Surviving Artifacts

from

Kingman Army Air Field:

& Sales-Storage Depot No. 41 Planes:

- THE SUPPLY HANGAR -

(currently under construction)

You can help keep

Depot41.com

alive:

Kingman Army Air Field, Arizona

With imminent U.S. involvement in World War Two speeding things up, the site for a U. S. Army Air Force gunnery school in northwestern Arizona was chosen late in 1941 and construction began mid-1942. Military operations officially began a mere couple of months later and by early 1943, eager students were already in classes.

There were peripheral training operations carried out during KAAF's short 3-year lifespan, but it's main focus was that of training flexible aerial gunners: men who physically operated the bomber's loose machine guns or power operated turrets such as the Bendix models, the Consolidateds, the Emerson, the Martin, as well as the upper and lower Sperrys.

Students by the tens of thousands streamed through Kingman and shortly after their sergeant-gunner wings were pinned on at graduation, they were sent to various combat theaters where .50 caliber bullets started spitting from hot barrels....

- Fast forward to late 1945 -

The War in Europe over in May, hundreds upon hundreds of battle-weary bombers each month started arriving stateside, and they were crowded into temporary holding areas with the intent of being refurbished for possible deployment to the still very active war in the Pacific. However, after the second & third atomic explosions and the welcomed Japanese surrender in August, the rebuilds were cancelled and those ships were instead flown to new storage depots where their status for reuse, resale and/or salvage would be evaluated.

Kingman Army Air Field was the recipient of several thousand of the returned combat aircraft, making it one of the top three depots in the nation, and once the military training operation ceased to exist in 1946, it officially became known as

SALES-STORAGE DEPOT No. 41

...Scores of bombers, fighters and a handful of trainers darkened the skies over Kingman, upwards of 100 per day, making, what would be for most, their final flight and landing.

Once signed over to the War Assets Corporation, crews stripped loose equipment from the planes; try to imagine the ramp strewn with piles of seat cushions, manuals, sextants, Load Adjusters, first aid kits, fire extinguishers, flare guns, survival gear, etc., etc.

With that preliminary task out of the way, workers then taxied the doomed aircraft off into the surrounding desert and their assigned parking areas, mag switches were flipped and propellers wound down one last time:

sleek P-38 Lightnings, P-39 Airacobras,

P-40 Warhawks, P-47 Thunderbolts,

P-63 Kingcobras, A-20 Havocs and A-26 Invaders; battle-scarred B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators from all Theaters of Combat; rugged

B-25 Mitchells and B-26 Marauders; gigantic & rare B-32 Dominators... only months before the noble vanguards of America's great pride, strength & determination, now ironically about to be reduced to mere cold aluminum ingots in a
massive historical blunder of

staggering proportions...

Few planes made it out of Kingman intact (some Lightnings, a couple of dozen Invaders

and a famous B-17D named The Swoose, to list a few), but for the thousands of forsaken ones, their time was up.

USAAF planes performed exceedingly well and WWII, the reason for their very existence in the first place, had been won. Technology's rapid advancement during less than four years of war had aged the majority of these planes to dinosaurs - virtually all of them had existed less than a single decade - and they now offered little practical use.

That, coupled with pressure on elected officials by paniked aircraft manufacturers to eliminate a perceived threat to the industry's existence played major rolls in the decision to transform

SALES-STORAGE DEPOT No. 41

into one of the nation's largest and the

world's most infamous

aircraft graveyards.

The question remains, why weren't more than a meager few of these gallant War heroes saved for history's sake?

After all, there were thousands upon thousands of available bombers & fighters here in the States after the War... For a ridiculously small amount of money & labor there could have been hundreds of tangible reminders of what the country, as well as the rest of the world had endured during the first half of the Forties.

I personally believe it's a shame that every Air Force Base in the United States and museums in each community across this nation weren't offered a plane for display.

Alas, government beancounters and greedy civilians with nothing more than money on their minds, quickly & efficiently did away with nearly every shred of this history within a few short years after WWII... and once they were gone, all the lamenting in the world couldn't bring these planes back again.

Enter the new

DEPOT 41

For over 30 years it's been my constant and all-consuming goal, a labor of love if you will, to acquire, identify and preserve any and all available photos, information & artifacts from both the Army Air Field and the thousands of USAAF planes at Kingman.

Blessed with a patient & understanding wife and owing to many generous, kindhearted people, some who graciously opened their homes and lives to me and my projects, and without whose friendship, encouragement and help, little of what I'm trying to accomplish would even be possible, the photograph collection and TONS of objects that have been gathered these past 3 decades are going to be used for 1) publishing one or more books and 2) the eventual creation of a museum dealing with this captivating subject ... All in a very personal attempt to honor and preserve the memories of what happened during WWII, the people who were involved and those

thousands of fantastic aircraft.

In the meantime, the Pages linked in the left column provide a glimpse at some of the valuable treasures in the

DEPOT 41 Museum Collection.

And for collectors, in a effort to offset some of our operating expenses, once

THE SUPPLY HANGAR becomes operational, it'll be offering vintage USAAF & other WWII-related items for purchase, many of which actually came from the Kingman planes.

                                                      - John C. Szabo

Stay tuned for further developments...

With the final count being closer to 5500, this inflated post-War headline is one source for the continued myth that Kingman had far more planes than it actually did. Other myths, possibly caused by the Flying Fortresses' close proximity to Route 66 and easy access for photography, were that "Kingman had all

B-17s" or "there were more B-17s at Kingman than B-24s"

BOTH OF WHICH ARE INCORRECT

NOTICE:

The land encompassing Kingman's airport

is not public property.

Person(s) seeking access should first obtain permission from the appropriate authorities.