IMAM Ro 37 wreck discovered in Afghanistan! (link)

In a survey of surviving Italian-built WW II-aircraft published in Flypast in the early 1990s, there was brief mention of some IMAM Ro 37 wreckage surviving in Ethiopia. Any news on these?

Regards,

Jan

It’s promising, in that someone has got close enough to take photos and is still here to tell the tale. Could be an interesting exercise for an EOD team (not that there’s a shortgage of mined areas there).

‘It says here’ that Ro.37s were used by the Regia Aeronautica in the Spanish Civil War and 275 of them were on strength when Italy entered WWII. They served on the front line in East and North Africaand the Balkans. Virtually all had been retired by the armisitice.

It’s time now to retrieve some of those wrecks, Cheers, Cees

Good idea, you go poking around in the scrap yard with a long, thick stick. I’ll hide behind this stack of sand bags until the bang has subsided, any other volunteers????

The area is heavily mined and possibly booby trapped, though I believe avenues to recover these rare airframes are being investigated, it will be a while.

This appears to be the famous scrapyard which covers a large area and has numerous devices planted within it. I imagine the aircraft belong to the scrapyard owner and after that the government has some influence if they are deemed cultural property.
The situation in Afghanistan with antiquities being raided for sale in the West is a disgrace – it would be nice to think that at some stage in the future we can view these countries as sovereign states and not just places to raid .

What an amazing find! It’s time now to retrieve some of those wrecks (and not forgetting the Afghans themselves, especially if there are multiple wrecks around). Now if only a Halifax is lurking somewhere as well.

Cheers

Cees

One of these, in case you are wondering.

That definatley Anson!! Wonder What else is there…? Does that wing section look like Sea Fury?

That would be an Anson 18…

If you look here there are all sorts of possible goodies!!!!

http://www.worldairforces.com/Countries/afghanistan/afg.html

can anyone id the wing section to the right in the first photo?

I thought those undercarriage legs had a distinctly Ansonian look about them. In the second shot there appear to be two u/c legs. maybe attached to two wings, though it’s hard to judge exactly.

Afghanistan received a number of Anson Mk. 18 trainers in 1948/49.

Wonder What else is there…?

Given the photos a while back of Hawker Hart/Hind/Audax airframes (OK, I forget which, and there are sooo many variants) the correct answer to that question is probably “almost anything!”.

Of course we must be aware that somene – Afghan Government? – presumably has a title to these, so there must be more to retrieving them than just rolling up with a regiment and a big carrier bag… mustn’t there?

Adrian

That definatley Anson!! Wonder What else is there…? Does that wing section look like Sea Fury?

The gear leg visible behind attachement to a bit of wing behind the fuselage in the foreground of the 2nd piccie is of a different type. Looks something like the leg of an Anson or similar.

Good catch, guys… it does indeed appear there are at least TWO here. The Italian Air Force Museum must be absolutely thrilled about right now… 🙂

Lynn

What a find! Is this one or two airframes though? The photos look different. The shot looking towards the engine seems not to have the tail attached while the airframe in the other shot seems to have the tail still on and to be much more surrounded by other wreckage.

There are at least two different airframes there ……….