Towards the end of WW2 the RAF apparently buried 20 Spitfires in Burma to stop them falling into Japanese hands. Now we want them back.
I’m assuming the story is actually true. Of course this may not be the case. I’m sure I’ve heard rumours of whole aircraft being “found” in abandoned hangers and bunkers in the past, which were just that, rumours. And one thing that does set the alarm bells ringing is one of the articles above says they’re buried at just 4-6ft while another says more than 40ft.
The guy who has been looking for them says:
So, is this story likely to be true, and if so, is it likely they would be in “near perfect condition”?
There was a discovery channel show about planes left on a glacier during WWII. They ran out of fuel and the pilots landed. The pilots were rescued and the planes left behind.
An expedition found those planes under 100 or more feet of ice & snow a few years ago. They recovered one in remarkable condition. They’re in the process of restoring it.
If the parts were packaged anything like British small arms of the time, they’d be covered in cosmoline, grease, and various other things. It’ll take ages to clean it off, but once they do, they’ll be as good as new. Not sure about the wood and canvas components of the planes, though - especially in a tropical environment like Burma’s.
What I’m trying to work out is why the British would be burying Spitfires in Burma in 1945, considering they were on the offensive at that point.
What I don’t get about this is the first link has that they are Mark II Spitfires, and buried in 1945, unassembled, in their factory cases. But the Mk IIs were only manufactured between '39 and '41, according to the Wikipedia link. Mark VI started in '41. How did 20 Mk IIs get sent to Asia in crates, rather than be used in the European war, and never get uncrated and assembled? Then buried? Japan was on the run in the Pacific at that time, but not in parts of Asia in those days. Probably not a huge SNAFU by WWII standards, but still…
All I can think is that they sent the planes out there in '39 or '40, and never sent mechanics to assemble them or pilots to fly them. Does that make sense?
the aluminum frames or whatever might be in perfect condition, everything else should be pretty bad or take a ton of labor to fix.
like supercars, old planes can always fly again as long as the frame is in reasonable condition, you just have to spend a ridiculous amount of money and man hours on it. compared to planes salvaged from crashes or long term neglect storage sure, crated planes should be pretty nice to work with, untouched by outside weathering and wear and tear that should make the job much easier, assuming nothings missing.
Another possibility - they are Mk XII’s and it is a typo. The XII’s were retired from European use in late 1944 and might have been candidates to be shipped to the Far East for use over there. Just a WAG though.
My suspicions are that they will be much disappointed when and if they do uncrate any of these. Burma’s climate is about the worst possible for metals preservation, no matter how well wrapped and waxed these may have been. You bury metals in damp soil in a humid tropical setting and I’ll be amazed if they find much of anything remotely resembling an airplane. 60 plus years of corrosion will leave little. I’d love to be proven wrong though, because warbirds are worth preserving if possible.
That’s my 2 bits’ worth.
Fortunately, this has gotten enough attention, including from the British PM, that we’ll hear all the details, and probably see 3 or 4 different documentaries.
AFAIK there’s still WWII surplus guns still crated and covered in cosmoline. Cosmoline is every soldiers nightmare. It’s a grease that hardens. Try getting that off and getting a gun ready for inspection.
I bet a lot of the aircraft parts is coated in cosmoline. If so, the metal should be well protected. Cosmoline is a preservative. That stuff is incredibly tough after it hardens. It has to be steamed off.
I was fortunate enough to be involved in the WWII warbird community for a few years. A good friend of mine owned a P-51 Mustang, T6 and several Stearmans. I was also involved with the Confederate Air Force (now the Commemrative AF, we have to be PC now you know). You wouldn’t believe the amount of money and time that the owners of warbirds are willing to spend to preserve and fly the historic beauties. If they are returned with frames intact, you can bet your last dollar that they will undergo a full and extensive resroration. It isn’t uncommon for planes to be pulled out of fresh water lakes, submerged for sixty years, and restored to flying condition. Spitfires are one of the more memorable and desired fighters from the war, those in the WB community are already reaching form their checkbooks.
And on a personal note, having had the privlage to fly in a P51(Old Boy) while escorting a B17 (Aluminum Overcast) to an airshow was one of the highlights of my life. If you ever get the opportunity to fly in an old warbird, don’t pass it up. You might get lucky and become friends like I did with a private owner, but if that opportunity doesn’t present itself, go volunteer with the CAF, and you can be involved in history.
My understanding, from talking to some local guys involved in vintage warbird restoration, is that the only part they really need is the data plate. If they find that, and provide a clear chain of documentation , they can build the rest of the plane around it.
Anything is possible, but my vote is for tall tales or wishful thinking until I see a ground radar picture or anything more than words alone which is all there seems to be so far. One obvious possibility is they’ve found crates but they’re going to turn out to be boots or the like.
This seems to be a more realistic version with other articles probably being mangled copies, type XIV, obsolete on arrival as jets were coming so buried etc, and is consistent with Wiki. But Spitfires were still being used in the 50’s by the UK, so some of this sounds wrong too.
Reading Burma’s history, there was military rule by Britain immediately post-war until events led to independence in 48. Seems a bit odd to me that they’d be burying stuff in 45, while things were still in a state of flux - could have been a more peripheral site being shut down I guess, and they centralised.
Most likely it was during the 1942 debacal when British and Empire forces literally disintergrated there. Lots of reinforcement were sent to Burma from all over, North Africa, Britain, the Middle East and many of them fought and were haphazard. It could and probably was (if it happened) a case of crates being buried as the position was overrun.
I don’t think it was a case of “a more peripheral site being shut down I guess, and they centralised” as an earlier poster said, historically while in the American theater against the Japanese, the war ended more or less at once, British forces continued to be involved in operations for several months after the surrender against holdouts and native allies. Soldiers in the Far East did not get fully demobilised until 1948.
No. (ETA: “Literally” disintegrated? Certainly they were comprehensively defeated, but didn’t cease to exist.) The article I read on it clearly states that the Spits concerned are Mark XIVs, twelve arrived arrived in Burma and were buried in August 1945 and *possibly *another 8 in December 1945 (well after the Japanese were defeated there) because they were effectively obsolete:
**… not **to stop them falling into Japanese hands.
From my link:
So unless this guy is lying outright, IMO the balance of probabilities is that it’s exactly what he says.
