Posted on 10/17/2012 9:16:22 AM PDT by DFG
Burma has signed a deal with a British aviation enthusiast to allow the excavation of a World War II treasure: dozens of Spitfire fighter planes buried by the British almost 70 years ago.
Aviation enthusiast David J. Cundall discovered the locations of the aircraft after years of searching. The planes are believed to be in good condition, since they were reportedly packed in crates and hidden by British forces to keep them out of the hands of invading Japanese.
The British Embassy said Wednesday that the agreement was reached after discussions between President Thein Sein and British Prime Minister David Cameron during his visit to Burma earlier this year.
The excavation of the rare planes is slated to begin by the end of October.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Just, amazing. Wow, this is going to be a fun story!
This is pretty exciting news, as so few of these WWII plane still exist.
How does Myanmar feel about this?
Aviation ping.
Sixty spitfires is enough for three full squadrons.
60 Spitfires doing a fly-by. That would be fun to see.
“Never have so many owed so much to so few.” I hope they teach history with them.
This should be great! The condition of the planes has to be pretty decent (relatively speaking)if they are in closed crates, and would be even better if some of the parts had grease or cosmoline smeared on them to prevent corrosion...This is wild!
I first thought they were going to go looking for the crews and planes that made up “The Aluminum Highway” - C-46s and C-87s (B-24 cargo var.) - that went down flying “The Hump”.
Have they determined what Mark(s) of Spit these are? I thought they were late war examples buried as the RAF withdrew with the end of hostilities.
It's always been my favorite Battle of Britain book.
I don't think the British had a lot of Spitfires, if any, on the Burma front in 1941-1942. They were using obsolete aircraft such as the Brewster Buffalo fighter and the Vildebeest, a biplane bomber which had entered service in 1928. They were aided by US fliers, flying P-40's, from the American Volunteer Group, later the Fourteenth Air Force, which was based in China.
My dad flew the C-46 as a Hump Pilot.
Since Sir Winston's bust has been removed, I am sure Da-One will not be amused...
BTW, I know a young warbird restorer in my aviation circles. Boy was he geeked when this story broke, the warbird community is jazzed over this to say the least. I think they are salivating at the prospect of some of these getting out to mortals like us....
AFAIK, they’re all Mk 14’s.
35 airworthy at this time. If this article is true and they can be restored, it will triple that number. If they can just put together enough HE111 and ME109’s, they could have re-enact the battle of Britain, lol.
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