Great Bend Army Airfield - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

for the civil use of this facility, see Great Bend Municipal Airport
Great Bend Municipal Airport
Great Bend Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located four nautical miles west of the central business district of Great Bend, a city in Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline...

Great Bend Army Airfield is a closed United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

base. It is located 5.6 miles (9 km) west-southwest of Great Bend, Kansas

Great Bend, Kansas

Great Bend, named for its location at the historic big bend of the Arkansas River, is the most populous city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 15,995.-History:...

, and was closed in 1946. Today it is used as Great Bend Municipal Airport

Great Bend Municipal Airport

Great Bend Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located four nautical miles west of the central business district of Great Bend, a city in Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline...

.

Great Bend Army Airfield (AAF) is significantly historic as it was in the first group United States Army Air Force B-29 Superfortress

B-29 Superfortress

The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...

bases for initial training on the aircraft in the summer of 1943. Along with Walker Army Airfield near Victoria, Pratt Army Airfield

Pratt Army Airfield

Pratt Army Airfield is a closed United States Air Force base. It is located north-northwest of Pratt, Kansas, and was closed in 1946. Today it is used as Pratt Regional Airport....

near Pratt and Smoky Hill Army Airfield near Salina the initial cadre of the 58th Bombardment Wing was formed. The 58th Bomb Wing was the first B-29 combat wing of World War II and engaged in the first long-range strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands beginning in March 1944 from bases in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

History

The first public announcement of intentions to build an airfield at Great Bend, on the Arkansas river in Barton county, came in the form of a telegram from Sen. Arthur Capper of Kansas to the secretary of the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce on 30 September 1942. But, of course, by then all the preliminary work had been done. In July of that year the site at Great Bend had been chosen. Nor was all the initiative left to the Army. A committee of leading citizens from Great Bend and Hoisington had made the original proposal. Originally, plans called for the Civil Aeronautics Administration to supply the funds, and, with war's end, Barton county and Great Bend would acquire ownership. However, this tentative arrangement was subsequently changed so that the field was built under the auspices of the Air Force.

Originally intended to serve merely as a satellite base of Smoky Hill Army Air Field at Salina

Salina, Kansas

Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 47,707. Located in one of the world's largest wheat-producing areas, Salina is a regional trade center for north-central Kansas...

, the physical plant at Great Bend was initially decidedly limited in its functional utility and in size. Most of the construction work was done by Patti-McDonald Construction Company of Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, but the concrete work on runways and taxiways was undertaken by the W.L. Johnson Construction company. Essentials were completed first. These were followed in time by facilities for recreation and services. During the summer and fall of 1943 a service club, theater, and bowling alley were completed.

Capt. Theodore C. Reid, post engineer, was the first officer to report for duty on the base. He arrived on 18 January 1943. The first enlisted men to arrive, detachments of the 501st Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron, the 1159th Guard Squadron, and the 902d Quartermaster Company, were necessarily housed in Great Bend for a time, there being no facilities on the base. On 13 February 1943 the 501st was transferred to Great Bend to become the headquarters squadron on the new field. Capping the inchoate organizational structure, Lt. Col. Glenn M. Pike assumed command of the field on 26 February. The first recorded Morning Report, dated 5 March 1943, lists 13 officers and 182 enlisted men. From these modest beginnings, which was, of course a skeleton force even for the limited role the field was originally designed to play, Great Bend was to grow impressively, both as a mission and physical plant. By January 31, 1945 a total of 6,409 personnel would be stationed there.

Bomber training

In keeping with its scheduled function of processing heavy bombardment groups, Great Bend Army Airfield was assigned to the 21st Bombardment Wing on 16 January 1943. It was the function of the 21st to operate processing bases, but, besides processing it did some training also. As early as March 1943 it was known that the Great Bend AAF was to be charged with the responsibility of training personnel for the new B-29 very heavy bomber. on 1 July 1943 Second Air Force transferred the 5th Heavy Bombardment Processing Unit to Great Bend to facilitate the training program. To bring its nomenclature more into harmony with its function, the 5th Heavy Bombardment Processing Unit was redesignated the 73d Bombardment Operational Training Wing on 17 August. But the new organization endured for scarcely four months before it was disbanded on 22 October, subsequent to the reassignment of the 58th Bombardment Operational Training Wing to Second Air Force. Both the personnel and the several bases of the 73d, among which figured Great Bend Army Air Field, were transferred to the 58th.

To accommodative the B-29, physical expansion of necessity became the order of the day. Original plans were altered, providing for considerable additions to the runway and taxiway systems. Additional troop housing was built, and new hangars we constructed especially designed to accommodate the B-29.

Great Bend received the 444th Bombardment Group (VH) and by April 1944, its training completed, the 444th departed for overseas service. During the remainder of its career, Great Bend was destined to train three more very heavy bombardment groups, the 498th, the 19th, and 333d, and in addition, it retrained the ground echelon of the 489th back from Europe for redeployment to the Pacific. The extreme development issues of B-29 aircraft, however, hampered the training efforts for some time. Consequently, for several months the group in training at Great Bend perforce used B-17's and B-26's for the most part, with a sprinkling of B-29's to leaven the loaf.

On 25 March 1944 the units permanently assigned to Great Bend Army Airfield were reorganized in the 243d AAF Base Unit (OTU) (VH). Thereafter, Great Bend was organized under the standard plan for OTU (Operational Training Unit) bases. However, since the new directorate was not prepared immediately to take up its burden, the group in training at that time, the 498th, continued to train itself as the 444th had done before it. Consequently, it was only with the 19th Bombardment Group (VH), which began training in September 1944, that the 243d AAFBU took over the training responsibilities.

Beginning with the winter of 1945, part of the flying training was conducted at Borinquen Army Airfield, Puerto Rico. The primary purpose of this program, termed the "Gypsy Task Force," was to take advantage of the good flying weather in Puerto Rico during the winter months, enabling the crews to complete their training much quicker than would otherwise have been the case. With this phase of training over, the crews would return to Great Bend to prepare for departure to a staging area. The program was discontinued in April 1945, after only one season.

With the arrival of the ground echelon of the 489th Bombardment Group in February 1945 from the European theater, Great Bend became one of the first redeployment installations in the country. At that time the 333d Bombardment Group (VH) was receiving its regular training, but the ground echelon of the 489th was trained on B-29 maintenance alongside the men of the 333d. After a relatively short transition course in the B-29 (they were already experienced maintenance men) the 489th left in March to join the air echelon of the group, which had received transition training at several different bases.

Victory over Japan had a direct effect on the mission and activity of the base. The 333d Bombardment Group (VH), having completed its training, left Great Bend during July and August 1945. No other groups were assigned for a full schedule of training, but the 44th Bombardment Group (VH) and the 405th Service Group used Great Bend as an assembly point. Indeed, in this period the primary mission of the base became that of discharging qualified men—or rather of transferring them to separation centers.

History

Bomber training

See also