Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

I heard a similar story when I was an engineering drawing student back in the early nineties. I was studying at the UCE in Birmingham and my final project was to produce a set of drawings of the German Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb at RAF Cosford.
My course lecturer who had worked for Blackburn Aviation told us of a story regailed to him from a test pilot who had worked at the Castle Bromwich airfield after the war. Around 1948 when production of the Spitfires ended, he said that surplus engines and other material were buried in the air-raid pits on the airfield. It is now a housing estate and interestingly the camouflage paint is still on the outer factory walls. Whether this is a chinese whispers story which has been embelished over the years I don't know. But I always wondered if it was true...
Regarding the Burma Spitifre expedition I sincerely hope it bears fruit, however a couple of things just don't seem logical to me...
Firstly, why not just destroy the aircraft instead of going to the trouble of burying them in pits 40 feet deep? Surely this would only be done if someone intended to return and recover them.
Secondly, why not just assemble them and fly them elsewhere?
Thirdly, surely there would be substantial paperwork about this event. You don't just bury dozens of brand new fighter aircraft without orders from up high.
...and finally, from a GEN newsreel I saw of MKVs being uncrated in North Africa, the Merlins (or Griffons) were not fitted, so I suppose you may need alot of engines too!
As I say, I do hope they find something but have my doubts.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

What about the excitement in finding the P-38 "Glacier Girl" in Greenland, expecting it to be in perfect condition. The freezing and thawing over 40 some years basically crushed the aircraft. So if the Spits are there, cosmoline and crated, still could be some surprises.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Hope springs eternal. :)

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Gee, no titilating reports of Spitfires buried in the last week? What gives? Does this mean there may not be any?

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

According to the latest issue of Aeroplane, further digging at the site has been banned by the Myanmar authorities because of fears of damage to airfield facilities. The archeologists have stated that there were clearly no Spitfires present. The organiser has blamed the sponsor and film crew for the choice of site not being optimal. It might have been more convincing had he said this beforehand. He has moved to Myatkina, with presumably the last of the true believers, to find the Spitfires he knows to be there.

The world awaits.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

So, Graham, as opposed to a "wild goose chase", this might be a "wild Spitfire chase"? sorry! ;)

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Actually, "Glacier Girl" and the other members of the Lost Flight landed on top of an active, growing glacier. So, it wasn't so much a case of "freezing and thawing over 40 some years," it was a case of snow falling and not melting, and then repeat in every snowstorm up to the present day.

A fascinating story, indeed! But as I recall the story, the probe hit one of the B-17s first, and it had indeed been seriously damaged by the ice. But the aircraft hunters came back the following year and found "Glacer Girl" which appeared to be in pretty good condition. And that's the one they excavated.

Yes, it had some damage which wasn't discovered until the inspection phase, but I don't think that it was "basically crushed."

Jim Kirk

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

The BBC announced today that the search for "crated Spitfires" has been called off. It commented that it apparently a myth in spite of what some "eyewitnesses" have stated.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

I've yet to see any comment from David Cundall, who has put so much effort into this search. I suspect he may have a different attitude.

The BBC report, and further comments on the Key Publishing website, have highlighted the small number of Spitfires (37?) ever brought into Burma by ship, and the procedures taken to fly out or specifically scrap airframes when the RAF left Burma. Something you'd have thought could have been researched before this farce ever took place, but if you view it in terms of the publicity gained by the sponsor it becomes more understandable why they ever bothered.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Truth, indeed, Graham!

"The only bad publicity is no publicity", attributted to Heda Hopper

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

The latest on the Burma Buried Spitfire Expedition -- significant because of how it shows the divergence between eye-witness and archival sources in Second World War military aviation.

http://news.sky.com/story/1053172/bu...tery-is-solved

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

".........as many as 140 of the planes were buried in near pristine condition at various sites by American military engineers at the end of the war."

I knew it!! It was the bloody Yanks! They buried the crates, started the postwar rumours and probably falsified documents on top of it while keeping everything secret all these years! Sneaky bunch, too - infiltrating those RAF bases in Burma with heavy excavating equipment in the dark of night and digging all those massive holes. A dastardly, diabolical plan to drive the Brits bonkers, no doubt. :evil: :rolleyes:

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

We can manage that perfectly well without American help, as our history amply demonstrates!

Anyway, we did at least find Richard III, even if he wasn't exactly airworthy.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

:) :) :)

But Richard III made for great reading for those of us who are fascinated by medieval history! Horrible times, they were.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Great Burma Buried Spitfire search to continue!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...quest-18534436

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Not only is the search to continue, but high-technology is to come:

The Great Burma Buried Spitfire search escalates to the use of ground-penetrating radar!

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/nat...und-radar.html

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

If that is so, then Mr. Cundall should produce this evidence so the world can evaluate it for themselves.

L.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Yes, please. All their files come conveniently numbered for your citing convenience (after doing a book with 800 footnotes, I appreciated that).

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Huh? I hope that means you are agreeing with me. No one else has been able to find supporting documents re the existence of the crated Spitfires, so if Mr. Cundall has found such evidence in the BNA then perhaps he should lay it out so we can all look at it and see if it stands up to scrutiny.

L.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

If he will name the files, I will view them and copy pertinent sections for display here.
Anyone in contact with the man? It could help his cause considerably to speak up on this point.

Bruce

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

What do you do when faced with a bottomless hole somewhere in Asia and NO SPITFIRES? Declare victory.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/int...uccess/1098368

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Quite right, David. After all, the voyage of the Titanic was a great success apart from one event at the end.

Bruce

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

But seen as a piece of conceptual art, the dig had a lot going for it.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Would that be Contemporary, Post-Modern or Surrealism?

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Would have to be Surrealism. Salvador Dali could do a lot with this story! Melted Spitfires over something? :)

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Definitely surreal. Given how preposterous it all sounded from the get-go, gentleman farmer David Cundall must have some surrealistic powers of persuasion to have been able to get so many people to hitch their wagons to his unwaivering conviction that the Spits were there. One, two or even 6 would have been a believable dream come true, but 120 to 140? A true case of obsession leading to blindness.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

The Myanmar Times of 25 June contains a well-reasoned summing up of the Burmese Buried Spitfire crusade:

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/nat...spitfires.html

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Excellent article. The final shovel full of dirt on the coffin, so to speak.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

One more time! The hunt for the Buried Burmese Spitfires [tm] is to resume!

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...o-2014-4864356

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...y-hunt-5819555

The hunt is back on, inspired with improved briefing!

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Right. At least 30 huge steel-reinforced crates buried 36 feet down, now. And some dumb-ass with too much money is continuing to fund this pie-in-the-sky hunt that's based on hearsay without one shred of documentation. Of course the Burmese, bless their hearts, love this because it's keeping some of their people employed. If David C. would just fund this out of his own pocket and stop conning others out of their money, then one would have no problem with it. He's welcome to dig away to the end of time.

L.

Re: 20 Crated Spitfires Found in Burma????
 

Oh, I don't know, Larry. Why do you say he's "conning" others? I rather think of it as putting (selling) a wee bit of vicarious excitement into people's lives -- and perhaps engendering a little more interest in the air war in the Southwest Pacific in WW II.

And to change the subject to another "Lost Aircraft" search, has anyone heard of the latest from TIGHAR about the search for Amelis Earhart?

He didn't look mad, but they never did.
-- Terry Pratchett, Strata