The Disappearance Of The Dinosours In 1945

C

casey jones

Charter Member
I have been reading about the P-38, P-40, and P-39 as to their fate when World War 2 ended in 1945, the P-38s were not returned back to the US in 1945, in Italy they were stacked in piles and chopped up or blown up with dynamite. The remaining last production batch which was being produced along with the P-80 were sold off to private owners or bought by Brazil or others. For $1,500 with a full gas tanks, the owner or owners flew them off the production line, the the P-38 the P-40s were stacked and lined up for salvage after they were stripped of items that could still be used including the Allison engines, the same for the P-39s which had a better fate they were sold to privat owners for racing planes. The only fighter that was to serve in the USAF inventory after 1945 was the F-51D Mustang that went to Reserve and Guard units. The P-47N was also sent to Reserve units but did not survive long. At that time no one could see how vaulable these planes would be some 50 to 60 yrs later.. I just think how wonderful it would have been if maybe 200 P-38s or P-39s were bought and preserved by some organization.


Cheers

Casey
 
There were more important things to do at that time, totally understandable.
 
Some of those late-model P-47's were still in the reserves (or recently retired) in 1948 when the movie Fighter Squadron was made. Sure wish that flick was available on DVD.
 
I don't think any man alive in 1945 could have foreseen the WWII warbird fascination that prevails today -- enough to make such an investment in 200 old war-weary junkers at the exhilarating dawn of the new jet age. Moreover, i'm sure most survivors on all sides just wanted to mourn their losses, move on, rebuild and forget the awful carnage, as well as the weapons used to cause it all. When you've killed another man in anger, you don't stop to think how precious your weapon may be to others reading your story 60 years from the fight.

Besides, i think its safe to say that at the end of hostilities, there just weren't any dedicated historical aviation organizations around for such major preservations of these proportions. The only parties interested in such were the governments of countries who couldn't affford the technology associated with roaring into the jet age. Some of these nations were still flying US warbirds well into the 60's and 70's. The Corsair and Mustang duked it out as opponents in the "Soccer Wars" in 1969.
 
I don't think any man alive in 1945 could have foreseen the WWII warbird fascination that prevails today -- enough to make such an investment in 200 old war-weary junkers at the exhilarating dawn of the new jet age
Click to expand...

Well you know, this was not only the case with ww2 aircrafts. It's still a mystery why people at that time was completly unable to see that the coming generation might be interested in what they created. For example, the Norwegian Rail Ways designed and manufactured a steam locomotive (called Dovregubben) which in those days, and still by experts, was considered to be a tremendous technical feat. When electricity and diesel trains took over right after the war, every one of them was scrapped over night. Today we only have some pictures left. The same thing happened with many of our cities. Beautiful buildings was replaced with efficient square boxes in the name of development.

Today we can truly say the mentality is different, thank God.

Morton
 
....It's always made me wonder how many military aircraft that were scrapped after the war were turned into aluminum pots and pans,...plus siding for homes during the 1950's.

 
T'weren't Nuthin' !

My pleasure, Tarps - I completely forgot about the WB Store !!!!!!

At least we know there's a DVD out there... and it makes me wonder what other gems are yet to be uncovered !

SC
:kilroy:
 
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