Aero Vintage Books

I've always been curious about the possibility of
American forces that recaptured Clark Field coming upon any American wrecks in bone yards from the Japanese attacks in Dec. of '41.

More then likely, the Americans did not find anything from 1941.

Well know that the Japanese did capture both a shipment of P-40's as well as A-20's. There was enough of both to equip a Japanese group of each type.

The Japanese also captured enough Brewster Buffalo's from the British to have a full group of these fighters as well.

Other then that, they had 3 B-17's they tested; the Japanese were pretty efficient in the early years at removing and recycling any wrecks.

Not following the topic/question of OP, but related to the topic of the Clark Field Bone Yard. By the looks of post war dumping that went on, there are P-38's for days just a few feet under the dirt. Certainly there must be something of historical interest still buried in the dump.

-Land use/Permit fees:
-Excavation Equipment
-Time & Wages for Personnel extracting salvaged air frames from the dump.
-Export license/Permit fees
-Export transportation costs
-Restoration costs
-Operation Costs

Oh, thats why they are all (maybe) still buried in the dump.

Wasn't that dump already excavated, only to find the P-38s were all burned before being buried?

Chris Brame wrote:Wasn't that dump already excavated, only to find the P-38s were all burned before being buried?

I have not read that, but it wouldn't be the least bit surprising if they were all torched after being pushed into the pit.

A long time ago a neighbor of mine told me he watched P-38s being dumped into that pit, but didn't mention them being burned. Could be that the whole mess was lit after the hole was full, but who knows?

terveurn wrote:More then likely, the Americans did not find anything from 1941.

Well know that the Japanese did capture both a shipment of P-40's as well as A-20's. There was enough of both to equip a Japanese group of each type.

The Japanese also captured enough Brewster Buffalo's from the British to have a full group of these fighters as well.

Other then that, they had 3 B-17's they tested; the Japanese were pretty efficient in the early years at removing and recycling any wrecks.

Considering that 15 or so B-17s, most of the 20th PG P-40s, B-18s, B-10s and some miscellaneous types were destroyed at Clark, the wrecks had to be pushed off somewhere.

Second Air Force wrote:A long time ago a neighbor of mine told me he watched P-38s being dumped into that pit, but didn't mention them being burned. Could be that the whole mess was lit after the hole was full, but who knows?

Interesting but obscure fact was the South Korean military, when they were looking to purchase aircraft in 1947, wanted these P-38's for the ROC Air Force but the USAF did not want them to have these aircraft -- instead giving them AT-6's.

How much different if in 1950 the ROC military had P-38's instead of basically reconnaissance aircraft to defend the southern peninsula.
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