WWII Hidden Aircraft Plants
 

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Aircraft-plants-disguised-suburban-towns/ss/events/wl/050611planedisguise

"Gee, I don't know, Hans, there's supposed to be a factory around here somewhere..."

Yeah, that's Boeing Plant #2 hidden under that fake suburban subdivision. They tried to make it match the neighborhood on the other side of the Duwamish River. The plant is currently being torn down having fallen into disuse and decay.

In retrospect it seems like a great deal of effort, considering no land based Japanese plane had the range to strike Seattle and the IJN carriers were too busy elsewhere, but the panic after Pearl harbor on the West Coast at the time was real enough. San Francisco had three air-raid alerts on the first night of the war.

http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/...942-H302-6.jpg http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/...942-H302-5.jpg

There was concern that the IJN was considering shelling the larger West Coast cities from submarine fire; if I'm not mistaken, there were lots of spurious reports of just that event happening.

One B25 guy I read indicated that a lot of the Mitchell crews were flying ASW patrols on the West Coast; from them were drawn the pilots and crews for the Doolittle raid.

It's gotta be cool to wander around that "town" these days, even if it is being demoed.

If i remember there was a great fear of possible Japanese invasion on west coast which was defenseless at the time of pearl harbor attack.

Well, the "town" disappeared with the war. The plant operated for many years after. In the late 1940s, the B-47 Stratojet, the first swept-wing bomber was built at the plant. Later on, early B-52 Stratofortresses were also developed inside the facility. In the 1960s the Boeing 737 was produced there. By the 80s it was just used as a machine shop.

Ah... nonetheless, stomping around a Boeing plant - even a disused one - would be interesting (at least to me, but I like abandoned places).

Yes, there was a lot of fear. Much of it groundless as Japan had it's hands quite full just grabbing the Philippines, Malaya, Burma and Indonesia, while holding on to China. No one really knew that at the time however.

Some famous British magician created a fake port complete with fake bomb explosions to confuse the German night bombers to drop at the wrong time

That allowed AA and other defenses to be set up at the real port, and ships and supplies to get in, which proved pivotal in the upcoming battle.

We had cardboard tanks to make the enemy think they were vastly outnumbered

Truly amazing the tales of strategic illusion out of WWII

The Germans went to elaborate lengths to hide factories with netting and smoke screens. Even so far as to build dummy oil refineries with similar reference points to fool bombardiers trying to hit it, instead of the real factory a few miles further on.

The Walt Disney Studios did much the camouflage work on Lockheed's Burbank plant. I can still remember seeing it when my mom drove dad to the plant. All the nets were down but the paint work remained for years.
Used the same ideas as Boeing. Suburban housing etc.

Magic

It's too bad they didn't keep the stuff and props. Would have made a great exhibit.

http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing.../modeltown.jpg http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABP...2010786936.jpg

Lol, and when it rained!
"Hanz look ze tommies tanks are melting"

Of course, other than the Matilda the British tanks could have been made out of cardboard! lol

Too bad they forgot to arm the Matilda, though. :D

Indeed, would have actualy been good if it had a decent gun... when it worked... if it worked...