Not Spitfires but buried U-Boat and whatever else?

I was involved in a dig last year I told where it was by the chap that supposedly buried the equipment there on a site where there were supposedly buried jeeps trucks spare etc etc we got the mod involved as well and had magnetometers eventually we had dug in excess of 60 holes down to a depth of 20 feet all over the land and all we came up with was a belt buckle and a 60s dinky milkfloat.. Until some one shows me all this buried equipment i reckon its a load of rubbish

The A1073 between Spalding and Crowland sits on top of a very high bank. Because the soil is mainly silt, the banking was made stronger, with X WW2 tanks. I have seen photos of these tanks, in some photos, an old timer showed me many years ago, so that myth, is a true story, and not a myth.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

True Lincoln 7…know it well.

Hope is always out there! – I would have posted this link elsewhere but it’ll either be deleted or I’ll get another PM!! 😀

it must be worth a dig

My understanding is that this was done around 20 years ago, with disappointing results.

It does seem to confirm that the initial research was sound enough (I was shown a vertical photograph of the site from around the same period as these were taken) but that the area was subsequently cleared some time later.

I wasn’t involved in the project and I never heard a first hand account of it, so how accurate my info is, who knows?

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Summer, 1947 on a top secret R.A.F. air base, deep in the heart of the English countryside.

Looks like a bit of landfill being indulged in.

Albemarle(?) rear fuselages and lots of crates, etc.

Hmmmm…
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Looking at the spot today it must be worth a dig as its just overgrown scrub and you wouldn’t get in anybodys way, so shouldn’t be too difficult to get permission. Could even be some forumites working there now and they don’t even know what could be nearby.

It was all very matter of fact, and i have no reason to dis-believe him as when he said one day, ”there’s a Wellington bomber in that gulley” i had a dig around, and there was (is).

Have you seen this thread
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?129240-Can-A-Wellington-Ever-Fly-Again

Well if anyone’s got a metal detector and a lot of time on their hands my father used to tell me as they were preparing to de-mob the RAF regiment he was in, based at RAF Finningley, they were marched over to Sherwood Forest (a few miles down the road) in full kit and were directed to throw every bit of it, including helmets, rifles, stens, and heavier machine guns, into pits that had been been pre-dug deep in the forest…………..
It was all very matter of fact, and i have no reason to dis-believe him as when he said one day, ”there’s a Wellington bomber in that gulley” i had a dig around, and there was (is).

The wartime Challenger is based on a lengthened Cromwell hull (extra road wheel) with a thinly-armoured turret (different from the ‘Bishop’ turret) mounting a 17-pounder gun. Ugly looking thing!

The story of the the Black Prince (or whichever tank is buried at the prison,)involved the Multi millionaire owner of a very large MV Collection who I worked for at the time. I know he was not one to delve into pure rumour collection-wise.

The Wartime Challenger as I understand was based on ??the Cromwell/Centaur hull Mated with the box turret of the Bishop??

This was certainly what this tank looked like from Photos and how it was put across in the magazine.

A ‘Black Prince’ would seem to be very unlikely as, I think, only six were ever built and one was preserved pristine in the Tank Museum (and I think they have another hulk recovered from the ranges).

I’m fairly sure the (last remaining) Covenanter at the Tank Museum was discovered buried on a country estate and a number of Churchill gun carrier hulks have been unearthed fairly recently. An original Challenger would be a major find as I do not think any others survive.

Ive heard of these tanks before, I stand to be corrected, but I recall a magazine article about a WW2 Challenger- not to be confused with the British Army’s current MBT, which was semi-buried & recovered a few years ago not far from that area.

Adding to that, photo’s of a Buried tank- showing the turret cupola ring, which was similar to the Churchill’s- in Sherwood forest, Notts, published in a 1980’s MVT magazine. Stories persist of a WW2 tank, rumoured to be a Black Prince, buried in the grounds of Ranby Prison, led to serious enquieries for a recovery, which were refused a permit by the Home Office.

I am afraid that tales of buried tanks,

I think that each such claim needs to be very carefully examined.

The A1073 between Spalding and Crowland sits on top of a very high bank. Because the soil is mainly silt, the banking was made stronger, with X WW2 tanks. I have seen photos of these tanks, in some photos, an old timer showed me many years ago, so that myth, is a true story, and not a myth.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

If you got a big excavator and dug down through the Albemarle fuselages to get to those crates…

…you may find a Spitfire in one!!! 😉

Meanwhile…

Summer, 1947 on a top secret R.A.F. air base, deep in the heart of the English countryside.

Looks like a bit of landfill being indulged in.

Albemarle(?) rear fuselages and lots of crates, etc.

Hmmmm…
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Your mention if salvage rights got me thinking.. what exactly would be the legal situation if, say, I wanted to ‘lift the lid’ on the known shafts in Cannock Chase and fish out whatever is down there? Does it belong to the MoD?, The land owner? Or me because I ‘found’ it?

It is well known round here that large quantities of scrap went from Fradley to a number of mine shafts in the area. This was talked about by many lorry drivers in the area some time ago. It was mainly late 1940’s and early fifties. There was a big dump near Matlock which the local radio shop in Matlock got salvage rights and recovered a lot out of it, mainly radio equipment.

I’d heard about the salvage of low-radiation steel from sunken ships but didn’t realise it was so valuable. I wouldn’t have thought you’d get much useable steel from a U-Boat; I doubt there’s a flat plate on them! Can you smelt low-radiation steel without contaminating it?

CD

Times change and now the most valuable part of a scrapped U-Boat is the steel.

Even more valuable is pre war steel protected from the atmosphere by a reasonable layer of sea water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

Low radiation steel provided enough profit for a friend of mine to buy the salvage rights to the turrets of a Scapa cruiser that turned turtle on tow to the scrapper off the north east coast of Scotland. The Kreigsmarine ship was salvaged from the shallow water at the time but the turrets were left on the sea bed.

Each season he would recover a plate section and this provided income for the whole year for him and his extended family.

He described his occupation as 3 day a year scrapman.

The price hike for low radiation steel is still available today for those who wish to dabble.

Regards
Ross

The most valuable part of a submarine is probably the lead in the many batteries; hundreds of tons of it in diesel-electric boats. These lead-acid batteries are designed small enough to fit through the deck-hatches so they can be replaced but if you’re going to scrap a submarine anyway the easiest way to get to them is to cut the top off the hull.

After the end of World War Two the Royal Navy sank over a hundred surrendered German U-Boats in the Irish Sea in ‘Operation Deadlight’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deadlight

I heard that story about the German Sub under the car park in Dartmouth back in the 1970’s. They decided to fill in the inner harbour and turn it into a car park using the sub as in fill. The story goes no one wanted or was interested in it so they buried it in place.

Amazing just because the Burma spits haven’t been found yet according to most they don’t exist. Maybe or maybe not. If however they do get found then all of a sudden all these other so called non existence buried myths will come credible.