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General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Wayne J. Buran on January 06, 2013, 08:22:49 PM
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CNBC reports that a team is in Miyanamar to begin digging for buried WW2 Spitfires. Purported to be at three differant locations. Wouldn't that be something. Standby!!
Wayne
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This rumor has been active since sometime last year.
Allegedly, nearing the end of WWII, the Brits buried a substantial quantity of Spitfires in Myanmar (formerly Burma) in order to (a) prevent them falling into the 'wrong hands', or (b) to just erase them from the books. If reports are to be believed, the crated Spit's were fully 'cocooned' in protective wrapping - although anyone who has spent time in SE Asia knows about the effects of the humidity there. 'nuff said.
Whether or not any of this is true, it has also been reported that negotiations are currently underway regarding a 'dig' in selected areas. It will be mighty interesting to see if anything comes of this.
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This rumor has been active since sometime last year.
Allegedly, nearing the end of WWII, the Brits buried a substantial quantity of Spitfires in Myanmar (formerly Burma) in order to (a) prevent them falling into the 'wrong hands', or (b) to just erase them from the books. If reports are to be believed, the crated Spit's were fully 'cocooned' in protective wrapping - although anyone who has spent time in SE Asia knows about the effects of the humidity there. 'nuff said.
Whether or not any of this is true, it has also been reported that negotiations are currently underway regarding a 'dig' in selected areas. It will be mighty interesting to see if anything comes of this.
Actually, I'm still wearing some of the effects of the humidity (and other things) from Southeast Asia...after 42 years... LL~ LL~
Randy C.
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This rumor has been active since sometime last year.
Allegedly, nearing the end of WWII, the Brits buried a substantial quantity of Spitfires in Myanmar (formerly Burma) in order to (a) prevent them falling into the 'wrong hands', or (b) to just erase them from the books. If reports are to be believed, the crated Spit's were fully 'cocooned' in protective wrapping - although anyone who has spent time in SE Asia knows about the effects of the humidity there. 'nuff said.
Whether or not any of this is true, it has also been reported that negotiations are currently underway regarding a 'dig' in selected areas. It will be mighty interesting to see if anything comes of this.
I saw something on one of the "car" channels where they had buried a Buick or some such, all cosmolened, etc, in a concrete "coffin in Oklahoma" They dug it up 50 years later, and it was nothing but rust. I would be very doubtful that any ferrous metal in a Spitfire or anything else will have fared well after this amount of time.
Brett
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I seem to remember that that Buick was a chrysler and water had penetrated the concrete coffin. Thats what rusted the car to itsy bitsy peices. I could be wrong, as it was a long time ago.....for my memory anyways! LOL
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The BBC - who are noted for their accuracy of reporting - filed this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20910980
Of course it doesn't guarantee what they'll find in their dig but there seems to be a serious possibility that there will be a find of some significance.
Greg
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I saw something on one of the "car" channels where they had buried a Buick or some such, all cosmolened, etc, in a concrete "coffin in Oklahoma" They dug it up 50 years later, and it was nothing but rust. I would be very doubtful that any ferrous metal in a Spitfire or anything else will have fared well after this amount of time.
Brett
1957 Plymouth Belvedere. Yeah, they buried it in a vault, which promptly leaked over 50 years. The car was found fully submerged. Quite an embarrassment for Tulsa, big ta-do about a junk car. They even left the battery connected!!
Needless to say, there were alot of jokes about "Miss Belvedere".
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One of my uncles was a Sea Bee in WW2. While he was on Adak, he said the Navy was ordered to bury tons of surplus items that by law, were not allowed to come back to CONUS. This included heavy coats, and rain gear, and thousands of cans of beer. Then in the mid 60's some Aleuts (sp) dug up the beer and some died of poisoning due to the deterioration of the beer in the cans. Also they buried bull dozers, trucks, jeeps, tents, etc. Apparently this stuff was not wanted on the open market as surplus so it would not compete with retailers. D>K
The main Naval Base for the British Pacific Fleet during WW2 was close to where I live near Sydney, Australia. The surrounding airfields were used by the RN Fleet Air Arm as bases.
After the war almost a thousand RN aircraft, including Avengers, Corsairs, etc, presumably on Lend Lease, went into the ocean off Sydney heads.
Occasionally bits turn up in fishermen's nets, and people have come up with the idea of retrieving them but almost 70 years of corrosion have reduced the aircraft to shells.
The pic below shows HMS Pioneer dumping Avengers off Sydney in late 1945.
Ray
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Looks like some Fairey Barracudas, too.
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About 15 years ago, same story but it was the Phillipines and they were P-38s. They didn't ask for a contribution did they?
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Should've seen the stuff we left behind in 'Nam when we bugged out! Hueys, Chinooks, various fixed-wing A/C....all now (or then) bearing the red star. Not to mention all the M-16s, M-60s, M-79s, etc., etc.
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Should've seen the stuff we left behind in 'Nam when we bugged out! Hueys, Chinooks, various fixed-wing A/C....all now (or then) bearing the red star. Not to mention all the M-16s, M-60s, M-79s, etc., etc.
Some years back an enhanced tracking program put into place by the FAA; was due to many helicopter and aircraft parts that were being smuggled into the States from Vietnam and Laos. The parts were being stripped from the abandoned aircraft and dug up in the jungle and sold as new, overhauled and reconditioned to unsuspecting buyers. Many of the parts; tagged as overhauled; had the signature of a licensed individual that was deceased. A lot of these parts were traced to a household garage in Miami, Florida. Several arrests were made, but not before a fatal accident happened; which lead to the investigation and the enhanced program.
During my years living on the Island of Guam...the locals; many of which were my close friends, told me many stories and showed me locations in jungle areas between the runways on North West Field, where they spoke of gigantic, long wide, trenches dug into the Island's volcanic rock foundation and every imaginable kind of airplane, truck, jeep and equipment was pushed into the trenches and buried. I believe there was substantial truth in their stories. My son and I spent untold hours hunting wild hogs and Sambar Elk in these areas and found altimeters, horizon gyros and all kinds of instrumentation pieces. We uncovered remnants of aluminum aircraft structures, like skins, ribs and bulkheads. The Island's salt air had all but reduced them to powder. To this day...I still think of what all may have been buried there.
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Try Google Earth and view Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon and you can still see quite a few of those abandoned aircraft along with new Air Vietnam's Boeing 777s etc sitting outside their new world class air terminal.
As for the condition of ANYTHING buried in that part of the world goes it has gone back to nature by now.
Mike
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Well, they have found a crate.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20957162
Let's see what's inside it.....
TTFN
John.
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Pumping muddy water out does not sound encouraging....
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I'm looking forward to seeing what's next...
Marcus
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Maybe as this story gets around more soldiers will remember where war surplus is buried. I'm rooting for the finders.
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Now if they could only find a buried cache of planes in the desert!
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My have found them??
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/10/encouraging-discovery-in-burmese-search-for-long-buried-wwii-spitfires/
Ken
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Looks like the BBC is way ahead of Foxnews ;)
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Just been reading the BBC is saying there are NO Spitfires at the current dig sites in Burma.
Thats got me miffed!
Phil :(
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Just been reading the BBC is saying there are NO Spitfires at the current dig sites in Burma.
Thats got me miffed!
Phil :(
Yep,
that's what the experts on the ground are saying!
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699
Ray
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In the Phillipines, August 1945, PT boats were burned to the water line. They didn't even try to save the Allison engines. Of course the PT boats were wood and took a heck of a beating, ever seen a wood boat after many high speed runs? Also hundreds of Jeeps were pushed over a cliff, but those enterprising Filipinos, recovered them and made Jitneys. Still running around. In fact they made a small company that reproduced parts for them. How many sailors and Marines have ridden in a Jitney back to the base at Olongapo??? H^^
I have many times. Even convinced the owner of one of them to let me drive for 4 bottles of San Miguel beer.
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I have many times. Even convinced the owner of one of them to let me drive for 4 bottles of San Miguel beer.
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Heck, for 4 bottles of San Miguel, I'd let you drive my PT Cruiser!
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Summer of '83, I had a guy working for me that was a SEAL in Viet Nam. He claimed he kicked in the windshield of a Budweiser truck in Saigon and held his .45 to the head of the driver for a ride back to base. The guy was a bit different, shall we say! :-[ Steve
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No Spitfires were there, or ever were there:
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/3953-myanmar-s-phantom-spitfires-how-a-legend-was-born.html#.UR0c1WeOM9s.facebook
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Wild geese chase?? LL~
Marcus
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If I were building a new home and needed the basement dug for free, I'd just let on to the fact that some P-38s/Spitfires/Jimmy Hoffa were rumored to be buried there....
There's lots of opportunities in this world for good story tellers (oops! sorry, didn't mean to make a political statement there...)
Scott