The document provides an overview of classic World War II military aircraft. It discusses how the US was unprepared for war in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Between 1939 and 1945, the US aviation industry produced nearly 300,000 military planes to equip the US armed forces and support its allies. After the war, many surplus aircraft were scrapped or destroyed according to treaties, despite being in good condition. Preservation groups like the Confederate Air Force were formed to save remaining WWII planes from being scrapped.

1. Classic World War II Military Aircraft
Handout to the Academy for Lifelong Learning (ALL) at Lone Star College-Cyfair
by W. E. (Bill) Willits, October 15, 2014
The United States in the late 1930s was poorly equipped for the threats abroad in Europe
and Asia that would eventually spill over to this nation. Our military forces had been reduced
after World War I ended in 1918 and had been little changed from that era, so that 20 years later,
and despite warnings from some who foresaw our lack of readiness as a great danger, America’s
forces were those of a second rank power.
By the early 1930s in Asia the Japanese moved aggressively (in the name of “protecting”
other countries in their “sphere of influence”) and simultaneously developed their military forces
for eventual conflict with the greater powers. In Europe the Nazis under Hitler in Germany and
the Fascists under Mussolini in Italy talked big and set out to prove their superiority. Hitler’s
campaign of internally suppressing opposition in Germany soon after he became Chancellor in
1933 led very quickly to rearmament on a massive scale, and by 1938 he had much of Europe
trembling at his bidding.
In the meantime, America slept. At least that was the view of those who agreed with the
controversial General Billy Mitchell; he urged that we drastically increase our military spending
and prepare before it was too late. There was a great amount of isolationism in this country:
“why get involved in somebody else’s war… over there?” We had done that in 1917-18 and
though victorious, we had been bloodied. At last some did slowly recognize the external threats
posed by the rumblings in Asia and Europe.
When Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, in the opening salvos of what
would soon be known as World War II, we were still an ocean away from the conflict. However,
our ties to Great Britain and its allies in Europe by 1938 had brought requests to us for additional
armaments to fight their enemies. While continuing to maintain a face of neutrality, America the
industrial giant moved into action to meet those requests, and by mid-1940 was producing large
quantities of weapons and materiel of all kinds. Production accelerated, reducing production of
civilian goods, though we were not yet at war. But the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Decem-ber
7, 1941, soon made our country an active combatant nation.
The U.S. Aviation Industry
Between 1939 and 1945 the United States aviation industry produced nearly 300,000
military planes of all types; an official number was 296,431. Other industrial plants in large
numbers were converted to “war production” (including some of the automotive industry and
parts suppliers) in those years all across the country. Among these U.S.-built machines of war
were many military aircraft to be used by our Allies and those that provided our own arsenal of
aircraft for the United States Army Air Corps (after September 1941 Army Air Forces), United
States Navy and United States Marines. By 1945 there many thousands of these aircraft in ac-tion
or deployed for training and many thousands more operating in or enroute to the combat
zones in Europe and the Pacific.
Victory
Fast forward to the end of World War II, which came officially with the signing of sur-render
documents on the deck of the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Harbor on September 2, 1945.
In the European Theater and North Africa many aircraft had become piles of metal on the land-scape
after several years of war, destroyed either through enemy action, normal wear and tear or
the forces of nature. The same scenario had played out on the stepping stone islands of the Pa-cific
Theater and beneath the ocean waves as well. As to still usable and active aircraft at the
end of the war, our future military presence in Europe and Asia required leaving many troops in
place for years afterward, and a large number of aircraft remained as well. The military services
in all theaters brought back to U.S. shores over the next year or two only what could be carried

2. aboard the transport ships that “brought the boys home.” What couldn’t be brought back was
abandoned in place; on some of the Pacific islands such as Saipan, many still usable aircraft were
pushed over the cliff edge to graves in the ocean below.
But what of the thousands of planes that did come back and the many thousands of newly
manufactured planes that never left our shores? By late 1945 there were thousands of brand new
military aircraft sitting in long rows covering many acres of ground ready for dispersal to combat
units that now were instead coming home and disbanding. Many of these “surplus” aircraft were
located near such places as Kingman, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Altus and Clinton,
Oklahoma; Ontario, California; Walnut Ridge, Arkansas; and many smaller fields.
The next move proved to be an ugly one. Large cranes with heavy armor steel cutting
blades were soon deployed at those sites and fire was the order of the day. In short order those
shiny new B-17s, B-25s, P-47s and many other aircraft types were being cut up and burned
(while extracting the usable aluminum and other metals) at those sites!
This destruction of perfectly good military airplanes was all part of the treaties entered
into by the victorious powers as WW II wound down and in agreement with the aircraft manu-facturers,
who, after all, now had no further contracts to fulfill and were shedding thousands
upon thousands of employees monthly. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was initially in
charge of protecting the U.S. aircraft industry against collapse and its functions were transferred
to the War Assets Corporation and the War Assets Administration in the next year or so to carry
out measures guaranteeing that protection of the industry.
How many of these military aircraft were destroyed across the west? We will never
really know for sure. It is estimated there were 150,000 surplus military aircraft at the end of the
war, both new and used. By no means were all destroyed, but the numbers are somewhere in the
many tens of thousands; some smaller aircraft such as trainers and fighters were sold to several
other countries and a few to civilians.
Confederate (now Commemorative) Air Force – CAF – enthusiasts and preservationists
In 1957 a small group of former WW II military pilots living down in the Rio Grande
Valley of Texas who were by then long established in civilian careers as crop dusters, commer-cial
pilots and businessmen, decided they wanted to buy a P-51, the most famous of all the mili-tary
fighters flown by the U.S. Army Air Forces. They were very concerned because the great
military aircraft of WW II 1939-1945 existing were few and far between and getting very scarce.
The CAF today has a fleet of multiple types aggregating 140 to 150 WW II aircraft.
Houston Wing of the Commemorative Air Force
Houston Wing, at Hangar B-5 on the grounds of West Houston Airport, maintains five
World War II aircraft that are part of the CAF flying air fleet: a Naval Aviation Factory N3N
primary trainer, a Consolidated Vultee BT-13 basic trainer, a North American Aviation AT-6
advanced trainer, a Stinson ST-108 observation aircraft and a Lockheed C-60A twin-engine
transport. Within the hangar we also have a small World War II museum. Another CAF unit,
Gulf Coast Wing, flies the Boeing B-17 Texas Raiders out of Hooks Airport east of Tomball.
Wings Over Houston Airshow, Ellington Field, November 1 and 2, 2014. Since 1985
the CAF’s local units have jointly sponsored the Wings Over Houston Airshow, now one of the
largest annual airshows in the U.S. Last year the so-called “Sequester” prevented some of the
modern military flying part of the airshow. But this year the Navy Blue Angels and other mili-tary
aircraft are back flying with us as well as internationally known civilian aerobatic teams and
the World War II Airpower Demonstration involving CAF aircraft and those of several other fly-ing
museums that have preserved and fly WW II and later military aircraft.
On the ground spectators can get up close to many aircraft of all eras and talk to the peo-ple
who fly them. Come join us to see and hear living history!
Website: http://www.wingsoverhouston.com/