Spitfires Found!

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supposedly they drilled down and ran a scope into one of the crates to be able to assess their condition. what they found was a pleasant surprise. at least that is what i read. we will see what the fact of the matter is here in a couple of weeks.
 
One thing about this all has me confused. I read somewhere that they buried them to avoid having them falling into the hands of the Japanese. But didn't they bury them in 1944 or 45? Were things that touch and go this late in the war for that to be a real concern?
 

I believe that is reporters getting their facts mixed up.

The reason that they were buried is that they were surplus to requirements at the end of the war.

Other aircraft were dumped off carriers, or bulldozed into dumps. But these had just been delivered, and were not yet unpacked, so were buried in their crates..

Well, that's how I understand it.
 
wuzak said:
I believe that is reporters getting their facts mixed up.
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Good Lord! Surely not.

Editorial rigour is sadly lacking these days. It surprises me not one jot that someone failed to put the dates into a correct WW2 context. Even more worryingly I was recently asked "Who's Jimi Hendrix?"

Aren't there supposed to be a load of Spitfires and/or Merlins buried down a mine in Australia.
I haven't heard anything of that recently but it is one of those stories that re-appears every ten years or so.

Steve
 
stona said:
Good Lord! Surely not.

Editorial rigour is sadly lacking these days. It surprises me not one jot that someone failed to put the dates into a correct WW2 context. Even more worryingly I was recently asked "Who's Jimi Hendrix?"
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Unfortunately it isn't going to get any better, thanks, in part, to the internet.


stona said:
Aren't there supposed to be a load of Spitfires and/or Merlins buried down a mine in Australia.
I haven't heard anything of that recently but it is one of those stories that re-appears every ten years or so.
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Yep, there are stories and rumours.

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian
 
Geedee said:
Mate, the rate at which these Spitties are reproducing underground in their crates...started of as 14, then 60 ,then 140, then 160 + !!!!, I reckon they'll be giving them away with petrol coupons before much longer
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Well, heck, send a couple across the pond to us, then! Hmm, let's see, it started with about a dozen or so underground, now there are 10x more. Are we sure these aren't rabbits?

As much as I'd like to believe they could have an air wing of Spitfires, until I see boxes of them arriving at ports in England, I am not holding my breath. Think about it, if there really are that many down there, government officials in Myanmar have got to be thinking "wait a minute, those are on OUR land". There has to be a lot of diplomatic wrangling going on. Because after almost 70 years underground, there are likely some antiquities laws to look at.
 
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Well Erich, it's supposed to have all been agreed, personally, between our Prime Minister and the Burmese Government. But, we're talking about Cameron here - so who knows what the outcome might be !!!
 
R Pope said:
So, is there any solid evidence, or is it all just cloud cuckoo BS?
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The claim is that they have used a remote camera system to dig down to and look inside one of the crates. So there is one, at least.

I believe that up to 60 are said to be in the dump they will start excavating shortly, but the full number is not yet confirmed, and I suppose it won't be until they are dug up.

The other 80 or so are said to be in other dumps, which have yet to be located.
 
Really interesting story, loving the increase in potential numbers too.

It is something of a surprise given that the planes must at one time have represented a fairly easy source of refined raw materials but it just goes to show, you never know.
It makes me wonder if there is the chance of other rare birds and/or crates of spares just got buried elsewhere - maybe a stack of stuff in Russia waiting to be unearthed discovered?
 
A member of the Leeds University team responsible for the ground imaging in that report was careful to point out that their machines do not have one setting for Spitfires and another for scrap metal. He at least was hedging his bets!
A lot of rubbish could be bulldozed off the runway of a wartime airfield.

I really hope that something worthwhile is found. I would just temper optimism with realism.

Cheers

Steve
 
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