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April 15, 2012

Lost Squadron Of Pickled Spitfires Found
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By Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief


Aviation historians and warbird enthusiasts are drooling at the discovery of at least 12 and maybe as many 20 perfectly preserved brand-new Spitfire Mark 14s buried in Myanmar, which was formerly Burma. Thanks to the tenacity (and apparently considerable diplomatic skills) of British farmer David Cundall, the lost squadron of pristine fighters was found where they were buried by U.S. troops in 1945 when it became clear they wouldn't be needed in the final days of the Second World War. 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 crates. It's possible another eight were also buried after the war ended. After spending 15 years and $200,000 of his own money, Cundall was rewarded with visual proof of the magnitude 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."

The aircraft were declared surplus when they arrived in Burma because the Japanese were in retreat by then and carrier-based Seafires were getting all the action. They were ordered buried in their original crates, waxed, swaddled in grease paper and their joints tarred against the elements. Cundall found some of the soldiers who buried the planes by placing ads in magazines and was able to narrow down the search before using ground-penetrating radar to confirm the burial site. The next obstacles to recovery are political. Myanmar's former military junta was under a variety of sanctions, among them an international convention that prevented the transfer of military goods to and from the country. Recent political reforms have led to the lifting of that ban effective April 23. Cundall will also need the permission of the new Myanmar government to unearth the treasure. He helped his own cause by making numerous trips to the country and earning the trust of government officials. British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to seal the deal with Myanmar President Thein Sein during a visit.

Yes, please!!!!!

Only 35 in flyable condition--I sure hope they can put these 20 more back in the air!

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16208535

According to another report there may well be others buried at other air strips,, Oh boy they need to make a documentary or movie out of this, who here would travel over there and buy a ticket to see the crates opened?

There is a Dirk Pitt novel with this very same premise in it, the big difference is that a farmer in England drops his tractor through the roof of an underground storage hanger full of pristine Spitfires. Neat that it is for real.

What always amazes me is that things that were so common place then are so rare and collectible today. Makes you wonder what there is today that will be valued as much in 70 years. They definitely need to do a documentary. That would be pretty cool to see.

It is difficult to imagine....

...the massive amounts of military hardware, vehicles, aircraft that were abandonded, pushed overboard, chopped up or in this case buried at the end of WW-2.

A few years ago one of my copilots was a young Australian. He told me of his grandfather's endevor at the end of WW-2. He claimed that the U.S. abandoned hundreds of new or nearly new aircraft, tanks, trucks, jeeps etc. in Australia at the end of the war. They were put up for sale. There was some provision that all the equipment had to be full of fuel before they could be sold. Fuel was in short supply at the time.

He said that his grandfather bought dozens of P-51s, P-38s , light bombers and tanks for pennies on the dollar. Grandfather bought them for the fuel that was in the tanks. He then resold the fuel at a profit and scrapped out all those beautiful war birds. Made a small fortune in the process.

It was just uneeded junk back then.

By the way....have you ever seen the hundreds of mothballed WW-2 and Korean era Navy ships...sitting row upon row in our coastal harbors? MIllions of tons of high quality steel. Just rusting a way.

Bob