MadameConcorde From San Marino, joined Feb 2007, 10243 posts, RR: 40 Posted (4 months 3 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 6305 times:
I received the following by email. I thought I would pass the information by starting a new thread.
This is the full text as received - there's no copyright that I know of.
December 27, 2012
The long-anticipated dig to unearth a cache of brand-new Spitfires that are
believed to be buried in Burma is expected to start on Jan. 12, local press
has reported. According to The Irrawaddy
(http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/20929), archeologists first will spend
about a week studying the site, then the digging can begin. Up to 36
pristine Spitfires, still in the packing crates they were delivered in near
the end of World War II, are expected to be found. David Cundall, who
located the burial site said he has confirmed
the airplanes are there by sending a camera through a borehole. "We went
into a crate, you can see an object which resembles a Spitfire," he said.
The British troops buried the airplanes when they left Burma in 1945,
Cundall said, because they didn't want to take them home, but also didn't
want anyone else to use them. The crates were tarred and placed on massive
teak timbers to assist drainage, and a wooden roof was placed over the
crates to protect them, Cundall said. The crates are buried about 30 feet
deep in an area close to a runway at Mingaladon Airport in Rangoon. Cundall
also has permission to excavate two other sites in Burma. At one of those
sites, Cundall said he expects to find up to six crated Mark 8 Spitfires, a
rare variation with only one copy still flying.
So many unearthed treasures remaining!
There was a better way to fly it was called Concorde
MadameConcorde From San Marino, joined Feb 2007, 10243 posts, RR: 40 Reply 3, posted (4 months 3 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 6252 times:
Not sure if any of you have checked the Irrawady article. It is really good with some good information in it.
I like how they still call the country Burma (which I do too).
BURMA
Quest for Hidden Spitfires Nears Completion
Burma’s first large-scale export since the suspension of sanctions may well be 36 World War II Spitfire fighter planes buried at Rangoon’s Mingaladon Airport in 1945, according to the man who found them, David Cundall.
Cundall, a British farmer and aviation enthusiast, tracked down the planes’ location by talking to Burmese and ex-Allied forces witnesses and carrying out geophysical surveys of sites where the planes were believed to have been hidden.
He pinpointed their location in 2004 but had to keep it a secret for eight years until the lifting of sanctions earlier this year.
If the planes had been excavated while the sanctions were still in place, they could not have been taken out of the country.
francoflier From France, joined Oct 2001, 3195 posts, RR: 10 Reply 4, posted (4 months 2 weeks 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 6098 times:
From the article:
“The Burmese government have been wonderful, they have been very helpful, they have given me every facility I could wish for and I’m very happy dealing with them,” he said.
I know this comes from the old 'don't bite the hand that feeds', but that made me cringe a bit.
Then again it might just be true, especially since the government is keeping 50% of the tally, essentially for nothing. A Burmese 'agent' is keeping another 20% (it wouldn't surprise me if the government ended up regaining those 20% too).
I can't wait for the documentary and to see the birds back in the air.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit posting...
TheSultanOfWing From El Salvador, joined Dec 2012, 89 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (4 months 2 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 5583 times:
Exciting stuff!
I would love for some A-net photographers to shoot pics as the crates are opened.
I guess some companies are queueing up in the UK!!
I do wonder where the "Burmese planes" will end up though, I imagine they will sell them on!
Or would there be enough local interest and resources to get, and keep; them all up in the air?
Great to see that there is still money for projects like this!
Brand spankers buried in the ground........that's what movies are made of!
I should be so lucky to come across an absolute classic like that.
Staying tuned.......
FH
I feel like the A318 at times: I am probably worth more parted out than as a whole.
RJAF From Jordan, joined Jan 2007, 301 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 months 1 week 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 4932 times:
Always been facinated with time capsules. Hope those Spits don't end up like the 1957 Belvedere in OK! Would love to see them fly again. Please keep us posted Madame
canoecarrier From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 2657 posts, RR: 12 Reply 10, posted (4 months 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 4238 times:
Quoting MadameConcorde (Thread starter): The British troops buried the airplanes when they left Burma in 1945, Cundall said, because they didn't want to take them home, but also didn't want anyone else to use them. The crates were tarred and placed on massive teak timbers to assist drainage, and a wooden roof was placed over the crates to protect them
This doesn't make sense to me. Why would they go through all the trouble of trying to preserve them when they essentially had surplus equipment they didn't want anyone else to use and they were intending to dispose of before leaving Burma?
The US and British buried a lot of aircraft immediately after WW2, some captured German aircraft were run over with bulldozers and buried below runways under construction. I hope they are in decent condition if they find them but I'm skeptical that they went through all the trouble to preserve them mentioned above.
A320ajm From United Kingdom, joined exactly 7 years ago today! , 500 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (4 months 19 hours ago) and read 3933 times:
One of my lecturers (I studied Geophysics) went to be one of the geophysical advisors. He is also a plane geek, and we got talking about planes on a field trip in 2011 and he told me "Keep your eye on the news, I'm working on a project with both geophysics and aviation and we may just find a great bit of treasure." At the time, it was quite secret and he couldn't tell me the details for obvious reasons!
Congratulations to all involved
A320ajm
If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
I'm as excited as them and do wish they found something. It is indeed admirable that they made it this far.
Just allow my French self to be slightly phlegmatic, however ironic that might sound...
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit posting...
celestar From Singapore, joined Jul 2001, 245 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (3 months 11 hours ago) and read 2088 times:
Sooooooooooooooooooooo sad to hear this, I have been following this romantic story and no one would have doubt how beautiful Spitfire is, especially the earlier three blades propeller version.
We lost yet another chance to see history flying again....
BTW, why would the British be burrying something where everyone knows by the time they need them for war, it would be outdated. I meant, I know in some Asian country, especially China, the villeager people used to bury their hard earn money under the ground beneath their bed and only later to find them rotten.
I feel bad and sad.
GDB From United Kingdom, joined May 2001, 12706 posts, RR: 80 Reply 21, posted (3 months 10 hours ago) and read 2081 times:
Quoting celestar (Reply 20): BTW, why would the British be burrying something where everyone knows by the time they need them for war, it would be outdated. I meant, I know in some Asian country, especially China, the villeager people used to bury their hard earn money under the ground beneath their bed and only later to find them rotten.
I feel bad and sad.
At the end of WW2, vast amounts of equipment, aircraft, tanks, small arms etc, was rapidly disposed of, sometimes being buried. Or dumped at sea.
But some, including aircraft like the Spitfire, were stored then sold/given to other countries. Spitfires flew in the Mid East conflicts of the late 1940's, also in the far east and the RAF were still using them into the 1950's.
The sudden end of WW2 with the surrender of Japan certainly caught the British/Commonwealth forces by surprise - though Churchill and his senior staff and his successor after the July 1945 election - Attlee, knew of the atomic bomb.
Even so, after Germany's surrender in the May of '45, large amounts of men and equipment were then being deployed to the far east to augment the forces already there and to take part in the invasion of Japan with the US, should that be necessary. As well as fighting remaining Japanese forces in the region. The RAF element to this was known as 'Tiger Force'.
The sudden end to hostilities in August 1945 would have left of lot a equipment deployed but now no longer needed, the Spitfires in Burma were thought to be part of that.
It seems that the ones this team was looking for were in fact sent back to the UK, though the numbers actually sent to Burma are now disputed. It was a busy, even chaotic time and it's easy to see how poor record keeping, sudden changes could have created what seems to now be a myth.
On most of the minds of the British servicemen out there when the war ended was getting back home to their loved ones and re-joining civilian life, for some after 6 years in uniform.
LMP737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 22, posted (3 months 9 hours ago) and read 2072 times:
There is one plce in world that we know for a fact that there are dozens of well preservd WWII aircraft. The bottom of Lake Michigan. The only problem is finding them and getting the USN to part with them since they still technically belong to the Navy
rwessel From United States of America, joined Jan 2007, 1989 posts, RR: 2 Reply 23, posted (3 months 8 hours ago) and read 2061 times:
Quoting LMP737 (Reply 22): There is one plce in world that we know for a fact that there are dozens of well preservd WWII aircraft. The bottom of Lake Michigan. The only problem is finding them and getting the USN to part with them since they still technically belong to the Navy
"Well preserved" may require a bit of imagination:
LMP737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (3 months ago) and read 1964 times:
Quoting rwessel (Reply 23): "Well preserved" may require a bit of imagination:
When compared to most wrecked WWII aircraft I would say they are well preserved..
25 scbriml: Well, one of the main sponsors has now pulled out claiming that the existence of these Spits is "a myth". Zero evidence has been found from the diggin
26 canoecarrier: I didn't think it worth posting here at the time, but I read somewhere that Cundall got ill, spent a day in hospital, then against doctor's orders ju
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