I'm not sure if we have a thread about ground camo' but thought I'd post a picture. I'll leave the location off for now and see if anyone can identify. Hint: It was there in 42' but soon to be no more. (sorry about the upload size, but may help ID)
Could be the Douglas El Segundo plant. They did that one that way. Hollywood set people did most of the work on it.
boeing, it looks like to me.. found it.... Looking East from around 1500 feet at the production plant. A B-29 is on the tarmac, one on the runway a B-17 on the other side of the field. Early in the war they may not have helped - 60% of American bombs dropped often missed the real target..
That didn't take long! I have an Uncle who retired from McDonald/Douglas and he is saving his monthly magazines for me. An article in the last issue (Boeing Frontiers), had this in it. Some interesting stories about the Model 299 aka the B-17 and lots more. Here's another shot of the roof of "Plant #2" South of Seattle which is being torn down and the area returned to it's natural landscape. Great pictures George Patton! Those were not on there. A link to a story and pictures. Boeing B-17 Seattle plant camouflage efforts during World War II
This is all I can find on the above photo: Somewhere in Britain just before D-day, this US Army headquarters was carefully camouflaged as a pile of rubbish. It was part of Project Quicksilver, intended "'conceal the real date of the invention, to indicate a false invasion area, and finally to convince the enemy (after the blow fell) that another and greater attack would come elsewhere." From 'Masquerade, The Amazing Camouflage Deceptions of World War II' by Seymour Reit. Anyone know where in Britain or have more info?
That most likely is the Douglas plant at El Segundo. I have a book on aircraft factories during the war at home and I am pretty sure that exact picture is in it, along with some other camo jobs. If I have time, I'll scan them. Edit. It is this book http://books.google.com/books?id=LOAKshhno7UC&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=el+segundo+aircraft+factories&source=bl&ots=UdcsTIvpg9&sig=SUvdFmAPpW6jki9w7y5yMP3ZbC8&hl=en&ei=4mmGTNPWKITenAf2y4R4&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=el%20segundo%20aircraft%20factories&f=false
Okay, first rule is to not talk if you don't know what you are talking about...and this applies to administrators. The 26 acre "neighborhood" pictured in the initial post of this thread is Boeing Plant 2, overlooking the Dumwash River. The Boeing employees called it Wonderland and it had 53 homes, 24 garages, a gas station, a corner store and three greenhouses. Until the final months of the war, taking a photo of it was illegal.
Boeing Plant No. 2 wasn't the only factory to receive such elaborate camouflage. The roof, parking lots, and portions of the runway apron of the Lockheed plant in Burbank, California were also disguised as a suburban landscape. Disney artists advised Lockheed regarding it camouflage measures. For example, Disney's men advised using dyed chicken feathers to simulate foliage because of the light weight, and because the fake trees and crops would wave convincingly in the breeze. Phony trucks and cars made of chicken wire and rubberized cloth were designed to add simulated traffic to the fraudulent roads and streets. Even pseudo-laundry appeared regularly on the clotheslines behind the illusory houses. The Japanese knew that Lockheed was somewhere in the Greater Los Angles area, and would be suspicious if the huge factory just disappeared. So movie mogul Jack Warner volunteered his studio complex as a Lockheed stand-in. LOCKHEED AIRCRAFT CO. was painted in tremendous letters on the roof of the largest sound stage and a fake runway was erected over an adjoining parking lot. I've never read anything about similar measures being taken by Grumman Aircraft or Martin Aviation, both vital war plants and both within a few miles of the sea. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that nothing elaborate was done to disguise these factories since they weren't on the West coast. In 1942 Americans tended to see the Japanese as the more immediate threat to the homeland than Germany, which is ironic considering that the Japanese only managed to kill a few mainland picnickers while the Germans did serious damage to our coastal commerce during their Operation Drumbeat u-boat offensive. BTW, George Patton's post of 5 September 2010 has four attached pictures. The first three are pictures of the Lockheed Burbank plant, not the Boeing No.2 (look for the P-38's in the hanger). The last picture I'm not sure of, it could be Lockheed, Boeing or another camouflaged factory. I suspect it's Lockheed, though because the simulated trees appear to be made using a different technique than the fake trees "planted" on Boeing's roof.
