Spitfires

[Tony Wilding]

Amazing discovery of 20 crated new Spitfires in Myanmar, were buried for safety, exact location as yet unknown, must be worth a fortune if still ok, hope we get them back to UK, Only 35 left in flying condition.

[Jim Brady]

Yes I read about this Tony,they were buried by the RAF in 1945 by the order of Earl Mountbatten for fear of them falling into Japanese hands. Now that relations have thawed somewhat between ourselves and the Burmese government they have agreed to work together to find them. Experts from Leeds University have linked up with a Rangoon academic,they believe they have indentified the sites using sophisticated radar techniques.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Tony Wilding]

it could well lead to other finds there, lets hope Myanmar becomes a democratic nation, everthing seems to go full circle, UK on a downward spiral now, time this goverment realised we are a small nation and stopped trying to act the big i am by giving billions to nations that are corrupt and richer than we will ever be, if they can afford nuclear arms and power they dont need us, getting back to spitfires i read the ones in Myanmar are MKVII,S apparently recognised as one of the superior models, i hope we are informed of there findings there.

[Glenn Baker]

That would be fantastic if the planes were found. It would be even more wonderful to know that 20 spitfires would be flying, new from the crates. What a wonderful discovery if it happens to the Greatest Plane built in Wartime that definitely played a huge role in saving Britains Bacon in those very dark days. glenn baker Australia

[Tony Wilding]

occasionally see and hear one, the sight and sound still sends tingles down my spine, was sad Mitchell never knew just how important and famous his design became, must be the most iconic british aircraft. amongst fighter planes.

[Doc Vernon]

What a great Plaque that is Keith!
Hope they will soon recover the Aircraft in all their Glory!
What a wonderfull day that will be!

At least a dozen of the aircraft, one of the latest variants with their 2,035-horsepower Roll Royce Griffon engines replacing the 1,200-1,500-horsepower Merlins in earlier models, were buried without ever being removed from their original packing cases!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Griffon

After spending 15 years and $200,000 of his own money, Cundall was rewarded with visual proof of the enormity of his discovery. ''We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates," he told the Telegraph "They seemed to be in good condition.''Spitfires on Patrol Batle of Britain.jpg

http://deskarati.com/2011/02/12/supermarine-spitfire/

Excuse the French! LOL!


Footnote!

During the Battle of Britain there was a public perception that the Spitfire was the RAF fighter of the battle whereas in fact the more numerous Hurricane actually shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against the Luftwaffe: the Spitfire units did, however, have a lower attrition rate and a higher victory to loss ratio than those flying Hurricanes .

[happy daze john in oz]

One reason for the Spitfire being so important was it's ability to fly higher and at faster speeds than the Germans and indeed the Hurricane.

[John Arton]

Its not just in Burma that WW11 equipment was left behind.
We used to load Palm Oil in Oro Bay in Papua New Guinea. Oro Bay was the biggest air base and forward staging post for the U.S.A's war effort in the Pacific and at the end of the War they simply abandoned most of there equipent there as it was too costly? to get them back home. They were just left where they stood and the jungle quickly took over. Apparentley Oro Bay had more tempory war time air bases than any other pplace in the Pacific war theatre.
A friend of mine in the 80's was a Chief Engineer on a Palm Oil Plantation near Oro Bay and he told me that even as late as the 70/80's they were still discover rows of fighters covered in jungle vegetation, plus tanks etc. The worst thing is that the Americans also left behind tons and tons of armaments including bombs, ammunition etc which over the years have rotted and are now in a very dangerous position. There were many stories of very serious injuries caused to, mainly, children, who would come across these ammunition dumps, start playing with them and boom, one of the munitions blows up on them. My pal told me that on his particular plantation they were clearing a new area of jungle for future plantation planting when they came across a whole flight of American fighter planes still parked in line just as they had been left in 1945.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Edmund Crook]

My dad was in the RAF during the 2nd world war. He was in the photographic section and I have some great photos when he was in Burma (Western desert, Ceylon, India etc.) if there's any interest? marcusbeach@bigpond.com
regards Eddy

[Frederick Lacey]

Attn Tony W.

Hi Tony, you say you like the sound of the Merlin Engine, if you Google Fairlop Aerodrome,

fairlopsite.htm will come up, click on to that and the page RAF Station Fairlop will come up and you will get the sound of a Merlin.

Fred.