[Milsurplus] Some more of the surplus story

[Hubert Miller]

>From 'Air Classics' magazine, U.S.A., March 1992, some more of "the surplus story" :

"After VE Day...5000 planes were sent back to the U.S. to be redeployed to the Pacific....The plan was to recondition each plane....but the war ended on VJ Day and they were diverted
to storage depots. 
"In March 1946 there were still some 16,000 aircraft overseas. More than 9000 were flown back to the United States....much of the remainder was either salvaged or scrapped. Scrap
metal was returned to the U.S. as ships' ballast to conserve costs.....
"The Office of Foreign Liquidation offered $40 million worth of salable aircraft to the European market. At the same time, non-salable combat planes of the AAF 'were being demolished'....
"Naturally, there was criticism overseas as well as in this country...Pandit Jawaharial Nehru * was particularly incensed...and stated in May 1946, 'This is sheer vandalism...In a world, and in India especially, suffering a terrible lack of consumer goods, to destroy what can be used appears almost criminal.'  Of course, he was speaking of more than aviation material....
"It had been determined earlier that it was more expensive to dismantle a plane for parts than to melt it down for salvage....After the engines, propellers, armament,  instruments, and radios,
etc ** were removed, each plane was cut into small pieces that could be pushed into a large furnace.
"Once the possibility of smashing and burning had been demonstrated, arrangements were made for bids on a total of 20,690 aircraft at five WAA fields....Although the primary purpose
at this time was storage...salvage process became a model demonstration for Congress and the press. New Consolidated B-32 Dominators from the factory at Fort Worth were flown to 
Walnut Ridge and were reported to be broken up and melted down.
"....the Washington office ordered the 2.5 to 3 million gallons of gasoline in the planes to be sold separately....After considerable discussion....reversed the decision.
"...this was an important factor in large purchases. When Paul Mantz *** and associates bought 475 planes...in Feb. 1946, the remaining fuel paid for half their cost...."

*Nehru, not Gandhi as I had stated in a previous post. 
** radios removed but shock mountings and control boxes mostly left to be demolished, unfortunately !
***Paul Mantz flew with Amelia Earhart on some jaunts but quit before the ill-fated globe circumnavigation. 

via: Hubert Miller