Forgotten Fields of America

Read Sample Chapter 10: Battle of Kansas

From Forgotten Fields of America Vol II:
Pratt Army Air Field
Pratt Army Air Field was located about three miles north of the city of Pratt, Kansas on approximately 2600 acres of flat Kansas prairie. Here, the 40th Bombardment Group would receive its training and be among the first to take the B-29 to war. But before this could happen much had to be done to get the B-29's and their crews ready for combat.
Pratt AAF was one of the first to receive a B-29, actually a YB-29, one of the earliest models of the new bomber. The plane was flown there by Colonel Lewis Parker in the summer of 1943 to begin forming the 40th Bomb Group. The airbase at Pratt was one of four fields, all located in Kansas, used to train the newly created 58th Bomb Wing, (Very Heavy). The others were: Walker Army Air Field, Victoria, Kansas; Great Bend Army Air Field, Great Bend, Kansas; and Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Salina, Kansas. Another Kansas field involved with the B-29 was Herington Army Air Field, Herington, Kansas. Here about 60 per cent of all the B-29's and crews that went overseas were processed prior to their leaving the United States.
All this was in the future when construction of Pratt Army Air Field officially began in September 1942. Originally, the field was intended to process crews and equipment for overseas assignment; however, the need for B-29 training bases changed this. Some of the earliest military personnel to arrive at the site of the new airbase were the Army Engineers. They set up their office at the Peoples Bank in town, and later moved to the Pratt Motor Company on South Main. The first building erected on the field's site was the engineer's building, and from there, the construction of the base would be directed. Gradually the field started in October 1942, and during the time the field was under construction, the announcement was made that it would be expanded. This was a major expansion that prepared the field for the role it would play in getting the B-29's and their crews ready for combat. Eventually, the new airbase would have three runways, each 8000 feet long, and five hangers. The official dedication took place in May 1943, with approximately 13,000 people attending the ceremony. In just a few months, a small city had been built about four miles north of the city of Pratt, that at the time had a population of approximately seven thousand people. The field's first commanding officer was Lieutenant Colonel John Nelson.

The huge increase of people, both construction workers and newly arriving military personnel, put an extraordinary demand on the limited housing facilities in and around the city of Pratt. As a result, all the unoccupied apartments and spare rooms were soon rented to the new arrivals; the lack of housing became a serious problem. To help meet the need for more space, many of the homeowners converted their basements and other spare rooms into living space.
Mrs. Dorotha Giannangelo remembers the housing problems very well; she said, “if you could divide a room and get two, then you did that. Everything was filled in the town all the time the base was there.” At the time, Dorotha was a college student majoring in theater and English at the University of Iowa, and for a time worked as a secretary at the air base. Dorotha recalls; “It was a small town and everyone knew that my mother had a three room studio in the home. It was the peer pressure that caused her to rent one of the rooms because it was felt she didn't need three rooms.” That's how Dorotha met her husband; the man who rented the room was a dentist moving into Pratt to practice dentistry.
Opening up spare rooms for rent helped but didn't solve the problem, so the Federal Government tried several initiatives. One of the first was to build a trailer park, and by July 1943, 217 trailers were being moved to the site. Each trailer had a stove, refrigerator, and a couch that converted to a bed. The trailers could sleep two people, and others could be expanded to sleep up to six people. The trailers had electric lights, but no running water or toilet facilities. The toilets and bathing facilities were located in a separate building near where the trailers were parked; however, most of the trailers had been used before and had to be cleaned and repaired before they could be used again. Another housing project, started in July 1943 and later named Victory Heights, had 120 living units for employees of the government. The housing area covered four square blocks, and consisted of about 25 buildings. The homes were rectangular in shape with flat roofs, and were made of cement blocks. Some buildings had six apartments, while others had four. The units had showers, gas for cooking and hot water, and were heated by a coal burning stove. Although spartan, they were much more comfortable that the trailers. Most of the buildings, after some refurbishing, were still in use as late as 1965 as low income homes. Later, a rest home home was built on the site, and two of the original dwellings were remodeled. The other units were torn down. Today the site is the location of the Hampton-Pennock Park and the Friendship Manor Rest Home. Three of the original buildings remain.
When first opened, the base's mission was to provide housekeeping, administrative services, and general support to the bombardment groups at Pratt for combat group training. The newly formed groups conducted their own training. This was the stage of training where the hundreds of men forming the bombardment group learned to function as a team. Individual training continued as necessary to polish skills, but emphasis was on teamwork. Formation flying, and long range missions were practiced along with the many other tasks necessary to build an effective fighting group. In April 1944, as a result of a Second Air Force change, the base would handle not only the housekeeping for the groups, but also be responsible for training. It took some time to make the necessary changes, and it was not until August 1944, that the revised training system was put into practice with the 29th Group. The B-29 groups trained at Pratt Army Air Field were the 40th, the 497th, the 29th, the 346th, and finally the 93rd. The base was inactivated in December 1945.
The training of the B-29 groups at Pratt and the other Kansas air bases was challenging and filled with problems; the major cause was the B-29 itself. A revolutionary new aircraft, the most sophisticated the world had ever seen, was rushed into production because there was an urgent need to get the plane into combat as quickly as possible. As a result, everything connected with the B-29 and the crews to fly it was done at breakneck speed. Of course, there would be mistakes. For example, the first B-29's off the assembly line were not fit for combat. One of the problems was that the engines tended to overheat and burn at a most discouraging rate. In addition to the many faults in the aircraft was a lack of trained personnel to build, maintain, and fly it. This training was further hampered by the lack of B-29's and the appropriate training aids. Many of the early gunners were trained using specially modified B-24's (when available) to master the B-29's intricate fire control system. Also to help ease the problem, other aircraft types, such as the B-17, were substituted for training purposes.
A good indication of the early B-29 training at Pratt Army Air Field is provided by Quenten Hannawald, a civilian employee who worked at the field during this period. He remembers the arrival of the first B-29 (a YB-29)at Pratt in the summer of 1943. At about the same time, the 40th Bomb Group arrived to begin training. The 40th came from the Panama Canal zone where they had operated B-26 Marauders and the B-17. When the YB-29 arrived at Pratt, it was considered top secret and was placed under guard in a hangar. A special pass was required to get near it. at first, the plane was inundated with technicians from Boeing Aircraft, working around the clock correcting electrical and mechanical problems. From time to time, the plane was flown for short periods, only to be followed by seeming endless inspections and modifications. By now, there were a few more B-29's at Pratt, but they seldom flew. One crew member recalls that during the month of January 1944, he flew 79 hours, but only a little over six were in the B-29. Quenten also recalls that at first there were no special tools or stands to work on thee B-29's; they had to be made locally in the machine shop, and after being tested, drawings were made for the units using the plane. When the unit went overseas, they would make their own tools using the drawings as a guide. To help speed the design and making of the tools and equipment stands, Quenten and the shop foreman were flown to the Boeing factory at Wichita, Kansas to look at the tools Boeing was using.
By late 1943 and early 1944, it became clear that despite heroic efforts to get the B-29 ready for combat there was still a lot that had to be done. Meanwhile, two major modification centers had been set up, one in Georgia, and the other in Alabama, to make changes in the B-29 after they came off the production lines. These changes were the result of deficiencies discovered as the bomber was being tested and entering service. It was faster and more efficient to continue the production of the aircraft with deficiencies and then fly it to a modification center, than to shut down the production line and make the changes there; however, the efforts at the modification centers were still not enough to handle the backlog of newly manufactured aircraft awaiting changes. Most of the problems resulted from the fact that the new, state of the art aircraft was rushed into production without the luxury of a thorough analysis and testing. Adding to the problem was a lack of material, not enough skilled people to do the work and finally, a general air of confusion about the entire project.
Commitments had been made, however, to get some B-29's into combat by June, and time was running out. So the decision was made to focus resources of men and material at the four Kansas bases, Smoky Hill, Pratt, Great Bend and Walker, to prepare enough B-29's for combat in the China-Burma and India theater. This was the start of the “Battle of Kansas.” From all over the country, by train and plane, the necessary men and material were rushed to the four airbases to make the many needed changes, some of which included: engine changes, rudder improvements, side sighting dome revisions, fuel gauge modifications, and the installation of flat glass in the cockpit. All of this had to be done in the middle of the flat Kansas prairie near the end of a brutal Kansas winter. Snow was everywhere and the wind came across the prairie with a force that cut to the bone. The bases did not have sufficient hangar space, so considerable work was done outside, night and day, on a twenty-four hour basis. There were B-29's parked everywhere—in the hangars, on the ramp, even on the taxi strips. To help ease the severity of the cold, hot air gasoline heaters were flown in from all over the country. Still, it was difficult working in the sleet, snow, and the cold winds that caused hands to go numb making the most simple tasks difficult. Making the situation even more challenging were the long working hours; some men stayed at the job until they could work no longer, went to the barracks to sleep, and then returned back to the line. When a part was needed, the worker just went to the warehouses and took it; no paperwork was required. The only records kept were on the work needing to be completed and the work that was completed. If warmer clothing was required, the men simply went to the quartermaster and asked for it. On occasion, it was necessary to get parts from cities for away from the airfields, such as Detroit or Birmingham. In those cases, the Air Transport Command flew a plane there and picked it up. The Battle of Kansas started in early March and continued for the next forty four days. Its goal was to have all the required aircraft finished by April 15, 1944, so they could be flown from the airfields to the China, Burma, India Theater, and from there, into combat. Considerable coordination and direction was required among the four bases to insure the effective management of men and material. To do this, part of the base hospital at Smoky Hill was established as the modification headquarters, with General Meyers directing the operation from there.
To help meet the ambitious schedule, Army aircraft flew night and day bringing in the material and manpower necessary to accomplish the job. This included flying in the modified engines that had to be switched with the engines that were currently on the plane. Then the “old” engine was flown to San Antonio or Oklahoma and modified for later use. At Pratt, the 40th Bomb Group personnel helped with and did seven different changes and modifications. These included changing engines, replacing rudders that were not the updated strengthened type, and replacing the main landing gear tires. The men working in the radar section had to install different electronic equipment, but were slowed by the fact that they had never done it before. Other required changes were done by modification personnel working at the field. Even with this unprecedented influx of men and equipment and the twenty-four hour days, the quality and quantity of the work were not satisfactory. The reason was obvious, most of the workers, both military and civilian, did not have the experience and skills necessary to do the job. Many of the workers from the modification centers had only recently been hired and had little or no technical skills.
So, the Army appealed to Boeing for help. This project was not Boeing's responsibility; however, they rushed almost 600 skilled technicians from their production lines at Wichita to the various bases in order to insure the project was completed on time. While all this was going on, the B-29 crews were being processed for the combat zone, attending briefing sessions, getting their shots, and saying goodbye. Gradually, the necessary changes were finished and aircraft began to leave the bases, first by themselves, and by early April in groups of four or five. By April 15, it was over. The 40th Group had left Pratt and the field went back to its task of training other groups until the end of the war.
On Thursday, October 25, 1945, the headline for the Pratt Daily Tribune announced the base would soon close on December 31. The field would be among nine others inactivated by the Second Air Force. The article mentioned that Col. Rueben Kyle Jr. commanding officer of the field, announced: “It is requested that all business establishments having bills against the government under contracts executed by contracting officers of the Pratt Army Air Field present the same to the contracting officer on or before 1 December 1945 for administration and payment.”
Over the next several months the field was gradually shut down. The 93rd Bomb Group was the last to be trained at the field, and the Group left in December. Two wards of the base hospital were closed, and the PX had a discount sale to reduce its inventory. The USO scheduled its last dance at the Municipal auditorium before its closing on February 28, 1946. The USO had been located in several rooms of the Municipal Building, and opened in March 1943. During its period of operation more than 200,000 soldiers visited the center. On March 6, the last B-29 left the airbase, which by now was down to about 200 men; far from its wartime peak of more than 5000.
Some of the equipment used at the field such as office furniture, plumbing, electrical supplies, typewriters, parachutes, and flying clothing was sold through competitive bids. Over time, many of the buildings and fixtures on the base were declared surplus and sold by the War Assets Administration. The Pratt Daily Tribune of July 8, 1947 announced a building sale in which bids were invited for the purchase and removal of the buildings declared surplus. Buildings for sale included: barracks, lavatories, administration buildings, warehouses, mess halls, a theater, the Celestial Navigation buildings, the fire station, library, and many others. Any fixtures still remaining in the buildings at the time of the sale were included with the purchase. One hundred and nineteen buildings were sold at this sale. This number did not include buildings that had been sold or were in the process of being sold to priority holders, such as state and local governments and school boards. At that time, there were still about two hundred buildings left on the field that were unsold. Another article in the same paper on August 29 reported that one hundred and sixty nine buildings were sold at a public auction attended by a crowd of about four hundred people. The auction lasted about an hour and a half and was held in the base theater. The base theater, which had 485 seats, and where once soldiers viewed movies, attended meetings, and saw stage shows, was sold for $1,787.
Today the former air base is the Pratt Municipal Airport and Industrial Park. Several buildings still remain from the World War II era including two of the huge hangars and some concrete vaults where the Norden bomb sights were stored. Two of the three runways have been converted to a cattle feedlot operation, and the open land has returned to farming purposes. The city of Pratt has a wonderful historical society that maintains a fascinating museum about the region's history. The old training base is remembered here, and it's well worth a visit.