircraft from the boneyard. We don't need all the aircraft flying at once and this process keeps the planes all aging airframe time at a regular rate. The second category is aircraft that are not flight worthy but still have valuable parts on them. This is your aircraft junkyard. They go pull off parts and send them to the fleet to replace broken aircraft in service parts. These are kept until all usable parts are removed. Then there is the last category which is scrap. These are just waiting to be shredded and turned into new material for new equipment. Some B-52's are left so the Russians can verify that are unusable.