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Hidden WWII Military Base in California
http://stories-etc.com/hidden.htm ^

Posted on 03/15/2011 12:49:24 PM PDT by Keltik

This is a version of special effects during the 1940's. I have never seen these pictures or knew that we had gone this far to protect ourselves. During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

(Excerpt) Read more at stories-etc.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: history; wwii
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To: All

Impressive


21 posted on 03/15/2011 1:08:29 PM PDT by Maverick68
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To: Keltik

In North Africa a whole harbor was moved to confuse the German airmen and the Suez Canal “hidden”. Not so easy today but deception is a powerful weapon still.


22 posted on 03/15/2011 1:08:55 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Keltik

I believe Boeing did the same. Germany was also very prolific at these disguises. Very neat pictures BTW.


23 posted on 03/15/2011 1:09:09 PM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: Keltik
As a kid growing up in southern California "Ralph Story's LA" was a must watch at our house. I distictly recall his doing a segmant on this, though fuzzy on details, I did think it was pretty cool.


24 posted on 03/15/2011 1:13:18 PM PDT by Michael.SF. (Going to Charlotte for the barbecue is like going to Minneapolis for the gumbo - John Reed)
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To: gaijin
Well over 90% of the “tanks” Bill Clinton’s forces destroyed in Serbia were in fact very expensive balloons. Many of them also featured small heaters to produce engine thermal signatures.

Yep. See: Serb Dummies Fool NATO Dummies

And, not just tanks, but dummy roads, bridges and soldiers as well as dummy MiG-29 Fulcrums, too. (See: "M-18" - the Serb "Trojan Horse")


25 posted on 03/15/2011 1:15:55 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Governement should be afraid of the people)
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To: JoeProBono

Reginald Denny's Radioplane plant in Los Angeles. A pretty young lady named Norma Jeane is holding the propeller for the photographer.

26 posted on 03/15/2011 1:19:12 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Governement should be afraid of the people)
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To: Keltik
I was alive then and remember this. In addition, the Grand Central Airport, in Glendale, was lengthened and camouflaged. P-38's were parked ready to go from Grand Central. For those who do not know, Grand Central is the airport from which Will Rogers and Wiley Post left on their fatal journey. The airport is gone now with only the tower left as a decaying reminder. Grand Central was about a mile or two south of Lockheed as the crow flies.
27 posted on 03/15/2011 1:23:18 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Keltik

http://www.suite101.com/content/magic-makeover-lockheeds-wwii-vanishing-act-a176694
Give proper credit to Walt Disney for the camo.


28 posted on 03/15/2011 1:24:39 PM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: JoeProBono
I remember my moms exact hair style. You elders, remember when the ladies put “rats” in their hair (Betty Grable and that bunch, and my mom)
29 posted on 03/15/2011 1:29:19 PM PDT by fish hawk (R. Emmett Tyrrell: Liberalism is dead. What we see now is "soft Nazis-ism".)
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To: JoeProBono

I’ve always been a sucker for bright red lipstick!


30 posted on 03/15/2011 1:29:40 PM PDT by Dacus943
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To: Michael.SF.

I believe that it was Ralph Story who showed aerial pictures of one of the major movie studios from that same period. The studio moguls recognized that with the facilities in Burbank camouflaged they looked like suitable targets. They actually put an arrow on the top of their studio buildings pointing towards Burbank!


31 posted on 03/15/2011 1:29:59 PM PDT by the_Watchman (Healthcare reform was never about health.)
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To: La Enchiladita
Yes the Santa Monica Douglas plant was covered too... Interesting details on the movie set designers connection here...

http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/flying/douglas_dream_in_santa_monica.htm

I worked next to the plant until it was pulled down (and parts blown up) in the 70’s. The older residents back then remembered the fake roads over the roof.

32 posted on 03/15/2011 1:39:30 PM PDT by az_gila
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To: az_gila

I did not learn about it until I was poring through archives of the company newsletters of that time. I was trying to find info of my Dad, who worked there then and later. I did not find him, but lots of other fascinating info. The Douglas plant was a community unto itself. My mother said, the job she loved best ever.


33 posted on 03/15/2011 1:49:18 PM PDT by La Enchiladita (Remember, Reflect, Renew: 2011, 10 years since 9/11. Never Forget.)
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To: the_Watchman
LOL.

So Hollywood was full of lefty anti war SOB's back then as well!

That may have been the episode I recall, I was only about 12 then so I am weak on the details.

I do remember my Dad telling me that was all true, he loaded and then later drove trucks during the war ('42-'44) before enlisting when he turned 17 and said he remembers seeing that camouflage.

34 posted on 03/15/2011 1:56:01 PM PDT by Michael.SF. (Going to Charlotte for the barbecue is like going to Minneapolis for the gumbo - John Reed)
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To: count-your-change

Ya they hired magicians to do it. They used lights in one circumstance to make the Germans think the target was “there” instead of where it actually was.

They used fake tanks etc, to fool Rommel into thinking the attack were coming from another area.

And it worked.


35 posted on 03/15/2011 2:13:52 PM PDT by crz
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

Wow.


36 posted on 03/15/2011 2:15:57 PM PDT by txhurl
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To: Scythian

At the International Harvester plant in Northern Libya, the Germans just painted trees on the factory.

It didn’t seem all that effective 20 years later; probably because the paint had faded by then...


37 posted on 03/15/2011 2:31:39 PM PDT by HiJinx (Hey, Officer, I'm an illegal from Tahiti. Send me home...please?)
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To: Yo-Yo

I gotta agree with this sentiment - but then I grew up in Glendale about 10 blocks from the Burbank Border. This is common knowledge down there.


38 posted on 03/15/2011 2:57:50 PM PDT by fremont_steve
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

This picture of Norma Jeane is Norma Jeane Baker before Marilyn Monroe became famous. You can compare it to the picture of her in this link: http://www.aiolosfilm.com/highlights.html


39 posted on 03/15/2011 3:09:20 PM PDT by YLLady
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To: YLLady
This picture of Norma Jeane is Norma Jeane Baker before Marilyn Monroe became famous.

Actually, at that time she was Norma Jeane Dougherty, having married James Dougherty at the age of 16. Norma was hired by Reginald Denny to work in his target drone factory spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and packing recovery parachutes.

See: A "Rosie the Riveter" is Discovered

In 1939, after developing a series of unmanned aerial vehicles, Englishman Reginald Leigh Denny and two Americans, Walter Righter and Kenneth Case, formed the Radioplane Company, which was to later become Northrop's Ventura division. During WWII, Radioplane built thousands of radio-controlled target drones, which were used by the Army for anti-aircraft practice.

In 1944, while working at Radioplane, Ethel Dougherty and her daughter-in-law joined the ranks of the millions of women known as "Rosie the Riveters" helping the war effort. During her 60-hour workweek at the nation's minimum wage of $20 a week, Norma Jeane's assignments included spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and folding parachutes.

As part of a publicity campaign to drum up support for the nation's war effort and to elevate the soldier's morale, the U.S. Army established the First Motion Picture Unit. Many movie stars were part of this unit, which soon became known as the "Celluloid Commandos." Those in uniform at the time included Alan Ladd and Clark Gable. The unit, whose base was known as "Fort Roach," was housed in the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, Calif.

David Conover, an Army photographer, was assigned to Fort Roach. Actor Ronald Reagan was his commanding officer. In June 1945, Reagan, a friend of Denny, sent David Conover to Radioplane's Van Nuys plant to take pictures of women involved in the war effort.

As Conover moved down the assembly line, his attention was drawn to one particular blue-eyed "Rosie the Riveter," who was in the process of putting propellers on aircraft. Norma Jeane's curly ash-blonde hair framed her pretty but dirt-smudged face. He snapped her picture several times, and continued down the assembly line. But he later returned to ask if she had a sweater with her; he wanted her to pose for him during her lunch hour.

Conover noted that 19-year-old Norma Jeane's response to the camera was amazing. She seemed to "come alive" with an immediate and natural instinct. In fact, he was so excited by his discovery that he could barely hold the camera steady. He must have hidden his excitement from his subject, because the teenager timidly asked if she was photogenic.

After several photo sessions and with Conover's influence, Norma Jeane applied at the Blue Book Modeling Agency. There she was groomed in the art of modeling and encouraged to lighten her hair. She soon had the attention of every producer in Hollywood. In July 1946, Norma Jeane signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox Studios, and shortly thereafter became known as Marilyn Monroe.

Her marriage to Dougherty lasted almost four years. Dougherty later wrote a book about his marriage to Norma Jeane, entitled "The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe." And of course, Marilyn Monroe became a legend.

40 posted on 03/15/2011 3:37:59 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Governement should be afraid of the people)
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