Distinctly Montana Magazine

29 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m BLACK TIMBER 1/2V when it was decommis- sioned. This followed a pattern of the 1,300 Army Air Corps airfield opening and closing decisions throughout the nation as the War Department closely as- sessed the needs, costs and locations of each installation based on how the war was pro- gressing. Montana's harsh winter may have had something to do with the Lewistown closure. By coincidence, Lewistown's line of lon- gitude was only five degrees different than Berlin's. It was be- lieved that the Montana airspace, terrain, barometric pressure, and winter temperatures would replicate what air crews might expect over Germany. On base, though, the barracks and oth- er assorted operational buildings, erected quickly, lacked ade- quate insulation. Pipes froze. Windows were only single-paned. Runways were icy. Snow removal was burdensome. Then, too, by 1943, precision daytime bombing raids over Europe were be- coming less dangerous when the Air Corps switched from pre- cision bombing to area bombing strategies, leading to a dimin- ished need for Norden-trained air crews. In the early war years, bomber casualties were ghastly. By the time the Lewistown training base was completed, exhausted German Luftwaffe fight- ers no longer challenged the Air Corps' long-range bombing squadrons with their expanded U.S. fighter escorts. Accordingly, the War Department decommissioned the base (and declared it surplus in 1944) and the other smaller training sites in Glasgow and Cut Bank, and the last B-17 lifted off into Montana's endless skies, en route to Europe's final fight. In February of 1947, the airfield was officially turned over to the City of Lewistown for use as their municipal airport. From time to time, Montana ranchers and farmers still find rust- ed fragments of the practice bombs in their fields, their blue paint faded by eight decades under Montana's hot sun. Nearly all of the bomb "targets" are gone now, plowed under to create the grid- ded wheat summer fallow strips that can be seen from satellites. Not even Google Earth can find any. But somewhere out in the flat and remote areas of central Montana, it is believed that there are a few remaining rock bull's eye "targets" extending outward to one thousand feet in diameter, the last of the bombardiers' practice sites from so long ago, their white stones bleached and weathered and quieted by the gentle prairie breeze. 40 Spanish Peak Drive Four Corners Bozeman 406.582.8700 blacktimberfurniture.com sales@blacktimberfurniture.com Designed and Hand-crafted in the Gallatin Valley by Todd Fullerton and his team for your Montana lifestyle. Reclaim Your Bedroom Space With Our Locally Hand-crafted Custom Murphy Bed Best Furniture Store Best Custom Cabinets Best Reclaimed Lumber Co. Best Custom Furniture 2022-24 of B E S T M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F Y E A R S WO N W I N N E R ! ALANNA J. OBER At the far south edge of the complex, SILHOUETTED AGAINST A LUSH MONTANA WHEAT FIELD, IS THE NORDEN BOMBSIGHT STORAGE BUILDING, THOUGHT TO BE THE LAST OF ITS KIND IN THE UNITED STATES.

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