Wendover Air Force Base

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Wendover Air Force Base is a former USAF base in Utah. During World War II, it was a training base for bomber crews before being deployed to the European and Pacific Theaters. Also, it was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs.

After the war, Wendover served as a gunnery range and research facility. It was closed by the USAF in 1969, however the base was used sporadically until 1986.

1 Origins
2 World War II
3 Postwar Use
4 Current Uses
5 External links

[edit] Origins

Wendover Air Force Base's history began in 1940, when the US Army began looking for additional bombing ranges, and Wendover was selected, as it was remote, and offered wide open spaces. Construction of the bombing range began on 4 November 1940.

[edit] World War II

With the entrance of the United States into World War II, Wendover Field began to take on greater importance. For much of the war the installation was the Army Air Forces' only bombing and gunnery range.

As of 1940, the Wendover airfield consisted of a gravel runway and a few buildings. By 1941, the field had been expanded, with paved runways and additional buildings.

On 1 March 1942 the Army Air Force activated Wendover Army Air Field and also assigned the research and development of guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and remotely-controlled bombs to the site. The new base was supplied and serviced by the Ogden Air Depot at Hill Field.

In April the Wendover Sub-Depot was activated and assumed technical and administrative control of the field, under the immediate command of the Ogden Air Depot. The Wendover Sub-Depot was tasked to requisition, store, and issue all Army Air Forces property for organizations stationed at Wendover Field for training.

By late 1943 there were approximately 2,000 civilian employees and 17,500 military personnel at Wendover. Construction at the base continued for most of the war, including three 8,100' paved runways, taxiways, a 300,000 square foot ramp, and six hangars. By May 1945 the base consisted of 668 buildings, including a 300-bed hospital, gymnasium, swimming pool, library, chapel, cafeteria, bowling alley, two movie theatres, and 361 housing units for married officers and civilians.

[edit] Heavy Bombardment Group Training

From November 1942 through April 1944 Wendover AAF hosted twenty newly-formed B-17 and B-24 groups during one phase of their group training. At Wendover, these groups utilized the huge (1,822,200 acre) Wendover Bombing and Gunnery Range southeast of the airfield.

Heavy Bomb Groups Trained at Wendover Army Air Base

Group	Type	Destination	Training dates
100th Bomb Group	B-17	Eighth Air Force	November 1942 - January 1943
302nd Bomb Group	B-24	Operational Conversion Unit	July - September 1942
306th Bomb Group	B-17	Eighth Air Force	April - August 1942
308th Bomb Group	B-24	Fourteenth Air Force	October - November 1942
379th Bomb Group	B-17	Eighth Air Force	December 1942 - February 1943
384th Bomb Group	B-17	Eighth Air Force	January - April 1943
388th Bomb Group	B-17	Eighth Air Force	February - May 1943
393rd Bomb Group	B-17	Operational Conversion Unit	April - June 1943
399th Bomb Group	B-24	Operational Conversion Unit	April - December 1943
445th Bomb Group	B-24	Eighth Air Force	June - July 1943
448th Bomb Group	B-24	Eighth Air Force	July - September 1943
451st Bomb Group	B-24	Fifteenth Air Force	July - September 1943
457th Bomb Group	B-17	Eighth Air Force	December 1943 - January 1944
458th Bomb Group	B-24	Eighth Air Force	July 1943 - September 1943
461st Bomb Group	B-24	Fifteenth Air Force	July 1943
464th Bomb Group	B-24	Fifteenth Air Force	August 1943
467th Bomb Group	B-24	Eighth Air Force	August - September 1943
489th Bomb Group	B-24	Eighth Air Force	October 1943 - April 1944
490th Bomb Group	B-24	Eighth Air Force	October 1943
494th Bomb Group	B-24	Seventh Air Force	December 1943 - April 1944

Source: Hill Aerospace Museum

[edit] 509th Composite Group

By late 1943 Manhattan Project scientists were confident enough to direct the Army Air Forces to begin preparations for the atomic bomb's use against Germany and Japan. The AAF concluded that the B-29 Superfortress aircraft would be the most suitable delivery vehicle in either theater of operations. In April Gen. Henry H. Arnold selected one of its most able bomber commnders, Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., to form and train a group devoted solely to dropping the device. Tibbets chose the remote Wendover Army Air Field over Great Bend, Kansas, and Mountain Home, Idaho, as the location for the Silverplate training program. The 509th's training was classified Top Secret; therefore the desert isolation of Wendover Field was ideal.

In September 1944, the 393rd Bomb Squadron, nearing completion of its training as part of the 504th Bomb Group, was moved to Wendover. In November 1944 the 393rd was re-assigned directly to the Second Air Force and in December became the core of the new 509th Composite Group. The crews of the 393rd trained continuously for the classified mission until May. In late April 1945, Colonel Tibbets declared the group combat ready and the ground echelon moved to its new home, North Field, Tinian, in the Marianas, on May 29 with the air echelon following on June 11.

[edit] V-1 / JB-2 Testing

A detachment of the Special Weapons Branch, Wright Field, Ohio, arrived at Wendover in 1944 with the mission of evaluating captured & experimental rocket systems, including the German V-1 "buzz bomb" and guided glide bombs. Numerous tests were conducted, including the JB-2, a American copy of the German V-1, which was tested at a site just south of Wendover's Technical Site.

The JB-2 'Doodle Bug' cruise missile (called the 'Loon' by the Navy) was an American-made copy of the German V-1 'Buzz Bomb', reverse-engineered by Republic Aviation (airframe) & Ford Aerospace (pulsejet engine) based on inspections of V-1 wreckage in England. The JB-2 was flight-tested less than 4 months after the first V-1 attack on England.

Ironically, the JB-2 was built to be used in the invasion of Japan - an invasion which was prevented by the atomic bombs dropped by the 509th Composite Group, based only a few hundred feet away on the Wendover ramp. After the war, German V-1s were tested from this site to compare performance with the American copies.

[edit] Postwar Use

Following the war, the Army Air Force activated a testing facility at Wendover Army Air Base to evaluate captured munitions and rocket systems. In the summer of 1946 the Ogden Air Technical Service Command assumed jurisdiction over all operations at Wendover Field except engineering and technical projects.

In March 1947, 1,200 personnel from Wendover Field in Utah were relocated to Alamogordo to conduct guided missile research projects. Three ongoing projects were transferred: Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft (GAPA), Jet Bomb-2 (JB-2), and TARZON.

In addition, Wendover was used for a while to store B-29 bombers. Later, it was transferred to the Strategic Air Command in 1947 & was used by bombardment groups deploying on maneuvers.

Wendover Air Force Base, renamed in 1947, was inactivated in 1949. It was transferred to the Ogden Air Material Area in 1950. The range continued to be utilized for bombing and gunnery practice.

Tactical Air Command reactivated the base in 1954 and tactical units deployed there for exercises, as well as utilzing the base for the next four years. TAC invested several million dollars renovating facilities. Wendover was transferred to Ogden in 1958 and renamed Wendover Air Force Auxiliary Field, and the range was renamed Hill Air Force Range in 1960.

[edit] Current Uses

Main Article: Wendover Airport

By 1965, the airield was closed. The non-flying components were inactivated in 1969, and the entire facility declared surplus in 1976. The facility was turned over to the town of Wendover as a municipal airport, named Decker Field.

Beginning in 1980 the 4440th Tactical Fighter Training Group (Red Flag), Nellis AFB, Nevada, used Wendover for exercises, but they were discontinued after 1986.

Today this former Air Force Base is still used as a civil airport, yet for such a huge facility (the longest runway is 9,900' long). It is all but abandoned, as only 11 aircraft are still based on the field.

Still-extant facilities include three paved runways, numerous ramps, taxiways, dispersal pads, all of the original hangars (including the "Enola Gay" B-29 hangar), and 75 other WW2-era buildings.

Several flying scenes for the 1997 movie "Con Air" were filmed at Wendover, using a Fairchild C-123K Provider. A non-profit group, Historic Wendover Airfield, is attempting to restore the historic elements of the field.

The northeast/southwest runway is pretty much gone. It was used by USAF engineers training for runway demolition and repair. The east/west runway is new, put in only a couple of years ago in hopes of drawing commercial service.