WWII airplane graveyard- photos

[Peter1469]

WWII airplane graveyard- photos

This is the watery grave of over 150 US airplanes off the Marshall Islands.

They call it the “Airplane Graveyard.”


It is located 130 feet under the Pacific Ocean, in the Kwajalein Atoll, Roi-Namur, near the Marshall Islands.


More than 150 U.S. aircraft of the World War II can be found over there, where fierce battle between American and Japanese forces left a trail of wrecks on the deep lagoon floor.

[hanger4]

Seems to me most if not all that aircraft could have had some type of peace time usefulness. Pushing them off and into the drink just seems such a waste.

[Common]

Hail to the men that flew them and for those that gave all, RIP

[del]

my father-in-law flew dauntlesses

i have a pic of him sitting in one on henderson field

[southwest88]

Seems to me most if not all that aircraft could have had some type of peace time usefulness. Pushing them off and into the drink just seems such a waste.

Yah. But if you look @ it says

AIRPLANE BONEYARD: ROI-NAMUR websterwb
65

"Published on Jan 11, 2014
"After the war (WWII) these SBD Dauntless dive bombers were decommissioned (stripped of usable parts), loaded on a barge and sent to their final resting place in 100 feet of salt water on the bottom of the Kwajalein lagoon. These planes saw valiant service in the Pacific theater. These were carrier based planes, note prominent tail hooks."

(My emphasis)

So, it makes sense. If these planes were used in the island-hopping campaigns in the Pacific WWII, they were likely pretty used up. If we stripped out weapons, avionics, engines, hydraulics, bomb sights, radios & nav gear - there probably wasn't much more to be salvaged. Any aluminum or light metals could have been returned for recycling, but I don't know that anyone was thinking in those terms then. Looking @ the pictures, I can't tell if they have their engines or not - they've been encrusted & too long underwater - 70 years or so.

Now, when the RVN crashed & burned in 1975, then we could have dispatched empty carriers & assault carriers & loads of barges, to salvage & return helos to inventory. But we didn't even have time to destroy all the spook docs & encoders, not sure about all the diplomatic docs & encoders. That was a real mess.