This is a very interesting thread. Last year there was a piece on New Zealand television (I have it on tape) about a Stirling crash site in Holland. The Royal Nederlands Air Force has a specialist team that digs up crashed bombers to find missing airmen and give thenm a proper burial. The programme was about a Kiwi police officer who’s uncle was in the crashed plane. It was really interesting, but in particular it was amazing at how little wreckage seemed to remain. It was really swampy soil and I guess this has to be a factor – the soil type and the minerals in that soil are going to dictate whether the metal corrodes away. I guess that Dutch team could easily answer any questions about what can happen under the soil too.

This thread has reminded me of two other cases of buried aircraft. Here in New Zealand a lot of RNZAF planes were buried. Most of the ex-Pacific war RNZAF fighters and bombers were flown to RNZAF Station Rukuhia (now Hamilton International Airport) where No 1 Repair Depot was situated. They were stored in their hundreds, there are many photos around of the graveyard which was apparently there right up till the late 1960’s and some even in the 1970’s. Actually, Ray Hanna’s Kittyhawk and Corsair were both rescued from that graveyard (they are now ‘home’ in New Zealand again, yey!)

Anyway, the Rukuhia runway was extended at one point, and as there was a gully there, they pushed many of the planes into it to use as landfill, and the runway put over the top. There was a suggestion in the late 1980s that some of it could be still ok, and permission was sought to dig around the airfield, but it wasn’t approved. I have a feeling it may have been Royal Aeronautical Society members seeking to do this, don’t quote me on that though.

I was told recently that a huge amount of parts from aircraft are still visible across the road from the airport down a bank, because the people who bought many of the planes for scrap had their smelter there and what they didn’t want they tossed over the bank. I’m talking about parts from Corsairs, Venturas, Kittyhawks, Hudsons, Avengers, etc. apparently still lying in this gully. It is on private land and apparently the owner isn’t interested in people getting them for museums, etc.

The other thing that comes to mind is a news item I saw on TV about 12 years ago or more where aviation enthusiasts had gained permission to dig up the airfield at Taieri, which is now Dunedin’s international airport. During the war Taieri was an Elementary Flying Training School. When the war was over they apparently buried a lot of items that were brand new, straight out of stores. In particular what this gorup was after were crated engines from Tiger Moths. I never heard what became of the dig. Does anyone know what was found?

One further thought on the debate about earthmovers being needed to dig the holes for Lancasters. For one thing, who says the holes were dug, they may have been using Lancs to fill holes, ditches or gullys like at Rukuhia – or maybe they were holes that were caused by bombing? Just a thought.

And also, if they did require earthmovers, surely the RAF would definately have had earthmoving equipment – the RNZAF did. They made their own airfields with them. We had several Aerodrome Construction Squadrons. The RAF must have had the big heavy equipment needed too I would think.

Cheers
Dave