War salvage in Europe

[Bill Murray]

Next, I am switching to aircraft which I hope is OK on this Forum.
They make for very impressive photos

[Bill Murray]

And, now, what happened to these aircraft.

[Bill Murray]

And lastly, a shot of B-32 bombers awaiting scrapping.

Interesting story here. The B-32 was a backup to the B-29 as a superbomber in case the B-29 didn't work out. It was in development from 1939 to late spring 1945 and only made a couple of photo recon sorties over Japan as the war was ending. It had tremendous teething problems such as a non functioning pressurization system, the tail assembly was changed several times, the remote weapons stations didn't work and several crashed.

In the end, out of about 1200 ordered only 118 ever entered service and every last one of them was scrapped by 1948. Even the one scheduled to be given to the Air Force Museum!!

Hope you enjoy the photos

Bill

[Bill Murray]

Sorry, here is a more dramatic photo of the B-32 graveyard.
Bill

[Michael R.]

December, 1943. North Africa awaiting breakers for scrap metal. Credit IWM E26958.

[David Dunlop]

I wonder how much of that equipment ended up bypassing the scrappies and being refurbished. Wasn't there a lot of ex-German equipment still in service in the Middle East into the 1960's, and possibly somewhere in Scandinavia? Probably a very good spare parts market running for that time as well.

David

[Tony Smith]

Diverting the course of this thread a little, but what to extent did recycling occur during the war? We have heard stories of scrap metal drives to feed war production, but how much scrap returned from the Front to be re-used in the factories? Presumably all those convoy ships crossing the Atlantic returned with nearly empty cargo holds, just as Road Transport supplying dumps near the front would have been "light" going back to the beachhead. I think of the amount of small arms and artillery brass cartridge case that would be measured in the tons, that today would be highly sought and valuable scrap. Perhaps rifle brass would have been uneconomic to retrieve in all circumstances, but artillery is generally at a fixed point at one end of an established line of supply. How much spent brass would have been stacked by the guns following the massive barrage of El Alamein? In both senses of the word, I would say thousands of Pounds worth!