Saturday, January 19, 2013
There may be no Spitfires after all
Actually this is a great disapointment to me. I was rather looking forward to seeing film of 124 reassembled Spitfires flying in formation. However, the Telegraph tells us that archaeologists digging for a squadron of Spitfires in Burma have hit a blank and do not believe there are any planes to be found.
The paper says that Lincolnshire farmer Mr Cundall has campaigned for 17 years to launch his quest to find the buried treasure:
He claimed to have gathered testimony from eight eye witnesses, including British and American service men and locals people, who said that the planes were packaged up in crates and then buried on the orders of Lord Mountbatten in 1945.
At a second excavation site in Myitkyina, in northern Kachin state, researchers found a buried crate unexpectedly full of muddy water, which they said would take weeks to pump out.
The aircraft are believed to have been wrapped in tar paper, put in crates and transported from the factory in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands, to Burma in August 1945.
Some were flown in while others were carried over in ships and protected against the harsh weather conditions.
When the war against the Japanese in Burma ended, they are thought to have been buried to ensure they could not be used by Burmese independence fighters.
Let's hope they don't give up the hunt too soon.
The paper says that Lincolnshire farmer Mr Cundall has campaigned for 17 years to launch his quest to find the buried treasure:
He claimed to have gathered testimony from eight eye witnesses, including British and American service men and locals people, who said that the planes were packaged up in crates and then buried on the orders of Lord Mountbatten in 1945.
At a second excavation site in Myitkyina, in northern Kachin state, researchers found a buried crate unexpectedly full of muddy water, which they said would take weeks to pump out.
The aircraft are believed to have been wrapped in tar paper, put in crates and transported from the factory in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands, to Burma in August 1945.
Some were flown in while others were carried over in ships and protected against the harsh weather conditions.
When the war against the Japanese in Burma ended, they are thought to have been buried to ensure they could not be used by Burmese independence fighters.
Let's hope they don't give up the hunt too soon.
