JOE-FBS (#21),
The position was this, under the terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement, the US had lent us these aircraft to fight a war. The War was over. Now we must (1) hand back anything they wanted (eg Dakotas): these, refitted as DC-3s, would be the backbone of short-haul civil aviation for years after the war; some are flying yet.
Or (2) if they didn't want them, we could (3) buy them (at a discounted price in scarce Us dollars), or (4), if we didn't want them either, we must destroy them completely, so that no part could come back on the market to compete with new US sales. It made perfect sense, really.
I had three Mk.III Vengeance, nobody wanted them (not even a single one as a museum specimen). My Group ordered me to burn them where they stood. I jibbed: they threatened me with Court Martial (but that is another story for another day).
Your uncle's Hellcats went that way (as did brand-new, crated aircraft, on the way to war zones, they were simply bull-dozed over the side of carrier decks). Pity, I suppose.
Danny.