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| Thread ID: 124258 | 2012-04-15 04:03:00 | Twenty Brand New Spitfires... | Terry Porritt (14) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1270125 | 2012-04-15 04:03:00 | Buried in Burma since 1945. Telegraph says 40 feet deep, other sources say 4 to 6 feet deep... www.telegraph.co.uk |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 1270126 | 2012-04-15 05:05:00 | wow, great story, I look forward to hearing more about this, I hope they make a doco about it all. | Iantech (16386) | ||
| 1270127 | 2012-04-15 05:23:00 | Fantastic find. As kids, we used to love drawing the Spitfire, I must see if the old scrap book is still around. Lurking. |
Lurking (218) | ||
| 1270128 | 2012-04-15 06:00:00 | Something doesn't seem right with the newspaper reports. By July 1945, the 14th Army under Slim had crushed the Japanese in Burma, and had taken Rangoon in May. Whilst there were still Japs in number, they had no supplies and were no longer a cohesive force. It was then a mopping up operation. Any RAF base in Burma at that time must have only just been built as the land was captured from the Japs, so why would 20 Spits be buried for fear of invasion at that late stage in the war when the Japs were being well and truly thrashed on all fronts?? Also by 1945, Spitfire II's would most likely be no longer being made. They were up to MK 9. There were most likely no 'brand new' Spitfire IIs then. For a good description of the Burma Campaign from one viewpoint, John Master's book The Road Past Mandalay is gripping. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 1270129 | 2012-04-15 06:09:00 | They may have been "brand new" old and tired junk sent out to the far flung outposts, that was buried lest somebody try to fly one of them? | R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 1270130 | 2012-04-15 06:13:00 | I don't think the report said "brand new" but it did say they were suitably wrapped for their interment. It will be interesting to see how well they survived. The group that buried them probably thought it would be few months or maybe a year or so before they came back to dig them out! | coldot (6847) | ||
| 1270131 | 2012-04-15 06:26:00 | This one says brand new...www.dailymail.co.uk Reading this more carefully, it seems Mountbatten was frightened they would fall into 'foreign hands' when the British army demobilised. It all seems very strange and unbelievable. The photo in the Daily Mail shows much later mark of Spit with 4 bladed prop. The Mark 2 had a 3 bladed prop and dated from 1940. It is possible that the news papers mean Mark XI and wrote it as II instead of 11, or something funny like that :) |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 1270132 | 2012-04-15 06:41:00 | I wish I kept my 1/62 scale spitfire/whirlwinds models I made and painted... But surely the British War Office/UK Ministry of Defence (www.mod.uk) must have kept records at the time, if crates of components were transferred and not returned. Or maybe archived (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) by UK Govt. |
kahawai chaser (3545) | ||
| 1270133 | 2012-04-15 06:51:00 | They would have corroded themselves to a pile of oxides. | prefect (6291) | ||
| 1270134 | 2012-04-15 09:07:00 | They would have corroded themselves to a pile of oxides. They were suitably wrapped. |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
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