Hi,
This has got me wondering have any WWII era planes or vehicles that were crated and buried ever found?
Nigel.
Strangely enough Nigel the answer is “perhaps”.
During WWII the Germans knowing it would be difficult to battle the British fleet on the surface due to inferior ships and port location recalled the success of WWI with submarines and decided to refine the methology and equipment. It was decided to blockade the Brits by intercepting cargo ships as the coasted in and sink them using a system called “Wolfpacks” groupings of submarines instead of single submarine attacks.
To oppose this the Allies in a stroke of defense began to group the cargo ships into “convoys” for mutual protection and escorting.
Of course this resulted in large sea battles with the submarines typically getting the upper hand during the start of the war. A shipping sank it became apparent that replacement ships were needed badly, enter the American hero/industrialist Henry Kaiser, who proceeded to produce Liberty and Victory ships through a systematic production line that stamped them out like sausages and saved the British bacon. But that’s getting a little ahead of the story.
During the height of cargo ship sinking it became clear to another individual named Howard Hughes that submarines were not suited to intercepting cargo planes so one solution was to build an Altantic crossing large cargo aircraft to ship supplies and troops. An added benefit would be a quicker transit time.
Initially he paired with Henry Kaiser and both committed to the project which had to be produced out of non strategic materials. Henry later removed himself from the project but ultimately Mr. Hughes completed and flew (once, after the war, amid much controversy) what was called the HK-4, H-4, Spruce Goose.
With the primary structure of wood this was quite a feat and frankly the material was not strong enough for the loads. I spoke with Glenn Odekirk (maybe spelled incorrectly) directly about this and he stated during the one flight the tail stabilizers both vertical and horizontal began to show signs of crushing on certain fittings. This information was not disseminated out to the public, but was the reason the aircraft was parked….. For future repair and modifications…. For an around the world flight…. For a Hughes produced “James Bond” type movie…. And then television series…. And then forgotten into the buried resources of Hughes Industries as they prursued helicopter manufacture, airline ownership, radar targeting systems, satellites, ect.
The aircraft was largely forgotten in a humidity controlled sealed hangar for decades that was never viewed by the outside.
And then one day it was dumped out to the public sector with little explanation other than it was to costly to store.
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