Author Topic: What did your city do in the war? (Read 2296 times)

Russian · « **Reply #15 on:** August 03, 2006, 08:57:40 PM »

My city was starving to death (St Petersburg)

Debonair · « **Reply #16 on:** August 03, 2006, 08:59:19 PM »

we produced just about all of the CVEs

Maverick · « **Reply #17 on:** August 03, 2006, 09:54:58 PM »

Tucson AZ was (and is) the home of Davis Monthan AFB. It has had 3 names: Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona (13 Jan 1948-Present)
Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona (3 Dec 1941-13 Jan 1948)
Tucson Municipal Airport, Arizona (6 Oct 1927-3 Dec 1941)

They did bomber crew training in B24's and B29's.

Also in the Tucson area is Ryan Field where they did basic air training and some fighter training.

Pinal Airfield and what was known as Avra Valley (now NorthWest Regional Airport) Also served as training fields and emergency landing fields to suplement Tucson. My Father served at the Avra Valley and Pinal airfields as an aircraft mechanic.

In addition to that, are a number of airfields that served for training and emergency landing zones. These triangular fields are all abandoned now but several are still visible from the air as you fly between Tucson and San Diego. Dateland (near California border) is actually built on one of those old airfields and you can see the outline of the field beyond the buildings.

What you won't find any more are the German POW camps that surrounded Tucson. My Uncle who also was a mechanic at Avra Valley said thay had a bit of a surprise one time in town when a couple of the POW's walked into Tucson to try and get some new shoes. He had no recollection of any trouble with the POW's, not like they could really get back to Germany from AZ. anyhow.

dmf · « **Reply #18 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:07:25 PM »

Lets see, in WW2 my city wasn't a city yet, all we had was the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Princess Anne County had the Airstation that became NAS Oceana, Willis Wayside furniture used to be a pow camp for German pow's, I guess Norfolk was the worlds largest navy base back then, I dunno, but Portsmouth had the Naval shipyard and the Hospital, and Newport News had the shipbuilding drydocks, building liberty ships and Carriers.

Oh and we were the main place the German sailors wanted to look at when the uboats came close enough to see land.

Vudak · « **Reply #19 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:13:55 PM »

My state built quite a few Corsairs, for which you are all very welcome

I'm not really sure what my town did in WW2. Probably not much of anything considering we really don't have many factories here.

In the 1800s my town was, however, a very active abolishonist (sp?) center, with numerous underground railroad stops (a few still come in handy today, believe me lol).

We also housed the Africans from the Amistad. One of them, a man named "Boone," drowned in the river basin and is buried right down the road at our main cemetary.

Kinda cool, although completely offtopic for this thread. My bad

midnight Target · « **Reply #20 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:17:38 PM »

Well, my city didn't exist, but in the surrounding area....

March Air Force Base was the home of the 15th Airforce.

FMC built the DUKW "Duck" in Riverside, CA

On a side note, the reason I'm here is because my Dad was stationed at San Bernardino Army Air Base (later called Norton AFB) as a tower operator. He liked it so much he packed up and left Chicago for this area after the war.

Sandman · « **Reply #21 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:18:01 PM »

We started doing weapons testing in 1942 and we haven't stopped since.

http://www.chinalakealumni.org/

nirvana · « **Reply #22 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:19:43 PM »

Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado they did bomb site training for B17 crews with the Norden bomb sites I believe.

One of the hangers is used as a museum now, most of the land has been turned into apartments/condo's and what not.

Shuckins · « **Reply #23 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:37:16 PM »

My home town of Dermott is a small delta town in the southeastern part of the state of Arkansas. There were no major defense plants near it, but the area produced a lot of the cotton used in uniforms and explosives.

Two of the wartime Japanese-American internment camps were closeby. The nearest was the camp at Jerome, about five miles south of Dermott. Another was about 25 miles north, at Rohwer. I believe there was a third much smaller camp near Monticello, which was used briefly, but I haven't found any records to verify that.

During 1943 there were more Japanese in Desha County than there were blacks and whites combined. Young Japanese-Americans (Nisei) were recruited from the camps as replacements for the famous 442 Regimental Combat Team. One of the internees at the Rohwer camp was a very young George Takei.

Since this was one of the most economically depressed areas in the country when the war broke out, the camps brought some badly needed jobs to the area. My grandfather and his oldest daughter were civilian employees at the camp for a time. Later, after the Japanese were moved to other camps, the camps were used to intern German prisoners which had been members of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Sandman · « **Reply #24 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:38:19 PM »

I should add... Manzanar is within 40 miles or so.

Shamus · « **Reply #25 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:51:50 PM »

I think a few things were built in Detroit back then:)

shamus

MrBill · « **Reply #26 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:55:54 PM »

Not much in my current town but in the State ...

Trinity Site, New Mexico, USA Site of first nuclear weapon test on July 16, 1945

RTR · « **Reply #27 on:** August 03, 2006, 10:56:25 PM »

Most of our cities produced Men.

Some came home, others didn't. We will not forget any of them.

RTR

Saintaw · « **Reply #28 on:** August 04, 2006, 12:07:27 AM »

Luxembourg (country) had a messershmit parts plant I heard.

rpm · « **Reply #29 on:** August 04, 2006, 12:39:07 AM »

Nearest large city, Fort Worth, Texas. I hear they made a few of these...