| The Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) at Long Beach, or Daugherty Field, under the jurisdiction of the Eleventh Naval District. View from atop building 75. General Motors FM-2 Wildcats and Chance-Vought F4U-1 Corsairs are undergoing maintenance. Throughout World War II, the airfield was given over to the war effort. In August, 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Administration took over control of the airport, which had increased in size to 500 acres. in 1941, NAAS Long Beach serviced carrier borne Grumman/General Motors F4F/FM-2 Wildcats, Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, Chance-Vought F4U Corsairs, Grumman F6F Hellcats, Grumman/General Motors TBF/TBM Avengers, and Curtiss SB2C Helldivers. In addition, it had utility aircraft and such patrol planes as the Consolidated PBY Catalina and north American SNJ “Harvard“ trainers. In 1942, the Navy turned over the facilities to the U.S. Army Air Corps which had also established a training base adjacent to it. As the Navy‘s activities began to be shifted to Los Alamitos, the Long Beach Army Airfield at Long Beach became the home of the Army‘s Air Transport Command‘s Ferrying Division, which included a squadron of 18 women pilots commanded by Barbara London, a long time Long Beach aviator. Like the Naval Air Ferry Command at NAS Terminal Island, the Army‘s ferrying work was an immense undertaking, thanks to Douglas Aircraft‘s wartime production. With the end of the war, the U.S. Navy abandoned any use of the Long Beach Municipal Airport facility completely, and with it, the designation of Long Beach as a Naval Auxiliary Air Station. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1063.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.48 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 2952 x 2344 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 10, 1944 |
| Location | Daugherty Field |
| City | Long Beach |
| State or Province | California |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2007, ©2024 MFA Productions LLC Image in the Public Domain |
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