No Spitfires in Burma - BBC News 18 January.

[Airframes]

A brief newsflash on the BBC News Internet edition, at 08.00 hrs UK time, has announced that no Spitfires have been found in Burma.
However, this appears to be a statement from archaeologists involved with the project, at Rangoon airport. But David Cundall, who has spent years searching, has apparently stated that the digging is in the wrong place.
Obviously, with so little in the way of details at the moment, it would be wrong to make assumptions or speculations, and it should be remembered that there are at least three former airfield sites where it is suspected that the aircraft, if they exist, are buried.
There are no further details, at this stage, concerning the 'water filled' crate mentioned in previous reports.

 

[A4K]

Interesting Terry, hope they do find them! Cheers for posting.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Hmmmm...

 

[Crimea_River]

We just need to be patient.

So that bottle of Spitfire was faked? I'm disappointed!

 

[ccheese]

Details here: Spitfire search in Burma draws a blank | World news | guardian.co.uk

Charles

 

[Gnomey]

Bit of egg on face then. Still plenty of searching to be done, so will be interesting to see what happens from here on.

 

[The Basket]

I am hopeful coz it would be super. But really? Surely there would be something somewhere to say what happened to so many airplanes.

A hundred mk xiv just dissappear? If there was any fact then there would be proof.

 

[DVH]

A crate full of water, so what was this mystery crate?
Doesnt bode well for finding anything spitfirey.

 

[stona]

Cundall,unsurprisingly,says that the archeologists are digging in the wrong place. Who told them to dig there?
If he decides that the mythical aircraft are infact somewhere else I would suggest he now has little chance of finding backers or raising the funds to look for them.
I've always been sceptical (actually I've always thought it was a load of b#llocks) and I don't now think we'll be seeing any Spitfires from Burma.
Cheers
Steve

 

[fastmongrel]

Always been a bit sceptical as well. Especially as some of the people involved I would trust about as far as I could throw a crated Spit. Pity though would have loved to have seen what came out and whether it was scrap or just needed a wipe down and the battery charged up.

 

[meatloaf109]

Based on the recollections of a man that saw them buried. Not participated in the operation, but saw it.
As far as the other matter, If you spend years trying to get a dig organized, weeks of searching, and then find a giant crate buried, (and you are looking for giant crates), the idea that it would take too long to pump it out is disingenuous.

 

[fastmongrel]

They probably pumped all the money out of the dig first and when it was all safe and crinkly in an account in the Bank of We Wont Tell The Revenue they had to close the dig down as the money well had run dry.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Perhaps they actually just buried crates of water.

 

[Aozora]

Unless I'm very much mistaken there were no RAF Spitfire XIV squadrons based in Burma, and those that were in India working up for an invasion of Malaya shipped out to Japan and other countries:

(Andrew Thomas: Griffon Spitfire Aces, Osprey AoA 81, 2008, 81-83)

Plus 70 Spitfire XIVs were transferred to the Indian Air Force. So where did all those "buried" Spitfire XIVs come from?

 

[Capt. Vick]

Wouldn't it be "funny" if a little leg work in a good aviation library could have put paid to these rumours before anyone left England? Still hope they find something though...

 

[R Pope]

I was amused at the famous "Spitfire Snobbery" still surfacing after all these years! Why couldn't the buried planes have been Brewster's, or even combat gliders? Nope, they had to be Spitfires!

 

[ccheese]

RAF vet says buried Spitfires is a hoax !!

More details here: Buried Spitfires is a tall story, says RAF veteran (From The Northern Echo)

Charles

 

[Airframes]

Interesting stuff, although I presume the newspaper has got the chaps age wrong. At age 87, he would have been 19 in 1945 - it's possible that he had qualified as a pilot by then, but at that stage, near the end of the war, pilot training was taking longer. I would have expected him to be around 20 at least, when posted to Burma. The interview also states he joined the RAF in 1942, so I guess there must be a mistake regarding the age, as he would have to be at least seventeen and a half (I think actually 18 in those days) just to join, not 16.
No doubt the full story, whether one of success or failure. will emerge eventually.

 

[fastmongrel]

Mr Cundall said: "We had to stop the dig because, while we have equipment to detect Spitfires at 20ft, we don't have the equipment to detect cables at 5ft."

Did no one think to take a metal detector with them. Hell I have a £20 stud detector that could probably have found a mains voltage cable at 5 feet. More and more this looks a complete con to me.

 

[Airframes]

If it turns out to be a 'dud', then Mr. Cundall has my sympathy, after all the time, and personal expense, he's spent over the last couple of decades.