NutLoose (#70),
..."By the way, you didnt happen to see them burying some Spitfires did you?"...
The "Great Buried Burma Spitfire Delusion" (I will not say "hoax", for the originator was plainly sincere, having "put his money where his mouth was"), cries out for psychological explanation (perhaps someone should write a Ph.D thesis on it).
If you Google > Buried Spitfires in Burma, take the website: "Spitfires in Burma: the lost Burmese Spitfires - British Airshows", there is a fair account of this strange story. It is wholly improbable (nothing is impossible) for several reasons. We were the Government of Burma till mid 1948. This was supposed to have happened in 1945. If something on this scale had taken place, there would be official record of it. And who or what could possibly benefit from such a burial and subsequent exhumation ? (the "Cui Bono ?" argument). Admittedly, there were a lot of Mk.IVs in use out there by the IAF and others of various Marks in Europe at the war's end, and we supplied many other airforces. But most of the surplus (of all Marks) was put to the axe (what a pity !)
I was in India until March 1946 (although I'd left Burma in summer 1944), and there was never a word about any such "burial" at the time they were supposed to have taken place. Nothing has been found since. We have to conclude, sadly, that it was only a pipe dream !
But what a dream ! It had everything - the "buried treasure" aspect, the (seemingly) plausible story to back it up. When it first hit the headlines in 2012, there was a "willing suspension of disbelief" all round. Even I (I'm ashamed to say), Posted a couple of times on "Aviation History and Nostalgia", with possible scenarios for a 1942 burial (after the loss of Singapore) and a 1945/6 one of Mk.XIVs. Must've been daft ! Mass hysteria, I suppose - but it was grand while it lasted !
Danny.