140 Crated Spitfires buried in Burma (Myanmar)?

[Lang]

I think you could bet the farm that the guys involved did not have any fancy equipment hanging from helicopters in Burma.

The most common form of Ground Penetrating Radar and the most likely to be used, IF it ever was, is the push trolley style widely used by archeologists to seek out ancient structures. The same style equipment is used by companies looking for power and pipe lines, various rock strata, voids such as sink-holes or old mines and wells.

The display is highly subject to professional interpretation - there is no "picture" like airborne radar or underwater sonar and the average person would have no chance of identifying anything.

Interesting subject to Google if you have a spare moment.

Lang

[Lang]

Here is a photo of a Spitfire in a crate being unloaded at Cocos Island about the same period our mystery Spitfires were being unloaded in Burma.

We are not looking for a hole dug by pick and shovel, it must have taken some serious equipment to bury 20 ( or 140) of these.

Just the dirt pile would be huge. Quite apart from the dirt required to put back on top of the buried box they would have to remove about 100 cubic metres (the rough box volume). Let's say we overload a CMP tipper with 5 metres of dirt that is 20 loads per box to take it "somewhere" - 400 truck loads for 20 boxes or 2,800 truck loads for 140 boxes. If they just pushed the spoil up in a pile, Everest would only be the second highest mountain in the world and we would not need ground penetrating radar to find them.

[Mrs Vampire]

to my mind I don't understand the burial story. If they had a bull dozer capable of digging a huge hole and burying them . I presume they would get crushed in the process. Why not just doze over them or even easier throw some petrol over em and strike a match.

The notion that in 1945 they would be coming back for them or waned the Burmese govt to have them eventually just doesn't make sense.

If there was a need for Spits there were a hundred or so of em sitting in Australia . if the need was to simply disable them take the props off and dump them at sea . In Australia the props were taken of the Mozies and Spits to prevent anyone using them after a wag took a spit for a taxi.

if they were in boxes disassembled it seems it would be an easier task just to destroy all of the port wings or somehing rather than dig a huge hole tediously place all the boxes in the hole then bury them.

So I am giving odds on this being a Hoax along the lines of the 1990's hoax about fishing up sunken aircraft of the Qld coast that was so enthusiastically supported by Joh Bejelkie .

I dont doubt there are still treasures to be found...theP-40 found in the desert the FW 190 still in the black Forrest and the amazing junk turning up in the former Soviet union Guy Blacks Demons out of Afghanistan . but this story just don't do it.

[Keith Webb]

When I interviewed Tony Gaze, one of our top scoring aces he told me in Germany he went into a recently liberated airfield hoping for a Fw190 and found most had the port oleo partly cut with a hacksaw.

He had better luck at the factory where he took one straight from the production line (possibly it's first flight) after swapping an earlier model so their numbers still matched. It flew badly, one wing low.

[Frank v R]

burying aircraft was not a new concept at the end of the war , the Americans disposed of a large number of aircraft just outside Flagstaff AR by digging 2 one mile trenches and taxing the aircraft into these and then dozing the dirt over top , all that remained were the tails sticking out of the dirt, C-47, C-46, B-24 and B-17 aircraft, now knowing how well items were crated during the war a dozer moving dirt over these crates would not bother them much , remember that these crates would have been made to multi stack in the hold of a Liberty ship , the last thing the allies wanted at that point was more aircraft, remember Kingman AZ , B-24 aircraft in India being chopped up and left and when India gained independence they put a good number back together and flew them for years, this is where all the B-24's flying today came from including the one in Ottawa, here in Canada the RCAF sold P-40's out of Pat Bay BC for $75.00 ea.and most of the flying P-40's in the US have CDN history, look up photos for Chino CA at the end of the war and see what happened to the P-40, P-39, P-38's ,stacked like cordwood,it would also depend on who paid for these aircraft ,lendlease money?and the allies did not want just anyone to have these weapons.

[Bruce MacMillan]

Here's the latest info. Dig to begin in January.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20515659

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Pictures - finally!

They found the crates and are not wasting any time to get them back in the air!

Captions:
"Civilian workers running the wing of a Supermarine Spitfire Mark VIII out of its crate prior to assembly"
"RAF mechanics, assisted by civilian workers, lift a Supermarine Spitfire Mark VIII onto twin supports during assembly of the aircraft"

[easo]

Originally Posted by Gina Vampire

to my mind I don't understand the burial story. If they had a bull dozer capable of digging a huge hole and burying them . I presume they would get crushed in the process. Why not just doze over them or even easier throw some petrol over em and strike a match.

.

They still bury them today! http://www.couriermail.com.au/questn...-1226204896564

Admittedly with a few less parts.

Regards Easo