destruction of P-38's after Japanese surrender by vkoontz
Open full image in new tab Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Factory fresh P-38's were destroyed after the Japanese surrender at Clark AFB, Philipines. They were chopped up and bulldozed into a ditch. And I think of the massive effort to resurrect the Glacier Girl...

Comments (10)
gawd...and to think of the millions just one of these in flying condition would bring today...
What a waste! They should have at least sold them after stripping out their guns.
makes me sick, such a beautiful aircraft, such a waste!
A very interesting picture.
A real waste. I was reading in Flight Journal recently about the huge numbers of planes scrapped after WW2. If I recall some were sold for the cost of the gas still in their tanks. I would have been there with my five hundred bucks to get a mustang, or P47, or P38, or Hellcat, or............ I loved reading about the Glacier Girl. Have you heard of the B29 Daryl Greenamayer tried flying out of Greenland called Kee Bird. I have to laugh at the average ranking which reads "needs work". You bet they need some work!! But at one time they were the top dog.
@UVDan: They were using B-29s for target practice out at China Lake as late as the 1970s. A pity that Kee Bird didn't make it after all the effort to make her airworthy. I know a 15th AF P-38 pilot, but I don't intend to tell him about these photos. He'd be royally hacked.
some of our not so smart dealings of the US government.
THIS IS A PHOTO THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. PRETTY NEAT STUFF
Probably made sense at the time.....but this is SO WRONG!!!!.A different sort of lesson can be learned from this.
It was a very cool aircraft, and it was such a terrible demise! It's sad looking at them like that, but still... thanks for sharing!