I just came across this (snippet below) on this web site on Oxfordshire villages
http://ox18.net/cartertonrafhist1942to50.htm
Yes yes we’ve heard it all before, but has anybody ever looked into this ?
Typhoon/Mosi parts came out a pit near South Cerney, only 15 miles away & turrets out of other pits near Faiford also nearby
So…….. a possibility ?????
“Perhaps the most interesting aspect of 6 MU’s work at this time however, was the storage of captured German aircraft after their evaluation at Farnborough, or use as “hacks” by the occupying forces. The first to arrive was a Junkers Ju. 188 on the 10th May, and between then and 1947, when the last new arrivals were received, around 70 aircraft were handled, the most numerous being the Junkers Ju. 52/3M and the Messerschmitt Me. 163B, with about 20 examples of each.
In addition to storage, the German aircraft were also sent out to various exhibitions, including Hyde Park in September 1945 (Me 163, He 162, Me 108, Me 110, Fw 190, Ju 88 and Fi 156) and Brize Norton’s own Battle “At Home” Day on the same day (15th September) when the following were displayed: Ju 52/3M, Ar 234B, Fw 190, Fw 189, Ju 188, Ju 88, Me 262, He 162, He 219, Si 204. In addition, another He 162 plus an Me 163 were despatched to Little Rissington on loan for their open day.
Although some aircraft were passed to 47 MU at Sealand, 76 MU at Wroughton and various other RAF stations in ones and twos, the vast majority lingered on at Brize, with the larger aircraft open to the elements until the bad winter of 1946/47 took its toll. Many of the aircraft were overturned in the gales, and others suffered from falling trees, and shortly after this, the wholesale scrapping began. The aircraft were taken to the south side of the airfield where 6 MU were already scrapping Spitfires, Spitefuls and Liberators. After all useful pieces and large metal areas had been removed, the mortal remains were buried in twenty feet deep holes where they remain to this day. This burial process was quite common with another pit being sited out beyond Brize Norton village in farmland, to accommodate the remains of aircraft that had been stored in dispersed sites.”
By: Rocketeer - 3rd November 2005 at 20:46
I lived in Witney from 1979 to 1984. I would cycle around the county and area picking up Spitfire mainwheels, tailwheels and glider wheels from ditches, gardens etc.
We dug up on the dumps referred to in about 2000/1, we could not (were not allowed to) take in a digger…found some Spiteful parts…only small….the site is built on as is another where we found 14+ spitfire windscreen units and about 1000 others off other aircraft types. Also dug various maintenance units…those were the days!!
the main German stuff is apparently under the runway!
By: Steve Bond - 3rd November 2005 at 15:39
This is true. When I was stationed at Brize in the 1970s, I researched and wrote the station history, and this story quickly came to light. The exact area of the buried remains was identified, and a trial trench dug. This brought up bits of washing machines and other domestic bits and pieces, plus some tools, all dumped by the USAF when they pulled out in 1965. Regrettably, it was all dumped on top of the German aircraft remains. We know this from a few odd, very small, bits of structure, wiring, etc, that came up. I also visited a private house in nearby Carterton village, whose owner had all sorts of interesting small parts stored in his shed.
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November 3, 2005 at 2:53 pm