Crated Spitfires to be returned to the UK

SPITFIRE aircraft buried in Burma at the end of the Second World War are to be returned to the UK, after a 15-year search by an aviation enthusiast.
Up to 60 of the iconic planes are believed to have been packed into crates and hidden by British forces to keep them out of the hands of the invading Japanese.

Officials in Burma yesterday signed a deal with a British farmer which will see the aircraft ­repatriated to the UK.

It is the culmination of a dream for David Cundall, 62, who has been doggedly searching for the planes using radar imaging technology since 1997.

His determination to find the Spitfires led to him spending more than £130,000 on 12 trips to Burma in search of the aircraft, which he finally tracked down in February.

Mr Cundall then contacted Prime Minister David Cameron and asked for his help in getting the planes returned to the UK.

The British Embassy in Rangoon confirmed the agreement had been reached following discussions between Burmese president Thein Sein and Mr Cameron. Excavation work is due to start in the next fortnight.

An Embassy spokesman said the agreement was a chance for the UK to work with Burma’s new reformist government “in uncovering, restoring, displaying these fighter planes”.

He said: “We hope that many of them will be gracing the skies of Britain and as discussed, some will be displayed in Burma.”

Htoo Htoo Zaw, managing director of Burma’s Shwe Taung Paw company, which helped Mr Cundall with his search, said: “This will be the largest number of Spitfires in the world. We ­estimate that there are at least 60 Spitfires buried and they are in good condition.

“We want to let people see those historic fighters.”

The planes are believed have been hidden up to 40ft underground and are reported as being “in good condition”.

Spitfires played a major part in achieving victory in the Second World War and aviation enthusiasts say the British combat aircraft is the most successful fighter plane ever designed.

More than 20,000 Spitfires were produced, a greater number than any other combat aircraft. They entered RAF service in 1938 and remained in frontline service until 1954.

Spitfires are revered as the planes which won the Battle of Britain in 1940, but there are only 35 still flying.

The Burma find is even more valuable because the Spitfires are rare Mark XIV fighters, equipped not with the famous Rolls-Royce Merlin engine but with the more powerful Griffon type. Each of them has a price tag of around £1.5 million.

Mr Cundall has said he started his search after receiving a tip-off that the planes had been buried at the end of a runway in Burma in August 1945.

He said: “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.”

Several of his early trips to Burma were unsuccessful when they were hampered by the political climate in the country.

yippee!

Quite an old story although the Scotsman has a current date on it. Does news travel slowly up there ?

I'd like to see an update on this as there was some jiggery pokery going on with one of Camerons cronies trying to steal the operation which is about par for the course.

There are at least 50 flying with about 20 in restoration,so with the 60 from Burma, there will be quite a collection. Ian S C

I think that is very heartening; one man believed the story and was prepared to prove it. What a result.

I am just old enough to be able to remember Spitfires in battle, but strangely I have no recollectionds. It might be because my parents moved out of London in 1941 to a safer location.

Brian wood

I'd love to see a squadron or "flight" of these restored beauties flying in formation sometime in the future. It would be great to see some of them earmarked to form a memorial flight - "Battle of Britain Flight" sort of thing. I can see it now "The Royal Memorial Spitfire Flight", yyyyeeeeooouuuuu taka-taka-taka-taka!!

Stuart

I know that the Spitfire has a great following and this is great news, but to say that it won the Battle of Britain is a bit of romantic exaggeration. It was the Hawker Hurricane which played the greatest part in winning the battle. The RAF had 32 HH squadrons compared with 19 Spitfire squadrons. It was also reputed to be the most versatile of the single seater warplanes to come out of WW2 as it could be adapted for many uses.

Regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 24/10/2012 15:41:25

This story has been rumbling along for a very long time, I really do hope for repatriation of these planes, politicians please keep your big nose out of this one.

Ady1 any new update on this one

Bob

Terry,

My understanding is that the Spitfires generally took on the Luftwaffe fighters, and the Hurricanes saw to the bombers - at least that was the plan, I'm sure it didn't always work like that. The Hurricanes were a very good stable gun platform but at a disadvantage against the fighters as they wer less nimble. Good partnership.

I take it that's the new apprentice?

David

More than 20,000 Spitfires were produced, a greater number than any other combat aircraft

No where near the greatest number of a type family produced - nearly 34,000 examples of the Spitfire's adversary the BF/ME109 make it the most produced fighter. And with over 36,000 built, Ilyushin's Il2 is apparently the most produced combat monoplane, with the Polikarpov Po2 the most produced combat aircraft at 40,000+

Typical newspaper reporting - don't let the facts get in the way of a good story !

Nigel B.

Edited By Nigel Barraclough on 24/10/2012 18:35:30

Did not matter that the ME109 were more numerous, in the end they lost the battle. That is what really matetrs.

Misubishi Zero was a pretty ace fighter too, helped by the lack of armour.

FW190/TA190 was the best German piston-engined fighter.

Mustang, Corsair and Thunderbolt were all impressive.

Hawker's Typhoon and Tempext both outflew Hurricane.

But Spitfire was probably the only one that was there before 1939 and still getting better in 1945.

Neil

As already stated, there were more Hurricanes than Spitfires involved in the B of B.

The Hurricane was designed to older ideas, having a relativly thick wing. The fuselage was constructed

using some of the jigs used for an earlier bi-plane aircraft.

While the policy was for the Spitfire to take on fighters and the Hurricane the bombers, it was very much

a case of "target opportunity". The Hurricane was indeed slower than both the Spitfire and the ME109

but was able to out turn both due to it's thick wing.

Some pilots who flew in both Hurricanes and Spitfires say they preferred the Hurricane due to it's

larger cockpit.

Former ground crew say that a damaged Hurricane could usually be repaired at it's home base,

while a damaged Spitfire would often need to be sent to an RAF M.U. or even to the factory for

repair due to the differing construction methods.

Both great aircraft in time of need. Pity a squadron of Hurricanes can't be found!

edit Just read a later posting.

While the Spitfire did indeed serve throughout the war, and into the 1950's, it had become a very

different aircraft: 37ltr. Griffon engine replacing the 27ltr. Merlin (almost twice the power of the earlier

models) with extended nose and rear fuselage and R.J.Mitchells' elliptical wing was also altered.

The Hurricane also served thoughout the war, albeit in lesser theatres. It also carried rockets while

the Typhoon was still being "de-bugged" (tails breaking off, problems with it's Napier Sabre engine,

exhaust fumes in the cockpit for eg.)

A shame that the Hurricane's contibution is so often understated.

Edited By Jimbob on 24/10/2012 21:12:58

I hope that they film the excavation and recovery as it will make interesting documentary .

I have heard that there is WWII machinery buried in australia and have heard of a jeep being recovered but who knows what is buried out there !

Even if they only find 1 spitfire it is a bonus .

The skilled people needed to restore these planes must be getting thin as most of those who worked on them in the war must have passed on by now so i hope the knowledge is being passed down to the younger enthusiast .

I'm sure i remember a tv show about the pro's and cons of various WWII fighters and from memory they liked the Hurricane because of its ruggedness and reliabilitty and it could turn inside an ME 109 and i think had i higher dive speed ?

Could be wrong though as it was a while ago !

I would love to go to an air show that pitted all of the WWII fighters against each other in a mock dogfight so i could see the various attributes and deficiencies of each for myself .

Maybe a knockout series so it would be axis vs axis for top place then allies vs allies for top top place then the two winners go head to head ?

So the spitfire would go up against the mustang , corsair , hurricain etc etc .

And the me109 against the zero etc etc

Then the winner from each side duels for the win .

Ian

Sure it is — there's even a Haynes Manual:

**LINK**

Joe

Hi
I noticed the undercarrige differs on these later marks of Spitfires than the early ones Good for deck landings I suppose My son could help he has worked on them  restoring them  at booker & White Waltham 
Nobby

Edited By Nobby on 25/10/2012 10:30:31

I'm curious, does the haynes manual give the 1 to 5 spanner difficulty rating for the various spitfire repair jobs?

David

Ps I take it that refitting the engine is the reverse of removal.....

Edited By David Colwill on 25/10/2012 15:54:51

But in this case they have to fit them before they can remove them to find out how to fit them ,

Regards

Terry

I bet that somewhere in that Haynes Manual there will be the phrase " using special tool # 256432146 press part 'A' onto part 'B' whilst performing a handstand and whistling Dixie from your rear end "

I had a manual for a Toyota Lancruiser that even gave a supposed Toyota part number for a tool to align the swivel hubs on the front diff , pity that Toyota didn't have a listing for it though !

Ian

About the only thing that will hold up resoration of aircraft is the supply of engines, and even that can be overcome. Here in NZ they are building WW1 aircraft, British and German, and for some of them engines were not available, so they made them. My calander for this month has a "new" FE 2B,fighter bomber from WW1, built in NZ, its fitted with an origional engine.

There is one Hurricane flighing in NZ, its a rebuild of one that was found in a swamp in Russia,and there is one static display at the Transport Museum in Auckland, and a number of Spitfiresof various marks. We have had Spitfires,P40 Kittyhawks,P51 Mustangs, ME 109, FW190, Corsair, Sea Fury, Yak 3M, a flight of 4 Polkarpov I-16 fighters, a A6M3 model22 Zero with a Prat and Whitney R-1830 engine, Lavochkin LA -9, the hottest of the Russia WW2 fighters until taken over by the MIG 15, not al these aircraft flew together at any one time, but most have, some are based overseas, but a good number live here, so there was a number of them at the airshow for the first flight of the Mosquito last month. Ian S C

There is a lot of wartime gear buried in OZ but some of it is in very remote locations.

Back in the late 80's a water filled pit at Archerfield airport in Brisbane was drained and a lot of stuff came out, machinery, armaments, aircraft parts even a hotchkiss gun in perfect condition. Most of the heavy machine guns .50 cal and the 20mm Hispano cannons had been damaged by cutting the barrels with an oxy acetlyene torch but the Hotchkiss was mint. It was suspected that it had been placed in the pit not long before it was drained. as I was secretary of the Arms Collectors Guild of Queensland at the time I got to play with... sorry... examine many of the recovered items.