Is there a squadron of Spitfires buried in Birmingham?

This powerful photo from the Guardian might shed light on the fascination/obsession

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/nov/16/landscape-photography-eamonn-mccabe#zoomed-picture

Naaaaa……

The stories I heard years ago about VACBAF were that they had buried Lancasters, which is even more unlikely….! After a/c production had finished at VACBAF, GKN came in to turn it over to car-body production etc. I’ve no doubt that any remnants had all been sent to the scrappy by the time that they moved-in.

The problem with most of these stories is that in almost all cases, there would have been just no incentive whatever to go to all that trouble, when they could just give it to a scrappy – for free if necessary. I know from research many years ago that even when the scrap prices were rock-bottom after the war, stuff just sat around until the prices went up again. At which juncture, every pikey in the UK started to remember where all this junk was…..

I did come across entirely credible stories of stuff being buried out of expediency, when units found that they had stock – but no paperwork for it. Whatever has been buried for seventy years or so is going to be rotted to hell anyway.

Some years ago, I purchased a job-lot of stuff. Some had been stored in a hangar with a damp floor, and some in an old lorry-body. Most of the stuff went to the tip as it was so corroded – and it hadn’t even been buried in the wet ground for seventy years….:rolleyes:

Still, we live in hope eh……..!!! :p

…. crate expectations

Love it!!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Groan. See me after class 😀

Birmingham or Burma

Birmingham or Burma its crate expectations anyway 🙂

Sorry, I used up both of my coats in earlier postings 🙂

Allan

Just round the corner from me.

Regards,

kev35

Not that far from the Chuckery, please don’t tell me you live in Borneo Street?

Regards,

kev35

Nah not that rich :D:D:D:D:D
Had to earn my living in Green lane :diablo:

Regards

Jay

You won’t say that when we depart leaving you a 40ft hole to fill back in.

im looking to grow fish anyway:cool:

You won’t say that when we depart leaving you a 40ft hole to fill back in.

I am really really sure that there are buried aircraft under my allotment, Im am very happy for you all to come along and dig it over to see if you can find something interesting, you cant have my Hurricane Canopy Cloche’s tho

Not that far from the Chuckery, please don’t tell me you live in Borneo Street?

Regards,

kev35

If I said there were some Spitfires buried in my garden would any of you nice gentlemen care to come and dig it for me?

Regards,

kev35

Depends on what part of walsall you live in old chap…if its anywhere near to chuckery, the chances of still owning anything metal in a garden is slim :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Even if there were genuine ones under it I wouldn’t dig it, I personally think they are way overated

If I said there were some Spitfires buried in my garden would any of you nice gentlemen care to come and dig it for me?

Regards,

kev35

Are they the ones mentioned in Kangaroo Crooners, the bimonthly dating magazine for single Austrailian men?

You forgot crated spitfires in the Australian desert :rolleyes:

From the Sheep Shearer’s weekly:

“A Squadron of de Havilland Manchesters, a sort of Spitfire as flown by Red Baron aces of the wartime period, has been unearthed from under a pub car park in Stirling. Angus McVague, 102, said ‘I was one of the lads approached pershonally by Bigglesh to grease them up and bury them, fueled up and ready to go, and.. oh cheersh, yeah, mine’s a double.. ‘

Manchesters-R-us, the company behind the recovery of the jet bi-planes, said ‘The aircraft are perfectly preserved and ready to fly. Probably. Please send cheques to (address supplied)

Wow I have heard about buried Manchesters in Stirling

I read that article, it was in I think sheep shearers weekly?

I have just had the following sent me via email which was posted on another aviation related site today

“There is no substance to this story of any spifires being buried under the housing at Castle Bromwich, which seems to rear its ugly head every decade or so , this gentleman I feel may be confusing his story with one of being involved in the episode in 1940’s when the RAF had Air ministry authorisation to dispose of some time expired surplus piston engines on the airfield and was buried in a pit on part of the airfield which was recovered prior to the RAF leaving in 1960.I actually saw a copy of the order which gave the authoristion and way of disposal of a total of 9 engines of which 3 were merlins ,which was kept by the RAF nco which was made responsible for carrying out the order. I interviewed this ex NCO in the 1980’s who had settled in nearby Solihull after he left the service.He was told by his CO to use a local building contractor who used self employed labour to dig the pit and bury the crated engines, just before the RAF was leaving the airfield he was contacted by the station commander and was asked to disclose the position of the buried engines, the next day the pit was re dug and the engines was disposed of by the RAF 3 days before the official closure.
One only has to look at maps of the airfield between 1945 and 1960 to see that there was no where to bury crated spitfires without stopping the day to day movement of a service establishment plus a part of it was owned by the birmingham council since 1915 at the same time.
Most of the site was built on forming the castle vale housing estate, which over the years has been knocked down and replaced by new housing and shopping parades, schools and warehousing so anything would have been found by the builders of each new phase.
Regarding the saga of the burmese spitfires, despite a recent press conference at the IWM in London last week there is still no proof that these even exist, the statment reading that actual digging will take place in late January to early March period of 2013 so we will await till then to see if the rumours are true or not.
If I had a £1 for every time I have heard of buried spitfires and engines at Castle Bromwich I could now buy one next week, even after the war until 1960 even a unused spitfire had value, they was brought back by Vickers and refurbished and sold overseas airforces including Ireland, was used in training schools , certainly not crated and disposed of by the RAF by buriel.
Whilst we are at it the rumour of a spitfire propellor being blown into the of the roof of the spitfire factory which is now the jaguar factory and still there is untrue has well
Can assure everybody the rumours were looked into and proven beyond doubt they were just rumours many years ago however No doubt the current householders, Castle Vale housing trust along with the local police will now have to put up with idiots with thier metal detectors and JCb’s in back gardens digging up thier metal lottery tickets until the story dies down for another decade.”

Firebex, have just asked someone you know in birmingham and he confirms your story about the parts etc being found under the old fire engine bay building on the site of the spitfire factory, the projector which was found was used to transfer the linen drawings onto paper to be used in the factory, all the glass negatives were found as well but sadly destroyed when the building was demolished and a factory extension built.He has some of the spares which was found at another time in the factory.

Regards

Jay

Wow I have heard about buried Manchesters in Stirling