More Rumours of Buried Aircraft

For those experiencing ‘digging fatique’ here is a little genuine treasure to lift the spirits. See P.38 cockpit

”Remote villages are always filled with an odd mix of people, and Cold Bay in Alaska in the early 1960’s was no different. At the local tavern, an evening could be spent listening to the “old timers’ tales.” One that I heard over and over was that at the end of World War II “they hauled old airplanes out and buried them.” I eventually wandered around this area near Cold Bay Airfield and actually found a few pieces of sheet metal that definitely came from an old airplane. Maybe they (the old timers) weren’t crazy!”

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/people/photos/odgers/

My error
Phoned my mate tonight and asked him about the FW190 and he called me an idiot and various welsh words. It was only one aircraft that was there and not 2
Ian

I see you have dug it up then, he said to my mate.

Why would he say that? According to the tale he knew there were two and had only buried one. He would assume that he was looking at the other.

Moggy

Well here is a story about buried aircraft. The aircraft in question a 2 Seater FW190. Whilst attending an air display at RAF St. Athan back in the late 80’s I was in the crew room in the museum when my mate came over to me and told me of a conversation he just had with an elderly gentleman that was on the base during and after the war. I see you have dug it up then, he said to my mate. He went on to say that we had 2 and was told to get rid of one of them, so we dug a hole and buried it as ordered and gave my mate the location. We both wanted to question him again, but the elderly gentleman had left the building. We did go over the area with a mag that worked now and then and other metal detectors that didnt go down to a great depth. So is it still there?
Ian

I feel sad that I saw a written description with drawings of the aircraft at Lennoxlove from an actual eye witness, who has since passed away, without ensuring they were recorded somewhere. I wonder if there are any photographs taken at the time. (In addition to the Battle? in the East Lothian at war page.)

That would be far ore interesting to me!

I was commenting on the GE photos generally, rather than specifically about this site. If one looks at wartime aerodromes and sets the GE date to 1945, it’s not uncommon to see no trace of any aerodrome and lots of (Big.) trees. Just one example would be Defford.

The finds at Aston Down were where scrap aircraft sections were used as landfill along with asbestos tailings, to fill a hole in a field. I understand it was a similar story at Somerford Keynes where an old gravel pit was leveled with Typhoon parts, Note the later was a non-airfield location. The chap who dug these holes also dug a good number of others guided by period aerial photo’s of scrap piles and found them empty.

In the late 80’s a chap I spoke to who was involved on the scarping themselves told me many of the burials were only temporary because;-
1. the aircraft were broken up by traveling gangs of contractors who could produce large piles of scrap in a very short time
2. the scrap, consisted of mixed Aluminum and steel had to go to a specialized vertical separator smelter for recycling. This meant a hauling it by train to Coventry and there were several bottle necks in this process. Also Aluminum prices crashed which, for periods, made recycling uneconomic.
3. The airfield commander didn’t like piles of un-slightly scrap in public view.

In general, natural depressions were filled as opposed to new holes dug and no finesse was used;- Bulldozer crushed the material into the holes and fuel was burnt off. Most, but not quite all the holes, were gradually emptied as time went on. There were even stories of farmers making a tidy profit by selling unemptied caches of material after the land had been returned to them.

My advice based on this would be, ignore where you can see piles of scrap on period pictures, but compare period surface maps with those of today and investigate the missing holes or surface depressions.

Been watching this and the Burma thread with interest, takes a while to get registered doesn’t it!
I live in a house on one corner of what was once Grange airfield in Gosport. In WW2 it was RAF Gosport. When I was a boy we regularly turned up .303 rounds, links and on one occasion at least, belted ammunition from our back garden. My Grandmother actually served on the airfield and told us that our house was built on top of the airfield dump. Since the airfield was attacked a few times and had its share of crashes I imagine several aircraft must have spent time lying there before disposal. There is a large rectangular depression appeared over the years and one day I’m going to run a test pit into it and see what turns up. I should imagine there would be small finds and possibly more ammunition! Oh yea, we found a 20mm cannon shell once too. RAF Gosport became HMS Siskin and about half a mile away according to a persistent story the remains of two Wyverns lie buried. Now military equipment does get buried when it doesn’t justify the shipping space to bring it home from overseas deployment. The Centurion ARRVs buried after the 1st gulf war for instance. However, this is also very close to the aircraft repair yard at Fleetlands and the then RNAS Lee on Solent so it seems most unlikely. There’s a bowling green there now mind so it should be possible to scan but there is a very high water table here. Just more rumours but Someday I will dig the garden a bit deeper than usual!

Re 45

“dance naked…”

You’ve been peeping.

Public apology to Orion. Sorry. Having a bad day.

Accepted of course! We all have our moments, and I’m not at all immune.

Regards

I feel sad that I saw a written description with drawings of the aircraft at Lennoxlove from an actual eye witness, who has since passed away, without ensuring they were recorded somewhere. I wonder if there are any photographs taken at the time. (In addition to the Battle? in the East Lothian at war page.)

This thread has been derailed by a misunderstanding. To be clear, nobody was suggesting buried aircraft. The OP called it ‘…RUMOURS of buried aircraft, reporting the rumours, not the aircraft. I foolishly put my head over the parapet and suggested that, rather than whole aeroplanes there may be some bits left behind as this was often what MU’s did. As these bits might include components of an extinct aircraft I am involved with re-creating then I implied an enthusiasm to have a look. Nothing more. There is no currency in calling this thread a fantasy, and yes I over-reacted – mainly because the post doing that was unfortunately timed. John, I shouldn’t have put the Glastonbury jab in – for all I know you dance naked around the stones at the top of the green field every year 😉

As I thought would ‘:-)’

This entire matter is just a fantasy, a delusional fantasy.

I’ve had my tongue planted firmly in my cheek the whole time. I thought ‘Next stop; crated Whirlwinds’ would do the job!

Could it be that the replies were published at a time when it was ‘a good day to bury news’ ?

From a file at TNA…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]236418[/ATTACH]

Unfortunately, there are no replies in the file. Unless someone pinched them, of course…:D

Public apology to Orion. Sorry. Having a bad day.

Amazing. Had the alleged Burma spits been found then buried crated aircraft would exist at airfields everywhere and people would be massing to dig them up like rabbits. But as the Burma Spits so far have not been found, its all a myth and that its thought every aircraft scrapped was recycled and disposed of right down to the last rivet. Though personally I know this is not the case. That’s my two pennies worth. :eagerness:

Laugh it up, John. I’d rather have a sensible conversation with no twits chirping in.

FFS!!!!!!

Did you just read what I wrote?

Who’s fantasising?????? The OP was reporting what locals said. Nobody else has suggested there are buried aeroplanes. However, please refer to the case of Aston Down where components were buried. Also dumped in quarries, re Aspatria. We know this because they have been found. Real. Actual. In the flesh. I personally have exhaust stacks and an undercarriage ram that I found in the soil at Aston Down – or is that a delusional fantasy too?

Nothing is definite, or even likely. But that some components were buried is completely possible, and it is also possible that this is what started the folk-tales of whole aeroplanes (exactly what happened at Aston Down, and probably in Burma too).

Calling people delusional is not very nice, is it? No need.

Dear, dear me ! Handbags girls ! Yes, you are right, at least in one respect, I do like a good rant but, it does take one to know one. But, in this case, I’m just laughing.