just a story id heard many years previous that the RAf disposed of some lease lend b17s and other ancillary equipment by dropping the said items down these mine shafts(obviously disused ) and then capping them with concrete, my father whilst he was awaiting demob heard that a large quantity of lease lend tools were buried at the former ROF at Thorpe Arch nr Wetherby presumably the US didnt want these items returned ditto the B17s ive heard all sorts of similar atories of equipment being disposed of in this way after 1945,in yorkshire there were just 19 airfields prior to hostilities and at war ceasation this figure had risen to over 90! so imagine the logistics involved disposing of all that surplus equipment and only three distribution centres to handle it all , in many cases airfield stores were oftten bulldozed into the camp dumps (i know this for a fact as ive spoken to ex RAF personell who carried out these actions mainly because they all wanted to get demobbed and home etc.):cool: 😎 There was a court case involving a large black market ring operating out of the former RAF Marston Moor one of the allocated centres involving thousands of pounds worth of surplus equipment sold ilegally mostly radio spares. also has anybody got info about the Thorpe Arch railway which operated inside the ordnance factory site
By: pagen01 - 30th August 2007 at 09:34
There are rumours of crated Harleys buried at Trebelsue, along with B-24 spares. In the late ’80s a Nimrod was tasked with doing a MAD search over the area – surprise surprise, nothing found.
Growing up at St Mawgan you always heard these stories, or urban myths. what I wonder is why vast numbers of airframes would be taken to Cornwall, and how come I never come across eye witness acounts of aircraft (or engines) landing or coming in on trucks etc.
Almost all the heavy stuff left Mawgan during ’45 (much it going to fledgling European Airforces). The aircraft that were beyond repair were bulldozed into the station dump (cant find anything there, other than a Shack).
By: ZRX61 - 30th August 2007 at 00:30
And don’t forget what was pulled out the ground at Burtonwood, a stash of 0.50 cals for one all neatly chopped with a gas axe, most of this appears to have come from the graving area.
That’s the standard US method of de-miling them. You drill out the rivets holding the plates to the side of the gun, machine up new ones & rivet them on. The rivets are available, the side plates are not (go figure?). I rebuilt quite a few of them about 15 years ago.
banging those steel rivets is a PITA. 🙁
By: ZRX61 - 30th August 2007 at 00:27
😎 😎 😎 yeah the crated harleys are indeed in devon they are appearing with the boxed dakotas ,should be a great gig:cool: 😎 😎
The crated Harleys WERE in Devon, they were dug up in the late ’70’s. I personally worked on 4 of them. The guy who dug em up was Iain Cotteril (sp?) & it’s well documented.
By: RAF Millom - 29th August 2007 at 00:20
There are stories of aircraft being dumped in mines up in the North West, there is also stories of a stash of Harleys near Warton.
And don’t forget what was pulled out the ground at Burtonwood, a stash of 0.50 cals for one all neatly chopped with a gas axe, most of this appears to have come from the graving area.
The graving area at Warton is allegedly littered with ammunition just below the surface, who knows what else lies below and over the edge in the marsh.
By: victor45 - 28th August 2007 at 23:37
harleys in devon
😎 😎 😎 yeah the crated harleys are indeed in devon they are appearing with the boxed dakotas ,should be a great gig:cool: 😎 😎
By: brewerjerry - 28th August 2007 at 23:33
mine shafts
Hi
rumour i heard was the yanks flew them in..:rolleyes:
it’s the one next to the clotted cream mine:D
or was it ivor dewdneys pastie mine.:D
cheers
Jerry
on a serious note
I heard the crated harley’s were in devon;)
By: Denis - 28th August 2007 at 20:29
Of course this old thread contained this relevent gem, http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1004208&highlight=tin+mine#post1004208
I also heard a similar story from another ex Sawbridgeworth vet at the memorial day we held last year.
By: victor45 - 28th August 2007 at 14:35
b17s down cornish mineshafts
hi there v force
thanks for the info as i stated its just a story id heard some years ago and several other people have mentioned it too, however you have been to the source and found no trace so its probably just rumour ,i well remember the contoversy about nancekuke ,in the 60s i saw a documentary about it and there was another chemical weapons establishment mentioned in the programme but i forget the name 😎
By: V Force kid - 28th August 2007 at 14:05
Hello Victor 45,
I grew up in Cornwall, near St Austell and at the end of the war rumour has it that a lot of ex-US military equipment was dumped down mine shafts in the area, accounts vary but normally included ammunition throught to motorcycles. I’ve been a member of the Cornwall mining & Caving Club for quite a while and of the shafts we explored we had never come across anything that modern. One thing that does spring to mind though is that most mining enginners would sink the cheapest and smallest practical shaft through dead (unproductive) ground to reach the mineral lodes, something say 8ftx6ft, they did get a little wider in some of the mines that were still operating during the 20th century due to the increase in size of shaft equipment. However even if you spilt a B-17 into all its subsections you’d still need to chop them up pretty much completely to get them down the shaft…
Now if you were to google nancekuke, that would be a bit different. This was a chemical warfare production plant built on part of RAF Portreath after WW2 using some captured German equipment, apparently some material in this case did end up down some mine shafts when the site was cleared in the 1970’s and there are still some concerns about its toxicity…
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August 27, 2007 at 4:48 pm