20 Spitfires Gifted to the UK from Burma!

[Panzer Vor!!!]

come on guys whats more iortant is that at the bottom of scapa flow theirs the british battlefleet ready to rise to the surface

[Dad 10]

I still prefer "Norwich" (kNikers Off Ready When I Come Home).

[Test Graham]

No there were not any Mk.XIVs in Australia. Otherwise, what a load of variegated twaddle. Presumably the truth will come out one day, hopefully soon.

PS I've just been across to the Flypast site: Apparently someone who heard a story about Spitfires being buried in crates postwar has groundscanned an ex-RAF airfield and the scan shows some anomalies that might be crates. Such stories have been spread before, and sites even dug, but without any of the promised results.

Edited April 14, 2012 by Graham Boak

[plimsol]

I think its great news...Lots of obsenely rich people will be able to have their very own Spitfire

Richard McC

if tis true they should of course go to the battle of britain flight, not to some rich tosser who keep them m to themselves(I speak not of the well heeled who restore them and the let us see them flying (e.g. thinking of stephen Gray)

[Dave Fleming]

No there were not any Mk.XIVs in Australia. Otherwise, what a load of variegated twaddle. Presumably the truth will come out one day, hopefully soon.

PS I've just been across to the Flypast site: Apparently someone who heard a story about Spitfires being buried in crates postwar has groundscanned an ex-RAF airfield and the scan shows some anomalies that might be crates. Such stories have been spread before, and sites even dug, but without any of the promised results.

Lancasters in Lincolnshire I remember!!

[Test Graham]

Do you remember the colour picture in Aerophile of a huge pit/ditch full of ex-Luftwaffe late-war aircraft? 20 Spitfires? Small beer.

Mind you, if they do find them they'll deserve a lot of praise for persevering through the doubt and scorn, but that's a big if.

[mungo1974]

Wonder if they have any Sea Fury wrecks left too?

[Av8fan]

I hope that they can find them.

I wonder how many would be a Duxford one year?

What a site/sound that would be.

[Max Headroom]

Daily Mail has them as brand new mk II's! Of course the mk. Vb was the first to be sent overseas.

Still I don't care what mk they are just as long as they exist.

Trevor

[davidelvy]

come on guys whats more iortant is that at the bottom of scapa flow theirs the british battlefleet ready to rise to the surface

Thought that was the German fleet, which was scuttled after WWI.

[tonyot]

Maybe the Burmese Government (or Myanmarese Government..just to keep you sweet Paddy!)

Having seen the current predicament of the British Armed Forces felt sorry for our tiny island kingdom and thought that they might lend a hand (like a well meaning auntie dipping in to her magic sideboard drawer), knowing our commitments to protect the forthcoming Olympics and of course the festering `problems' in the South Atlantic , by giving us the squadron of Spits that they had buried `for a rainy day'? If they turn out to be Seafire XV`s then even better, we can re navalise them and give the Fleet Air Arm its fixed wing capabilty back just in time to take them `Down South' aboard HMS Ocean,......or am I just being a tad too cynical???

Don`t get me wrong, I`d love to see 20 new Spits emerge in pristine condition from crates, but even if this is the case Cameron and his cronies (and no I`m no loony left Labourite,.....just a realist!) will only use them as collateral to worm their way into the good books of various countries (I can see the USA and India getting one each at least and maybe even China,... so the Trumpeters of this world won`t have any excuse for putting fabric tailplanes on any more Spits!) whilst the rest will just go to the highest bidder! If we are lucky one may be `gifted' to the BBMF or RAFM depending on their condition.

Cheers

Tony O

[Test Graham]

Thought that was the German fleet, which was scuttled after WWI.

Only a few ships, the rest were raised for scrap between the wars. Quite an achievement for the time and place. There is of course the Royal Oak.

These Spitfires are reputedly Mk.XIVs, (with some Mk.VIIIs to follow, according to one source) but given the 1945 date quoted I'd have thought them too new and precious to be tossed away. Although some Mk.VCs went to the Far East, none would have gone to Burma by that date, so if there's any truth in the story they are likeliest to be redundant Mk.VIIIs.

Either way, has anyone checked Spitfire the History to see how many unaccounted for/struck off charge SEAC Mk.XIVs there might be at this time? I had a quick look, but only a very superficial one, and it would take a fair bit of time and effort. I suspect not 20, but more Mk.VIIIs will have been disappearing at about this time.

[Radleigh]

Wonder what condition they are in.

[Lothian man]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17710598

This does sound fairly realistic, much as Graham Boak suggested but a bit more optimistic - but certainly it is a matter of counting your Spits before you catch them. That's the PR machine for you. Doesn't sound too promising, even so - with all those tropical insects munching the crates and the tropical soils and rain. But good luck to them.

And I see Downing Street thinks the Spitfire is the most important plane in the history of aviation!!

Edited April 14, 2012 by Lothian man

[Seahawk]

While the news of the discovery, and indeed the recovery, of a number of Spitfires is obviously good to hear, I can't help thining that there must be more pressing/important things for the PM to be getting involved in.

Maybe DC is a Spitfire fan, and/or secret plastic fettler?

I'm sure that, in terms of potential for favourable PR, Spitfires are right up there with fluffy kittens.

[HOUSTON]

..Brilliant news and I think our Gratitude must go to the gentlemen MR CUNDALL who has spent 15 years and £130,000 of HIS OWN money trying to find them ..

so HE GETS MY THANKS ,Thank you Sir, and Mr Cameron for stepping in when asked to help bring them back..

Now I will wait patiently to see them if they are restored and placed in a Museum.......

WELL DONE Mr Cundall...

HOUSTON.

[jimbuna]

Well at least we'll have something to fly off the decks of the new careers now

[MikeC]

Apparently they are that very rare bird, jet-powered Spitfires. Check out the first sentence of the DT's report http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/def...rned-to-UK.html

I'm all for a free press - certainly wouldn't want to pay for that standard of accuracy in press reporting.

Seems someone told them - it said "fighter jets" when I posted. Hope they retain the knowledge.

[davidelvy]

And I see Downing Street thinks the Spitfire is the most important plane in the history of aviation!!

I thought that was the Mustang! Or have I been watching to may programmes on Discovery?

[Alan P]

Well at least we'll have something to fly off the decks of the new careers now

[Paul J]

I'll try to ignore some of the derisory comments here and hope the plan works and they do come home. One thing for sure Some will end up where the money is like the U.S. warbird fraternity. BUT, its quite exciting at the thought of 20 Spitifres in hopefully excellent condition wiil be either in the air or safe in the best museums in the UK and viewable by the public.

[Vickers McFunbus]

..Brilliant news and I think our Gratitude must go to the gentlemen MR CUNDALL who has spent 15 years and £130,000 of HIS OWN money trying to find them ..

so HE GETS MY THANKS ,Thank you Sir, and Mr Cameron for stepping in when asked to help bring them back..

Now I will wait patiently to see them if they are restored and placed in a Museum.......

WELL DONE Mr Cundall...

HOUSTON.

I think he may get a return for his investment, seeing as he has a billionaire backer to fund any subsequent recovery.

[NZKIWI]

If it sounds too good to be true , it often is !

[Ed Russell]

There is reputedly an airtight container buried with a complete Fokker Triplane in original condition below Lasseter's Lost Reef.

[AWFK10]

Just read the Telegraph article. A strange tale. The Spitfires were supposedly deemed to be surplus, and buried, three weeks before Japan surrendered and two weeks before the first atomic bomb was dropped - i.e. before anyone connected with the decision would have had any reason to believe that Japan's surrender was imminent and at a time when an invasion of the Japanese mainland was on the cards. Even if there was no immediate requirement for the aircraft locally, who was to say they weren't going to be needed elsewhere? And, in any case, why bury them? "....you couldn’t leave them for the locals – they might have ended up being used against you": but that makes no sense in August 1945, when Britain was firmly in control of Burma and there were no immediate plans to pull out, notwithstanding the statement that "they might have planned to come back and dig them up again."

The war in Burma effectively ended at the start of May 1945, yet according to the article, when the Spitfires were buried in August, they'd just arrived in the country. It would have been clear that Burma was no longer an active theatre long before they arrived there, probably before they were even sent.

"In 1945, Spitfires were ten a penny. Jets were coming into service. Spitfires were struck off charge, unwanted. Lots of Spitfires were just pushed off the back of aircraft carriers into the sea." Not many British jets in the Pacific theatre, and while carrier aircraft were certainly routinely jettisoned if not worth repairing, mass disposals of surplus aircraft took place after the end of the war. And, if the Spitfires were as worthless as this implies, why "put teak beams over the crates so they wouldn’t be crushed by the earth when they were buried”?

Sorry but the tale coming across here doesn't make a lot of sense.