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The first unit to arrive there was the 306th Bombardment Group,with four squadrons of B-17 aircraft.Īll told,there were 21 bomber groups and over 1,000 aircrews that completed training at Wendover airfield.The crews participated in the strategic bombing of Germany,flew in support of D-Day,and conducted combat missions around the world.Three of the groups had Medal of Honor reciepients. Wendover Field was concieved during the late 1930`s,and Congress appropriated funds in 1940 for the acquisition of land for bombing and gunnery ranges.Wendover was selected because of the Great Salt Lake desert and it`s vast uninhabited terrain. The Preserve America program funded a Tooele County project to create a documentary film about WWII home-front training at Wendover Air Force Base. Additionally, funding helped create a master plan to restore the airfield in 2006.Wendover is home not only to the Bonneville International Speedway,but also to the controversial Enola Gay hanger and all it brought with it in the 1940`s. Visit the National Park Service Travel American Aviation to learn more about Aviation related Historic Sites. The frame buildings were neglected after the base's closing, and fell into disrepair until the Historic Wendover Air Field Museum restored them for the benefit of the public. The buildings that remain are typical of military buildings constructed during World War II. Wendover Air Force Base was closed by the Air Force in 1963. The American "JB-2," a version of the German V-1 rocket, was also extensively tested at Wendover. Air Force vehicle to break the sound barrier occurred over the Wendover bombing range. National Park Service photo b圜ourtesy of Thomas Peterson, Historian, Historic Wendover Airfield Museumĭuring the final days of World War II and for a short time in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Wendover played a role in the U.S. Interior of B-52 Hangar, Wendover Air Force Base It was Colonel Tibbits, flying his B-29, "Enola Gay," who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. The base also served as the test and training site for the atomic bomb and the 509th Composite Group under the command of Colonel Paul W. Additionally, members of three bomb groups trained in Wendover won the Medal of Honor. Twenty-one heavy bomb groups trained in Wendover including the 306th BG (first to daylight bomb Nazi Germany), the famed 100th BG (known as the bloody 100th due to aircraft losses) and the Flying Tigers 308th Bomb Group which served in China, Burma and India. On April 6, 1942, the first training unit arrived and found the area ideal for bombing and gunnery practice due to the terrain of the region and lack of large population centers. However, because of grazing commitments to local ranchers and farmers, only one and a half million acres were allocated. Initially the Air Corps desired some three million acres of land of which 90 percent was public domain. By 1940 a site was located at Wendover, and work began in November of that year.
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High on the Air Corps list was the construction of adequate bombing and gunnery ranges. The base was first conceived in 1939 when the Army Air Corps commenced an extensive expansion program. Wendover Air Force Base, located just south of the town of Wendover, Utah, played an important role in training heavy bombardment crews and ushering in the atomic age. Operations Building, Wendover Air Force BaseĬourtesy of Thomas Peterson, Historian, Historic Wendover Airfield Museum