26 Sad Images of WWII Airplane Graveyards & Storage Sites

These are very sad images of now priceless, warbirds that were left to rot outside to be recycled later.

During and after WWII, crash landed and unrecoverable airplanes were cast aside in massive piles and left for another day when there would be time to recycle them. As the war progressed, wrecked enemy airfields also fell into Allied hands, with destroyed planes.

Over a period of six years of conflict, from 1939 to 1945, aircraft designs had progressed in leaps and bounds.

From the obsolete biplane to the world’s first fighter, from crude twin-engine bombers to radical designs of the B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers, World War Two had seen the most radical use of aircraft in the battlefield.

Eventually, the war ended and the armies were left with thousands of planes that were either obsolete, damaged, or more than they could keep serviceable. The aircraft graveyards became overwhelmed with these forgotten beasts of war. Mostly they were scrapped for materials for recycling and “parted” out for other projects.

As we will see below, no matter how good an aircraft it was – the time for many had come to an end.

Here is a collection of these machines that helped fight the war.

 

BA2 #2c What a waste! HANGOVER HAVEN II in the Biak dump after just 12 operational missions.

 

BA2 #8a 44-51612 in a graveyard of B-25s and C-47s, probably Clark AB in the Philippines

 

Japanese Aircraft Boneyard

 

German Airplane Graveyard

 

British Aircraft Graveyard

 

Rukuhia, New Zealand

 

Rukuhia, New Zealand

 

ME 262 Schwalbe

 

Hundreds of surplus World War II airplanes sit in rows at an airplane cemetery in Walnut Ridge, AR on December 5, 1948. Some of the planes were flown in straight from the factory, cut into pieces and melted down. The planes were mostly B25’s and B26’s

 

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Boneyard in the South Pacific, 1946

 

The abandoned aircraft of the Imperial Japanese air force, (among them e.g. machines Mitsubishi A6M5 Model 52) at the end of the war at the base in Atsugi

 

How much money is in this picture

 

Graveyard of broken and dismantled German planes. In the frame of fighter Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt Fw.190 Bf.110, night fighters Junkers Ju.88G and other aviation

 

German aircraft in the hangar, allies captured the airfield Shmarbek (Schmarbeck). In the frame visible Heinkel bombers and Heinkel He.111 He.117 ‘Greif’, as well as fighter Focke-Wulf Fw.190.

 

B-24 graveyard in Moratai, pacific

 

Wrecked B-24s cast aside

 

Aircraft dump on Guam

 

P38 Lightnings scrapped in the Philippines after the end of the war.

 

Scrapped B-29s on Tinian

 

Storage

Aircraft stored for later use, most of the time they would end up the same way as the ones on our previous pictures, into the smelting oven…

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters stacked vertically at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas after World War II

 

Surplus fighter aircraft awaiting the smelter at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, after World War II

 

B-32 “Dominator” aircraft awaiting destruction at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, 1946.

 

Boeing B-29 Superfortress .. in storage at Pyote AFB after World War II

 

 

Boeing B-29, storage yard, El Paso TX, 20 May49

All we need now is a time machine……….

Joris Nieuwint: Joris Nieuwint is a battlefield guide for the Operation Market Garden area. His primary focus is on the Allied operations from September 17th, 1944 onwards. Having lived in the Market Garden area for 25 years, he has been studying the events for nearly as long. He has a deep understanding of the history and a passion for sharing the stories of the men who are no longer with us.
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