WW2 Airfields Archive Profile picture
Aug 2, 2023 ā€¢ 7 tweets ā€¢ 3 min read ā€¢ Read on X
šŸ‘€

This isn't a real town.

It's "Boeing Wonderland", a fake town built on top of the roof of Boeing Plant 2, a factory building B-17 Flying Fortress in the USA.

As far as wartime decoys and deception goes, I think this has to be the most inventive I've seen.

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If you were on the ground, it might not be obvious. It looks like an aircraft factory.

But spot what's painted on the walls of the hangar... camouflage and houses.

It's from above things get really interesting.

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To hide the factory from possible aerial attack, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built houses of plywood and fabric and installed fake streets to camouflage the roof.

The idea was to blend the facility into the surrounding neighborhood across the river.

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The houses weren't quite the same size you might expect in a real town.

But that's ok, because from the air, it looks like a town, regardless of how big the houses are (or aren't).

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Here's a bird's eye view of the factory roof and fake town.

Cunning.

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Here's another view from the ground, showing factory workers beneath the fake town.

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All designed to help disguise this...

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More from @WW2Airfields

Dec 17
Here's a thread of Christmas menus from WW2 airfields.

Here's RAF Warmwell, Dorset, 1942. Main course not too bad. A solid start with sprouts. Cigarettes and minerals for afters.

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Jan 16
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Nov 9, 2023
Here are photos of crazy aviation-themed American diners from days gone by.

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Oct 26, 2023
Here's a thread of Messerschmitt Me-262s, captured on German airfields by the Allies.

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Oct 25, 2023
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Oct 24, 2023
Here's a thread of colour photos from the Second World War, showing various pieces of nose art by the USAAF across a range of aircraft and airfields.

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