Underground Hangars To protect war planes

Did you get sweet and sour sauce with those pictures or rice or noodles?

Just a bit of sunburn round the neck. The noodles came later…:rolleyes:

John

Or you could try bunkerbernie – he knows the location of some in Oz apparently.

Cheers Paul

LMFAO:D

Proof.
I have today found 3 examples of British types housed in an underground hangar.

There was a Mosquito replica as well but lighting conditions were extremely poor so didn’t photograph it.

The hangar in question..

I’ll post some more from the same location in a new thread when I get the time.

Did you get sweet and sour sauce with those pictures or rice or noodles?

British types in Underground hangars

Proof.
I have today found 3 examples of British types housed in an underground hangar.

There was a Mosquito replica as well but lighting conditions were extremely poor so didn’t photograph it.

The hangar in question..

I’ll post some more from the same location in a new thread when I get the time.

If I recall correctly as you head south from Kemble to join the M4 aren’t there some hangers on the right (now an army base???) camoflaged just as Paul F describes …………………………..

These are the hangers at ex.RAF Hullavington, lots of detail pics http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/atlantikwall_html/001_atlantikwall_site/home.html

…should be suggesting they have title to an undiscovered spitfire project which they need help liberating!

If they did that I might reply!

Peter

well,
to take this further, if the conspiracy stretches so far as to allow full readiness in the event of a nuclear attack, followed by complete electrical interference, one would assume the crews are also kept on standby, and fully current.
So, what are they maintaining currency on??
Maybe the focus should be on ARCO and their 2 seater! are they secretly keeping these crews up to scratch?,

John R must know something.

In reality, the lure of the buried, hidden and lost, in particular the Spitfire is so strong, that people who in most cases should know better are willing to hang on any scrap of information in the remote hope it pans out.

Perhaps all those Nigerian scams we all receive have it wrong, instead of Doctor whoever suggesting he has an unclaimed fortune and is willing to transfer 50 percent if you would only help him complete the deal, should be suggesting they have title to an undiscovered spitfire project which they need help liberating!

The hangars referred to by PaulF are E (concrete), L and Lamella (steel) type hangars, they exist on most MUs (St Athan, Llandow, Wroughton, Aston Down, Kemble, cosford etc) and are large arched designs. They can indeed be covered in a thin layer of turf (some of Cosfords still are), but they are definately built on ground level, not sunken or even buried, and have doors at each end.
The buried hangars at Manston are 1918 era Aircraft Repair Sheds with strengthened roof trusses.

The Dorman Longs Blister Hangar seems to be the only one that might meet your criteria. Not many of them about (let alone covered over!).
Nice (wild!) thought. But, if it were to be true, then only a very small percentage of a very small percentage would shout “hurrah”. The price of fish, petrol, gas, electric, etc, would not be influenced in the slightest. Can we try to keep things in proportion – and in the real world – not in some Alice-in-Wonder-Squadron make-believe world?
Just a thought?!!!
Resmoroh

If I recall correctly as you head south from Kemble to join the M4 aren’t there some hangers on the right (now an army base???) camoflaged just as Paul F describes.

This is a great story (and I hope it’s true!) but I just can’t believe it. The odd plane in a barn will turn up from time to time but 70+ Sptifires in an underground hanger – no.

From memory (and not having access to my reference book here at the office), wasn’t one of the standard RAF MU hangar types designed with a gently curved roof line down to ground level, so that it could easily be covered with earth/grass to help camouflage it – the “J-type” perhaps?

So, putting all the pieces together, we have:

1. Stories of “cocooned Fighters(Spitfires?)” – such storage is most likely to have happenened at an RAF MU base rather than an active strike command base – as Mark 12’s post seems to confirm.

2. Stories of hangars being buried (for which I read ‘covered’)in earth – these are known to have existed at some MUs, I am sure some exmaples of that hangar type in the Midlands were earth or turf-covered for camouflage rather than “buried” or built “underground” for protection.

3. Bulldozers moving earth on RAF base(s) to cover taxiways/hangars etc, in the mid-fities period. Well, the possibility seems highly likely as the RAF closed some bases, and or returned parts of others to agriculture during that period – IIRC. So no doubt someone would have seen taxiways being removed or buried somewhere at this time.

Putting all these elements together, it seems to me that there is an obvious, easy, and seemingly logical mistake to be made by confusing all these elements, that are each individually valid/proven, but melding them into one (or more) “scenarios” that take all the known components, but add them together and then embellish them slightly – lo and behold, a story that cocooned Spitfires were stored in hangars that were then deliberately “buried” and all traces of taxiways etc removed.

Add in a smattering of the mid-fifties ‘cold war paranoia’, deliberate mis-information, and/or “chinese whispers”, plus a further forty or more years of fading memory as to dates and locations, and it does not seem impossible that someone somewhere genuinely believes he/she remembers seeing first hand (or hearing second hand) brand new Spits being cocooned, placed in hangars that were then deliberately “buried”, after which all traces of taxiways to those hangars was removed.

So, I’m with the majority on this, I believe the story has it’s origins in a series of proven, but slightly mis-remembered events that probably all happened at much the same time period, but at different bases.

As for the fact that the site contains(ed) seventy plus spitfires – surely the deliberate “misplacement” of so many airframes would have surfaced by now (pardon the pun)? Someone would have uncovered the records, or gaps in same, by now.

– Any chance of seeing photos of wider areas including the locations shown in the two photos – i.e. have you tried relating the areas shown in the relatively “close up” photos to site maps of likely candidate airfields? The photos posted are so closely “cropped” that there seem to be few clues in the immediate surroundings that would positively identify the location airfield(s) beyond doubt.

Sorry, nice story, no doubt with some elements of truth at its root, but I don’t expect to see a Wing of newly unearthed/restored late mark Spits at Legends anytime soon… but I’d love to be proven wrong.

Cheers
Paul F

Damn it CD – sussed!

Ah! But you would say that, wouldn’t you…..you’re one of them, aren’t you…..you’re on the payroll! :diablo:

Just to keep this ticking over!While training at St Athan there was a rumour that there were underground hangers on 19 M.U. This was based on the amount of traffic into the MU and the lack of traffic coming out!Mainly Hunters and possibly Javelins if my memory serves me well!!

ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE – AT ALL!

I work here, have researched the history, have the site plans, walked every inch, spoken to important people here from the stations creation in 1938, and there are no underground hangars or storage here.
19 MU dispersed its stored aircraft to the NW of the camp in fields, and the taxiway wich links St Athan and Llandow, 32 MU at Llandow did the same, but to the SE of their camp, both units meeting in the middle, a large scrapping area was situated along the joining taxiway.

You’re right about many more aircraft coming in than going out, but then one of the stations’ roles was the wholesale stripping, disposal and scrapping of many RAF aircraft. Started with Heyfords in the late ’30s, through to VC-10s in the early 2000s. Squadrons of Javelins did indeed fly in, but they were scrapped over the road on the Picketston site.

Seriously, underground storage of aircraft in this country is a fantasy.

Undergound Hangars

This is true about St Athan, Spitfires were cocooned and stored underground at the site in 1953, I heard there are underground Hangars there beneath some of the Hangars visible.

M:)

Underground

Just to keep this ticking over!While training at St Athan there was a rumour that there were underground hangers on 19 M.U. This was based on the amount of traffic into the MU and the lack of traffic coming out!Mainly Hunters and possibly Javelins if my memory serves me well!!

Isnt Methane produced in the continual decomposition of organic material ?

M.:rolleyes:

Yes that’s right caused by “rot” – but like nitrogen it’s also a gas, hence the comparison that was being used! :rolleyes: :confused:

Unless you were talking about liquid nitrogen – then it’s a whole new ball game; refrigeration plant requirements etc etc :confused:

Perhaps that’s what was meant by the Cold War!!

Undergound Hangars

Remember this was the cold War and some really stange stuff was stored both here and overseas, If a Nuclear attack had hit Britain, it is said, the next War would have been fought with Bows and Arrows, Jets needed long Runways, surely more Pilots that could fly Spitfires than Jets at the time. Isnt Methane produced in the continual decomposition of organic material ?

M.:rolleyes:

I don’t wish to sound cynical, but I’ve heard all this before.
In the 80’s enthusiasts were sure that a cache of steam locomotives were hidden away in underground tunnels, possibly in the Shropshire area.
It was a well known fact that some countries did do this, ie Finland, as a strategic reserve in case of nuclear attack, well it stood to reason, steam locos weren’t affected by EMP after a nuclear attack, they would always blunder through.
Certain classes of locomotive that lasted almost to the end of steam, admittedly vanished off the face of the earth, Granges, Austerities, early 9F’s, people claim to have seen lines of these things in large caverns, but 40 years on, I can’t think that the government would want to hold on to these things anymore, so, inevitably, it was obviously a well formulated myth.
Why any government would want to preserve Spitfires in the age of the Mig 15 and Sabre, is beyond me, unless of course they are neatly lined up with ex GWR Granges of the same vintage, hoping to save the free world.

Wouldnt the earth covering stop the air entering ? Air would only be in the loose disturbed soil, There would be a few feet of soil over the top and the doors were sealed.

M.:confused:

Doubt it!

Methane gas leeching from spent landfill sites [covered with metres of earth] is a believed to be a contributor to green house gases – many former sites try to collect the escaping gas and burn it off.

Nitrogen would come out the same way by a process called diffusion.