20 new Spitfires found buried in Burma

Nforce

The Prime Minister secured a historic deal that will see the fighter aircraft dug up and shipped back to the UK almost 67 years after they were hidden more than 40-feet below ground amid fears of a Japanese occupation.
The gesture came as Mr Cameron became the first Western leader to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy campaigner held under house arrest for 22 years by the military regime, and invited her to visit London in her first trip abroad for 24 years.
He called on Europe to suspend its ban on trade with Burma now that it was showing “prospects for change” following Miss Suu Kyi’s election to parliament in a sweeping electoral victory earlier this year.
The plight of the buried aircraft came to Mr Cameron’s attention at the behest of a farmer from Scunthorpe, North Lincs, who is responsible for locating them at a former RAF base using radar imaging technology.
David Cundall, 62, spent 15 years doggedly searching for the Mk II planes, an exercise that involved 12 trips to Burma and cost him more than £130,000.When he finally managed to locate them in February, he was told Mr Cameron “loved” the project and would intervene to secure their repatriation.
Mr Cundall told the Daily Telegraph: “I’m only a small farmer, I’m not a multi-millionaire and it has been a struggle. It took me more than 15 years but I finally found them.
”Spitfires are beautiful aeroplanes and should not be rotting away in a foreign land. They saved our neck in the Battle of Britain and they should be preserved.”
He said the Spitfires, of which there are only around 35 flying left in the world, were shipped to Burma and then transported by rail to the British RAF base during the war.
However, advances in technology and the emergence of more agile jets meant they were never used and in July 1945, officials fearing a Japanese occupation abandoned them on the orders of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the head of South East Asia Command, two weeks before the atom bombs were dropped, ending the conflict.
“They were just buried there in transport crates,” Mr Cundall said. “They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred. They will be in near perfect condition.”
The married father of three, an avid plane enthusiast, embarked on his voyage of discovery in 1996 after being told of their existence by a friend who had met some American veterans who described digging a trench for the aircraft during the Allied withdrawal of Burma.
He spent years appealing for information on their whereabouts from eye witnesses, scouring public records and placing advertisements in specialist magazines.
Several early trips to Burma were unsuccessful and were hampered by the political climate.
He eventually met one eyewitness who drew maps and an outline of where the aircraft were buried and took him out to the scene.
“Unfortunately, he got his north, south, east and west muddled up and we were searching at the wrong end of the runway,” he said.
“We also realised that we were not searching deep enough as they had filled in all of these bomb craters which were 20-feet to start with.
“I hired another machine in the UK that went down to 40-feet and after going back surveying the land many times, I eventually found them.
“I have been in touch with British officials in Burma and in London and was told that David Cameron would negotiate on my behalf to make the recovery happen.”
Mr Cundall said sanctions preventing the removal of military tools from Burma were due to be lifted at midnight last night (FRI).
A team from the UK is already in place and is expecting to begin the excavation, estimated to cost around £500,000, imminently. It is being funded by the Chichester-based Boultbee Flight Acadamy.
Mr Cundall said the government had promised him it would be making no claim on the aircraft, of which 21,000 were originally produced, and that he would be entitled to a share in them.
“It’s been a financial nightmare but hopefully I’ll get my money back,” he said.
“I’m hoping the discovery will generate some jobs. They will need to be stripped down and re-riveted but it must be done. My dream is to have a flying squadron at air shows."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9203822/Spitfires-buried-in-Burma-during-war-to-be-returned-to-UK.html

b757

I really wouldn't mind seeing them at a airshow in the near future!..

Fantastic aircraft, good find by the lad anyway..
A lot of effort was put into finding them

Tenger

b757 wrote: »

Fantastic aircraft, good find by the lad anyway..
A lot of effort was put into finding them

20 brand new Spitfires, all that needs to be done is recovery, transport and assembly?

Considering the actual cost of restoration (in time and money) this is an amazing find for the historical aircraft community. I am sure a few wealthy US trusts would be interested in a few of these. And TBH, even to get 10 of them airworthy would really increase the global spitfire population.

Counting from this list I get approx 31 airworthy examples (Australia-2, Canada-1, Israel-1, NZ-2, Sweden-2 UK-16, US-7) with maybe 6 under restoration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Supermarine_Spitfire_survivors


I would worry about the reality facing this effort. The regime in Burma may be uncooperative. Also some of the details in the Telegraph report are a bit off. 'Buried in July 1945 amid fears of a Japanese invasion' By July 1945 the British Indian Army had retaken most of Burma resulting in a newsworthy victory for Gen Slim (whilst not actually ending the war any sooner overall)
Seems more likely they would have been buried in 1941/42 rather than 1945.

RadioRetro

I would take that report with a large pinch of salt. So many stories about buried Spits have been printed over the years yet not a one has so far been recovered.

xflyer

I'd be afraid to be excited about that. I do remember when they surveyed Lancasters buried in a quarry, packed in cases somewhere in England. But at the end of the day they only existed as some form of shadow Lancaster like a fossil.

Hopefully this is real.

Delancey

Sounds more like an April Fools joke than anything , as already pointed out why would they be buried a mere month before Japan surrendered ?
Surely if there was a risk of them falling into enemy hands they would be destroyed - yeah , lets bury them so the enemy can dig them up !!??

This fable reminds of all those bullsh1t stories about tons of Japanese gold hidden in the Phillipines at wars end :rolleyes:

xflyer

Reading a similar article in the Mail which ironically may be more accurate this time. They suggest they were buried to prevent them falling into 'foreign' rather than Japanese hands just before the war ended in 1945. Which is a more logical assumption. It was quite common to bury or dump surplus and often new materiél near the end of the war. It wasn't worthwhile bring them back.

I don't see how they could be MKIIs though. It would make more sense if they were MKVIIIs which were commonly used in the Far East. On the other hand if they were MKIIs, they wouldn't be worth keeping as they were effectively obsolete by then. So getting rid of them makes sense. But that raises the question as to why they were sent out there as late as 1945. Bit of a conumdrum.

But if they do exist. It would be very interesting.

Edit: Just checked out the Telegraph webpage and there's this article. They are MKXIVs. Now this could be very exciting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/burma/9204921/British-farmers-quest-to-find-lost-Spitfires-in-Burma.html

Blue Punto

Delancey wrote: »

Sounds more like an April Fools joke than anything , as already pointed out why would they be buried a mere month before Japan surrendered ?
Surely if there was a risk of them falling into enemy hands they would be destroyed - yeah , lets bury them so the enemy can dig them up !!??

This fable reminds of all those bullsh1t stories about tons of Japanese gold hidden in the Phillipines at wars end :rolleyes:

At first I would have agreeed with you but this now seems to be credable.
They have found the crates and seen what is inside ,and the fact that the British PM has jumped onboard would suggest it to be true as I am sure he would have guys looking into it before he put such backing into the project

Stovepipe

Hi all,
Xflyer, it wasn't uncommon for older models to be shipped East to clear out crowded MUs at home, ie, ship it first and apologise later. There was a story told of a Flight Sergeant , in a Middle East MU in about 1946, who had indented for an Avro XIX and much later, a Mark 1 arrived. A very war-weary Mk.1. He turfed the crew out at bootpoint and promptly set it alight before storming to the Signals tent and sending off a whizzer of a telegram to the errant MU at home. Much, much later, a -19 did arrive..............someone has to get a camera into this crateload to convince the world that it's a real project. Be nice if it was a lot of Mk 14s,too. Not many of them about.

regards
Stovepipe

Nforce

Stovepipe wrote: »

Be nice if it was a lot of Mk 14s,too. Not many of them about.

I have fond memories of being let loose at Spencer Flack's example (G-FIRE) at an air show back in the early 80's.

xflyer

Great story Stovepipe, particularly about setting the Anson on fire. As for the Spitfires, MkIIs would be very desirable if that was the case. Some might have a very interesting history.

You're probably aware of the story with the Air Corps Seafires. The Air Corps wanted MkIXs but were told they were unavailable. So they ended up with the refurbished Seafire IIIs. During the delivery flight the Seafires were weathered in at High Ercall. The Air Corps pilots noted the field was packed wall to wall with stored MkIXs. Presumably the Paddies were fobbed off with some old Seafires that would probably have been scrapped anyway. Meanwhile brand new aircraft were buried in hole in the ground.

Whatever is in the crates, if they survived they will very desirable.

Delancey

Irrespective of the Mark it would be great to see 20 'new' Spitfires in circulation , However I cannot help but think this is all too good to be true - the absence of photos is not re-assuring.
I'm sure guys here will recall the 6 or 7 P-38's and a B 17 found trapped below the ice in Greenland some years back , were they all recovered ? I know at least 1 P 38 was recovered but what about the rest ?

xflyer

It was simply too expensive to recover the all the P38s and the B17. They're still there 268 feet down. Waiting for the mythical global warming to free them. Only 'Glacier Girl' was recovered. I very much doubt she'll be joined by anymore soon.

Nforce

There was also the B29, Kee Bird, that was found in Greenland. It was featured in the show "Frozen In Time" (available to view on Youtube) documenting it's ill fated recovery.

Tenger

Delancey wrote: »

Irrespective of the Mark it would be great to see 20 'new' Spitfires in circulation , However I cannot help but think this is all too good to be true - the absence of photos is not re-assuring.
I'm sure guys here will recall the 6 or 7 P-38's and a B 17 found trapped below the ice in Greenland some years back , were they all recovered ? I know at least 1 P 38 was recovered but what about the rest ?

Glacier Girl was recovered from the ice, however I read elsewhere that they group have still to recover the money they invested in the recovery and restoration.

The absence of photos can be explained by the fact that they are under ground. The 2nd article linked above states that they drilled a borehole and saw evidence of the crates being intact. And it stated they surveyor could mad eout the outline of a Spit fuselage with wings. Personally I would have liked to see this image......but so far it looks better than some previous claims.

Davidth88

The guy was on the beeb last night . Reckons they are up to 6m down

it's not clear , if these exist , I wonder would they be crated ?

I saw an interesting program on the US airbase where they took captured German aircraft during the war. Again , after they had finished with them they buried them

They are in the process of re-claiming some of the bits now

Stovepipe

@xflyer, I heard that the pilots wanted 1944 Mk.9 standard and that some genius decided that the 1942 Mk. 5 standard was acceptable but there were none left, except similar Seafire IIIs, which is what they got. Britain was full of aircraft going a-begging and they could have had anything, often for nothing yet they got the scraps off the table, at a price. politics got in the way of a decent Air Corps (and Army).

regards
Mick

Tenger

Davidth88 wrote: »

I saw an interesting program on the US airbase where they took captured German aircraft during the war. Again , after they had finished with them they buried them

They are in the process of re-claiming some of the bits now

Yep, The Udvar-Hazy mueseum in Dulles has about 4 aircraft that are the sole survivors of their type. Post WWII the Allies scoured Europe looking for ex Luftwaffe jet/rocket aircraft. These were shipped over to the US and reverse engineered. The examples once stripped of their technological info when often just bulldozed into a big pit. Same with war surplus US aircraft.

xflyer

politics got in the way of a decent Air Corps (and Army).

Some things never change.

Nforce

Seems that the location of the buried aircraft is now known...and has been for 11 years!!!!

ENCASED in containers for 56 long years they have quietly decayed away, their once shining propellors and wings gathering mould in their underground tomb. Outside the temperature is in the 90s as passenger jets take off in the shimmering heat.

The scene is Mingaladon airport, Myanmar, formerly Burma, and according to farmer and inventor David Cundall hidden 6ft under the airfield are 12 brand new Spitfires, abandoned in 1945 and now worth a cool 6m.

Mr Cundall’s dream is to excavate the crates, restore the Spitfires, and finally see them fly again.

The farmer and inventor first heard stories about the aircraft 20 years ago, but only started researching them in earnest after a friend and former Spitfire pilot met some American veterans who described digging a trench for the aircraft during the Allied withdrawal of Burma.

Through his own work at the public records office at Kew and by placing advertisements in specialist magazines Mr Cundall, who invents farm machinery for a living, has been able to contact seven eyewitnesses, who have confirmed the story.

The aircraft were abandoned on the orders of Louis Mountbatten, the head of South East Asia Command, two weeks before the atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945, ending the Second World War.

Knowing exactly where to dig is the problem when work could undermine the stability of the adjacent international runway.

Another snag is that an Israeli competitor is on the case and has been given permission to make a search

Mr Cundall, 51, who lives in North Lincolnshire, has been out to Burma six times and has worked closely with the military authorities. He said: “We have an agreement with the military that we have our share and they have their share.

“What we really want to do is restore them and have them flying again.”

Mr Cundall – who describes his hobby as “digging up crashed aircraft” – is working with Dr Roger Clark, the head of earth sciences at Leeds University to analyse data from a ground penetrating radar which has been used to survey the 10-acre site. The radar has shown up “boxed shape images” which Mr Cundall believes are the outlines of the containers.

He added: “The story I originally heard was that in August 1945 a group from a construction battalion were passing through Rangoon on the way to Singapore and they were asked to bury 12 planes – they actually questioned the order as it was so unusual.

“When I heard this many years ago Burma was a closed country. I advertised extensively and come up with seven eyewitnesses and 20 who know about the burials.

“Seventy per cent of the area has been searched, and another eyewitness who came along last year is positive he knows where they are and has sent me maps and an outline.

“However, the Burmese say we need more eyewitnesses to exactly pinpoint the place otherwise they’re not going to let us dig. They’re worried about undermining the foundations of the airfield.

“We also have a competitor, an Israeli pilot, who has paid a substantial amount of money to gain the contract to excavate the Spitfires. But his contract expires this month – and with a bit of luck we might be going back out in a week or 10 days.’’

Principal keeper of archaeology at North Lincolnshire Museum Kevin Leahy said the wings and fuselages were made out of thin aluminium and could have crumbled away – but if they were covered in grease and oil, or wax paper ready for a sea transit, they could be all right.

Mr Cundall needs more letters from eyewitnesses spelling out the exact location to convince the military. Anyone who can help is asked to contact him via the Yorkshire Post Hull office at Regent House, Ferensway, Hull, HU1 3PT or by e-mailing alex.wood@ypn.co.uk.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/race_is_on_to_find_buried_treasures_spitfires_worth_163_6m_1_2411664

Originally published Wednesday 9 May 2001 22:21

Tenger

One of the reasons that the story is in the papers recently is that the UK have lifted sanctions against the Burmese regime thus opening the borders for the export of the spitfires.

And the 2001 article does sates that at that time Mr Cundall had only made 6 trips to Burma and had only used ground radar. The latest article mentions trips in double figures and having sent down a borehole.

SO perhaps he has been patiently waiting 10+ years to be allowed to excavate and ship them out of there.

Nforce

Tenger wrote: »

One of the reasons that the story is in the papers recently is that the UK have lifted sanctions against the Burmese regime thus opening the borders for the export of the spitfires.

And the 2001 article does sates that at that time Mr Cundall had only made 6 trips to Burma and had only used ground radar. The latest article mentions trips in double figures and having sent down a borehole.

SO perhaps he has been patiently waiting 10+ years to be allowed to excavate and ship them out of there.

and the locals didn't try to dig them up in the intervening time? :P

Delancey

I hate to piss on anyone's chips but the more I read about these Spitfires the more convinced I am that we will never see them excavated in good order much less fly again.

Tenger

Nforce wrote: »

and the locals didn't try to dig them up in the intervening time? :P

I doubt the Burmese military/govt had much interest in 60+ year old spitfires that they may not have the ability or desire to restore. And as it is (or appears to be) close to a current airport I doubt anyone could secretly dig them up. 6m down is quite the Indiana Jones dig.

Delancey wrote: »

I hate to piss on anyone's chips but the more I read about these Spitfires the more convinced I am that we will never see them excavated in good order much less fly again.

Every fairytale needs a bit of cynicism. You aren't 'pissing in our chip's", merely expressing your opinion.

As Nforce points out above, this has been ongoing for over 10 years ans still no movement for the spits. This opportunity is still very tenuous, all it needs is a diplomatic gaff to get the Burmese to close their borders and it is gone.

xflyer

Obviously the only reason this is now getting the publicity it deserves is because Burma is now opening up again after years of oppressive military rule.

Nforce

Tenger wrote: »

I doubt the Burmese military/govt had much interest in 60+ year old spitfires that they may not have the ability or desire to restore.

No...I was thinking of enterprising civilians selling off Spitfire parts. I'm sure that in component form alone,the haul would be worth a pretty penny among collectors and restorers alike.

Tenger

Nforce wrote: »

No...I was thinking of enterprising civilians selling off Spitfire parts. I'm sure that in component form alone,the haul would be worth a pretty penny among collectors and restorers alike.

As I hinted at above, civilians digging down 6 metres beside an active airfield in a country ruled by a military regime may be a bit difficult.

lkjhgmnb

all i can say is amazing , even if there is just 1 what a find ! have booked to go up in the grace spitfire ! , this has been my dream aircraft all my life I just love the sound of the merlin engine

xflyer

lkjhgmnb wrote: »

! have booked to go up in the grace spitfire ! ,

Seriously? Would love to do that myself one day. I only have two or three dreams left. Fly a Spitfire and F4u and some form of fast jet.

Nforce

I didn't realise that you actually could book flights in the Grace spitfire...or any UK based Spit for that matter. There's no mention of it on the Grace Spitfire website?

Unless you mean that you are going to fly in formation with a Spitfire?

westdub

Found his interesting information after a search about the same....

CAN I ARRANGE A FLIGHT IN A SPITFIRE?

There is only a handful of 2-seater Spitfires in the world, and just three of these are flying in the UK. In addition, to be able to offer trial lessons, any aircraft must have a public category license, and the instructor too must be licensed to take paying passengers. Presently these two conditions are not met for any Spitfire in the UK. So, unfortunately, the chances of arranging a flight in a Spitfire are pretty slim. However it is possible to arrange solo displays for individuals; for more information see the Grace Spitfire website or Anthony Hodgson's PT462 website. The third 2-seat Spitfire is based at East Kirkby and owned by a private collector; it too is occasionally flown at displays.

http://www.flights4all.com/about_spitfires.asp

Stovepipe

Only the British could come up with a scheme whereby the UK's alltime favourite aircraft is not able to carry pax for hire or reward, whereas in America, the attitude is, "you got the money? yeah? go fly"....xflyer, sell your first-born and get over to Kissimmee; Stallion51 have three P51s and an L-39.All in one location. Just bring money.

regards
Stovepipe

Nforce

If I had a few bob to blow on a flight this is what I'd spend it on

Dogwatch

Nforce wrote: »

If I had a few bob to blow on a flight this is what I'd spend it on

A proper military aircraft!!

xflyer

"....xflyer, sell your first-born and get over to Kissimmee; Stallion51 have three P51s and an L-39.All in one location. Just bring money.

First born? No way I like him. I'll sell the second child. He's a brat. So is anyone interested in cute little blond blue eyed demon straight from the the fires of hell? Price negotiable.

As for Nforce's suggestion, the F4 Phantom. Would love it. The only problem is that the back seat of the F4 was famous for it's ability to make even strongest stomach give up it's contents in a technicolour yawn. That would include experienced backseaters.

pclancy

xflyer wrote: »

a technicolour yawn. .

Lol, phrase noted for future reference

Nforce

It’s Spitfires at dawn in Burma
The hunt for valuable planes buried at the end of the Second World War is turning nasty.

This is a story of buried treasure, a map with X marking the spot and the race to recover untold riches. The treasure in this case is of the winged variety, some 60 Spitfires, maybe more, quite possibly in pristine condition, never flown in anger, interred in Burma at the end of the Second World War. There are only three dozen Spits in flying condition around the world, commanding prices of £1.5 million or more. So this is big money. And as with all tales of treasure-seeking, there is mistrust, manoeuvring and bad blood.
The story begins in August 1945 as the irradiated ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still smouldered. The war against the Japanese in Burma, always something of a strategic sideshow, was suddenly truncated, leaving the British with vast quantities of war material too expensive to ship home. What to do, then, with some of the latest versions of the Spitfire, Griffon‑engined Mark XIVs, recently delivered and still in their crates? Wary of leaving high-performance aircraft in a country with an uncertain future, Britain’s South‑East Asia command decided to bury them. As many as 120 Spitfires, original cost about £12,000, may have been disposed of in this way. There they have lain for 67 years, protected by tar seals and grease, steadily accumulating in value, just waiting for someone to find them and dig them up.
“Spitfires were ten a penny in 1945,” says David Cundall. “You have to remember that we built more than 20,000 of them, and by the end of the war they were nearing obsolescence, thanks to the advent of jets.”
Mr Cundall, 62, a farmer and aviation enthusiast from Lincolnshire, has devoted much of the past 16 years and a lot of money (“I stopped counting after £130,000”) to unearthing the Spitfires and restoring them to flying condition. The project has involved hundreds of hours of research and interviews and repeated visits to Burma, until very recently a pariah state run by a corrupt and very dangerous military regime.
“I had an AK47 pointed at me once,” says Mr Cundall, who has endured mosquitoes and jungle heat in his search for the aeroplanes, many of which were buried around the old British airfields at Myitkyina and Mingaladon. “There were also six non-crated Mark VIIIs,” says Mr Cundall. “They are very rare and I believe they were buried in a quarry.”
Then, in February, he finally struck gold. Geophysical returns combined with eyewitness testimony narrowed the search to specific points. But to get the aircraft out Mr Cundall needs money, about half a million pounds. That is where Steve Boultbee Brooks came in.
Mr Boultbee Brooks, 47, is a self‑confessed Spitfire lover and owner of a trainer version of the fighter. He is also very rich, the result of a career in property investing. In need of a backer, Mr Cundall approached Paul Beaver, a former defence journalist, now in public relations, who suggested Mr Boultbee Brooks. There was a meeting, an agreement in principle to proceed and a fairly rapid falling‑out.
Mr Cundall was presented with a “memorandum of understanding”, which effectively placed his activities in Burma under the control of Mr Boultbee Brooks’s company, Spitfire Display Limited. Mr Boultbee Brooks then took off for Burma to lobby support from David Cameron, who was making a landmark visit to the country as part of its slow reintroduction into the international community. The Spitfire story provided Number 10 with a stirring example of future Anglo-Burmese co-operation. Cameron met with Boultbee Brooks and duly climbed on the bandwagon, waxing lyrical about Spitfires gracing the skies. The millionaire was also allowed a ride home on the prime ministerial jet. Mr Cundall says he knew nothing of the trip until contacted by Mr Boultbee Brooks from Burma. He was also appalled at the terms of the memorandum, calling them an insult.
“I had an hour with him [Boultbee Brooks]. He didn’t say yes, he didn’t say no. He had all the information he wanted to make up his mind. People tell me he was on television making claims that it is his project. Last Sunday he said if we didn’t come to an agreement, the Prime Minister would close the door. I can do it without Brooks, I can do it without anybody. I’ve been digging up aircraft for 35 years. I’ve pushed the boat out financially. I’ve struggled like hell to keep it going. I’ve dug up Burma before, and I don’t need them.”
Mr Boultbee Brooks says he did inform Mr Cundall of the Burma visit in advance and that the memorandum did not represent a contract.
“I totally see why he [Mr Cundall] could be rather annoyed,” says Mr Boultbee Brooks. “I see that the letter could be misunderstood. We have therefore gone to some great lengths to explain that to him.
“We have got nothing against Mr Cundall. We do not want to push him off this team. We would love to be working with him, and we cannot understand how this wonderful situation is turning into such a ridiculous situation. It’s very sad.”
Mr Cundall has already moved on, however. He has secured new backing from an anonymous investor, who wants to buy all the Spitfires recovered from Burma. Under the deal, Mr Cundall and the Burmese government each net 40 per cent of the sale proceeds, while Mr Cundall’s agent in the country gets 20 per cent.
“He [the backer] wants to buy all the aeroplanes,” says Mr Cundall. “He’s putting half a million pounds into the project for me to go over, dig them up, and I will then sell them to him. The Burmese have agreed to sell their share to him. My agents have agreed to sell their share to him, at a fair and reasonable price. Between £1.25 and £1.5 million.”
Undeterred, Mr Boultbee Brooks is proceeding with his own recovery project. “It is a massive project, and it is between two nations that haven’t traded for 50 years. We think it is an opportunity that just can’t be passed off: to bring these machines back to England and get them flying again. We train pilots to fly Spitfires, we train engineers to build them, so yes, we would love to. We will keep this project on the road.”
The race is on. Mr Cundall says he has given the millionaire detailed information about the whereabouts of aircraft so far detected, which should not be acted upon because it is his intellectual property. Mr Boultbee Brooks says: “I would dispute that we got the information [from Mr Cundall]. He didn’t pass anything across to me. He assured me that he had the information, and I’ve taken him at his word.”
Time is running out. The monsoon breaks at the beginning of June and the ground in Burma will be so waterlogged as to be unworkable until the end of the year. A temporary holiday on sanctions against Burma means the recovery work should soon be deemed lawful. Mr Cundall is counting on his ties with the Burmese, cultivated over many years, to see him through. But Mr Boultbee Brooks is obviously not a man to back down at the first fence.
“The Brits had a real chance here to get ahead,” he laments. “The Americans are really keen. The Israelis are really keen. There is talk of an Australian team that is very keen. What a terrible day this is when the Prime Minister has gone out and got a British team, we put a British team together, and then we squabble so much that we allow other nations to walk in and take the Spitfires from under our noses. We’re absolutely nuts, aren’t we?”
But then, the lure of treasure has always driven men mad.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9228910/Its-Spitfires-at-dawn-in-Burma.html


Probably inevitable, really, although a potential find of 120 Spitfires (or even just a/c parts) would net a huge sum of money.

Delancey

Wow ! This has gone from 20 Spitfires to 60 to maybe as high as 120 !!!
This is a complete crock of shit , buried treasure from WW2 ? Arse biscuits !!

xflyer

120 Spitfires, tell me that's a bad thing? A Spitfire on every field! Oh yes.

We'll see. But if only one emerges from the soil of Burma. It will be a fantastic thing. I hope it works out.

Tenger

Delancey wrote: »

Wow ! This has gone from 20 Spitfires to 60 to maybe as high as 120 !!!
This is a complete crock of shit , buried treasure from WW2 ? Arse biscuits !!

These claims are a bit unjustified, lets just keep to the original 20 that have been located. Yes maybe 100 more were buried but unless you have eye witness accounts they are gone forever.

localcentra

This is going to have a serious effect on the value of existing spits , imagine the market being flooded with 120 more . values will be heading south in a big way.
wont be classed as a rare aircraft anymore.

BowWow

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3571182.ece

cyrusdvirus

BowWow wrote: »

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3571182.ece

behind a pay wall

i'm sure there'll be other free links

Davidth88

Ok, the son of the guy who discovered these was just on the radio ( BBC2 Chris Evans show )

He was talking to a bulldozer driver who told him the most crazy thing he had to do was bury 14 Mk 14 Spits at the end of the war.

He has located these ( in 1997 ) , but it's taken until now to talk to the Burma Gvmt ( Hardly the most open of countries after all ).

He reckons these are brand new boxed Mk14 spits , with the Griffin engine.

His hope is to bring them back to the UK to restore and get them flying .

He has a TV crew with him , so we can expect a programme about it some time.

Rascasse

Further update to this story in the Telegraph. They start digging them up in January.
Snippets:

Surveys undertaken at one of three sites in Burma have shown that large areas of electrically conductive material are present underground at a depth of around 10 metres.

The location and depth is consistent with eight eye witness reports given to Mr Cundall that the rare Mark XIV Spitfires were buried there in August 1945.

"We put a camera down a boorhole and went into a box and through two inches of Canadian pine," Mr Cundall disclosed. "Yes, we did see what we thought was an aeroplane."

"Hopefully, they will be brought back to the UK and will be flying at air shows," he said.

"We have had offers from British companies to restore them and put their logos on them which is acceptable to me.

"We should get something back, if we are lucky, in the springtime.

"It should take two to three years to restore them so we should see something in the next three years or so."

Interesting that its being funded by the computer game company behind World of Warplanes.

bluecode

So now we have this. No spitfires!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699

Straight from too good to be true to too bad to be true. I find it hard to believe there are no Spitfires.

I always felt a lot of the reports were far too optimistic considering the absolutely zero evidence. But isn't a bit soon to be writing if off completely?

seanmacc

Apparently it was all a myth: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21483187

One that probably cost a few people a few quid.

Edit- Sorry did not see the last post

shedweller

So what happened the metal concentrations?

Judgement Day

Puts me in mind of this long running saga http://lynton-rail.co.uk/history/lew-mystery but you've got to hand it to the Brits once they get the bit between their teeth.

lintdrummer

shedweller wrote: »

So what happened the metal concentrations?

My thoughts exactly!

BostonB

I was reading one of the aviation mags a while back and there was some talk of the site being overrun with spectators and media. So much so that the Govt didn't like the attention around wheres there's a lot of cables and infrastructure in the ground. My memory is a bit fuzzy but I think they were going to try and diffuse all the attention and try find them another time. I don't remember if it said they couldn't find them, or were stopped from digging by the authorities.