Thoughts on the military and military activities of a diverse nature. Free-ranging and eclectic. Blog ego cogito ergo sum.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Freeman Field.
This is coolbert:
From a prior blog entry:
"My understanding is that there was/is a facility located in the USA [Indiana] where there are miles-long trenches containing the remains of American WW2 war planes cut into segments and buried"
And here we have the answer as to that location thanks to Bob N.
Freeman Field, Seymour Indiana, USA!!
But NOT miles-long trenches [kilometers long]. NO!
Devoted readers to the blog, please forgive me, I have not engaged in a deliberate deception, merely a gross exaggeration made in error and corrected by myself.
Freeman Army Airfield!
"Freeman Army Airfield is an inactive United States Army Air Force base. It is located 2.6 miles (4.2 km) south-southwest of Seymour, Indiana."
Freeman Army Airfield in the aftermath of the war a facility used for the evaluation and testing of captured Axis aircraft, predominantly of the German variety. War planes experimental and otherwise as might be found in the Luft46 web site.
This was the Foreign Aircraft Evaluation Center.
"Freeman was re-activated by ATSC as the Foreign Aircraft Evaluation Center for the Air Force . . . captured German and Italian aircraft were collected by "Operation Lusty". These aircraft were shipped to the United States for evaluation. Freeman was selected due to its inviability and large amount of empty space which could be used to store these aircraft and perform evaluation flights . . . Nowhere in the United States would there be such large numbers of foreign aircraft, many of which were rare and incredible advanced for their time"
Indeed, some of those one-of-a-kind captured German combat aircraft "destroyed or buried", examples of which NO LONGER EXIST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD PERIOD!
"Some which were left at the field were destroyed or buried. Examples of aircraft that have no record of leaving Freeman Field are a Dornier Do 335 experimental interceptor; a Heinkel He 219 radar-equipped night fighter; an Arado Ar 234 twin-engined jet bomber, two Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptors, two Focke-Wulf Fw 190 interceptors and a Junkers Ju 88 two-engine multi-role aircraft."
Even now, the "hunt" proceeds those avid aviation enthusiasts searching for the "goldmine"!
"Several groups are engaged in locating and recovering any aviation artifacts from the aircraft which were destroyed and buried in 1946. The groups are currently in communication with former base personnel, local eyewitnesses, and historians in order to get a comprehensive picture of where the burial pits are located and what items were put in them."
Searchers having success to a degree:
"Luftwaffe Aircraft Parts Found at Freeman Field" by Lou Thole
"In late 1997, a large quantity of Luftwaffe aircraft parts and other equipment was unearthed at Freeman Field, in Seymour, Indiana. This discovery came after several years of research and exploratory digging. The story of the finding of the World War II German aircraft parts is an interesting one that helps answer many of the rumors about the field's activities at the end of the war."
Indiana Jones is needed in Indiana!!
coolbert.
The official site for Freeman Field is at www.IndianaMilitary.org. Dozens and dozens of photos of the enemy planes once there, along with equally dozens of experimental American planes. Info on the on-going digs is here.
ReplyDeleteJim West,
Webmaster
Well, we know the Dornier Do 335 heavy fighter and the Arado Ar234 jet bomber made it to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Museum; see the Wikipedia article.
ReplyDelete