140 Crated Spitfires buried in Burma (Myanmar)?

[Little Jo]

Originally Posted by Roddy1011

Would anyone be interested in details on wartime stores dumped down mineshafts in the Midlands ?

Roddy

Hi Roddy

Go for it mate, just love those stories of what us restores like to cry over.

Cheers

Tony

[jack neville]

What about the tunnels around Sydney full of WW2 equipment or a more local one about the mineshafts in the Grampiams in Victoria full of Harley Davidsons?

Will they ever end...then there's Benitos Treasure at Queenscliff....

[Keith Webb]

Shock! Horror!
source

NO BURIED SPITFIRES IN MYANMAR
THE sponsor of a British-led team hunting for dozens of rare World War II Spitfires said to have been buried in Myanmar has abandoned the search, saying stories of the stashed planes are merely "legend".
Rumours that dozens of the iconic single-seat aircraft were buried in 1945 by Britain, the former colonial power in what was then Burma, had excited military history enthusiasts, but surveys at Yangon airport in the Mingaladon district have failed to bear fruit.
The project backer, online game company Wargaming, said the team "now believes, based on clear documentary evidence, as well as the evidence from the fieldwork, that no Spitfires were delivered in crates and buried at RAF Mingaladon during 1945 and 1946".
Lead archaeologist Andy Brockman said the investigation into the stories of buried Spitfires was undertaken in the spirit of US television forensic police series "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation).
"We followed the clues in the documents, period maps, pictures and air photographs; we talked to surviving witnesses, and visited the 'crime scene' in order to turn our study in the archives into facts on the ground," he said.
"As a result we believe that the legend of the buried Spitfires of Burma is just that: a captivating legend about a beautiful and iconic aircraft."
In a statement released late on Friday, Wargaming said the search for Spitfires in Myanmar was rooted in persistent rumours that began among servicemen in "the bars and canteens of South East Asia" as early as 1946.
It added that no surviving witnesses had actually seen planes being buried and that its research in British archives had failed to produce any evidence of the arrival of the aircraft in Myanmar in the latter months of the war.
But a local businessman involved in the project, Htoo Htoo Zaw, on Saturday vowed to continue the planned digs in the northern city of Myitkyina and Yangon airport, signalling a split within the team.
"We haven't started any digging yet. So how can we say for sure whether there are Spitfires or not?" he told AFP.
It was unclear to what extent the excavations would continue and project leader David Cundall -- a farmer and aircraft enthusiast who has spent around 17 years chasing the Spitfires -- was not immediately reachable for comment.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...#ixzz2L2hA6C5E

[Little Jo]

Hi Keith

Oh well that's it then. Well we dreamed for a while there anyway. Seeing how popular the site was with so many hits, we had better find another project to keep the site alive. I hear they sighted that darned Yeti again.

Cheers

Tony

[Private_collector]

http://www.artillerywa.org.au/RAAHS/Leighton.htm

http://www.truenorthjourneys.com.au/...2-tunnels.html

http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melb...ls.php?id=3082

http://www.subterraneanhistory.co.uk...2-tunnels.html

http://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/tvtunnels.htm

And last, but NOT least, check out these little gems through AUS.
http://www.ozatwar.com/bunkers/bunkersetc.htm

[Little Jo]

Hi Tony

Hell mate that was a flood. Sh*t, that will keep us busy for a while.

Cheers

Tony

[David Dunlop]

Peter Ford once dropped in at the Canadian Army Depot in London, Ontario in the 1980's and met a Commisionaire who had worked at the Depot for a number of years in the 1950's and 1960's. He told Peter that on many occasions, he had been detailed to dispose of items that, for whatever reason the military did not want flowing through Crown Assets. They used to be taken to some sort of range in the area, where they were either burned or buried. One trip to this range involved boxes of brand new CMP and other World War Two equipment manuals that were all burned.

I have heard of a lot of surplus aircraft being burned after the war somewhere in Alberta as well. That was probably back when War Assets was in charge of disposal. Recently also saw a number of photos of the RAF torching surplus Mosquitoes in Egypt at the end of the war, and now how many of those are still flying?

David

[Little Jo]

Hi David

And here in Australia .

Cheers

Tony