Interesting piece – but it was quite clear that despite the preamble, suggesting that the USAAF buried a lot of surplus stuff, what was recovered was a rubbish tip.
I would be interested to know if they recovered anything other than ‘rubbish’. Clearly, one mans rubbish, is, 65 years on of more than passing interest to enthusiasts, but what else is there to find? Anyone?
Bruce
Bruce, I wanted to comment on your posting in respect to the excavation site being a ‘rubbish tip’. I’m not sure where you sourced your information from or were you one of the team members that was present on the dig?
On a point of accuracy the site covers many acres & there were only two trenches cut in the weekend operation as the team were saturated with many tons of buried parts. At no time as far as I am aware did the team encounter any evidence of a ‘rubbish tip’. 90% of the items recovered were identifiable aircraft parts, the team still don’t know what remains buried on the site until further excavations are made.
From the information I have it would appear certain areas of the site were used to dispose of specific parts. It has since been discovered that the site was used a secondary scrapping site for the 53 MU who were in overall control of Rushall Airfield where the 2nd & 3rd Air Divisions took all cat E aircraft for parts recycling & re-issue.
The story of buried Jeeps & Aircraft engines has been propagated & embellished since the USAAF departed & was principally the reason why the dig was undertaken, I don’t think anyone in that team believed for a fleeting moment they were going to uncover such items but were motivated to do so purely to dispel those myths & prove to the contrary.
The website http://www.usaaf.co.uk site clearly illustrates just a small percentage of what was actually found in greater detail & it was unrealistic to think a 10 minute program could ever give the viewer anymore than just a taste of what really took place over that weekend & to draw a conclusion that the site was just a ‘rubbish tip’ without actually having any knowledge of:
i.)the history of the site
ii.) the dig in its entirety
iii.) or contact with any members of the team who dug the site
to get an exclusive account before making such a posting is quite insulting to those team members who worked incredibly hard to try & uncover the truth behind these legendary aviation dumping grounds that we have heard so much about.
Disappointing to read such a negative & dismissive response to the first real well organised, thorough & privately funded investigation into this aspect of aviation archaeology.
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