In England during WWII were the American bomber tarmacs cement, grass or asphalt. I am building a diorama and would to set the seen of a WWII bomber under maintenance.
Thanks,
Marc
I THINK most were cement, but that’s not backed up by any research (except for seeing 12 O’Clock High this last weekend).
US Heavy Bombers usually operated off of hard surfaced airfields from England during WWII. Concrete primarily or asphalt. You should look into which Bomb Group/Aerodrome you plan to depict for a definite answer. The weight load (bombs, fuel, ammo, etc.) at take off did not work well with grass airfields, especially in the damp English conditions. Routine maintenance could be done out on the hardstand, but more thourough work such as an overnight major repair job, would probably be inside a hangar for blackout reasons.
12 O’Clock High was filmed at an abandoned airbase in Arkansas in 1947. The last scene of the movie with Major Stovall as a civilian was filmed first and then they came in and mowed the grass and cleaned the place up as a British US base. Look at pictures of RAF bases to see what they are as the British built alot of the bases. A good place to start would be the photo archives of the US Air Force Museum online. Just look up B-17s, B-24s and B-26s. Also look up the website for the 303rd Bomb Group as they have a lot of photos of outside maintenance of B-17s.
Thanks for the GREAT insight!
Marc
it also depends what area of operation. on most of the pacific islands they used crushed seashell.
coral was widely used.