WW2 USAAF bombers buried at Andrewsfield, Essex?

[Stan Sted]

A relative of mine who used to fly from Andrewsfield/Great Saling in Essex, heard a rumour that many USAAF airframes and engines were buried on the airfield at the end of the Second World War.

It was claimed that rather than waste time and money shipping redundant B26s back to the States they were trundled into huge trenches dug by earthmovers and simply covered up.

My uncle, who was an engineering buff and a collector of wartime memorabilia (as a teenager he nicked a .50 cannon from the wartime wreckage of a Mustang which crashed in Essex after the pilot baled out) tried to investigate the claims about buried aircraft and often flew circuits around Andrewsfield looking for signs of such sites.

Are they any ex-USAAF guys out there who know anything about these rumours? And did this sort of thing go on at other ex RAF and USAAF bases in 1945/6?

[New Bloke]

Hi Stan

So many of these stories abound that I wonder if they are apocryphal. I have heard of buried Spitfires and Huricanes in Aus and many years ago I used to work in Germany for the US forces (long story) and was based at an old Airfield near Mannhiem.

I am struggling to remember the name of the Kassern, but rumour had it that a heap of Ju87 (Stukas) were hangared underground and when the Allies invaded, the hangars were flooded. Some of the Guys sore blind that these planes were still there.

It would be nice if it were true.

[Spiney Norman]

Yep! There's certainly a load of these sort of stories. Some of which are very likely true. Ages ago, when I was doing my Approach Radar course, one of my instructors had been based at Colerne in 1945 and told me that he had been involved in the burying of a number of Miles Masters on the airfield. Apparently the Royal Engineers had dug a very large pit with a slope into it from one side and the aircraft where taxied in and buried!
There was also the story as to what used to cause the magnetic anomolies at the 27 holding point at East Midlands. Some said buried aircraft parts, others possible buried ordenance. However, when the current runway extension was built nothing was found. It would be great if someone did find something at one of these sites though!

Spiney

[Unwell_Raptor]

I would be sceptical for the most part, for a few simple reasons. For a start aeroplanes are an awkward shape and size to bury. And where would the spoil go? For another thing, scrap ally was very valuable, and some Bilko type would have flogged it.
There is plenty of evidence that surplus ammunition was dumped at sea, however, and that a lot of it is still down there.

[excrewingbod]

Well some of these stories are very true.....

About 10 years ago, I was told a story about aircraft, Fairey Barracudas, being 'buried' at a local airfield, so one day, with my best friend in tow, we headed to the airfield with a metal detector.

After about 5 minutes of searching, we literally fell over some rusty old 'farm equipment'. Being inquistive, on closer examination I found what looked to be a fuel filler cap. Then we found bits of metal with round holes in it, which turned out to be part of an aileron.

We took some photos and sent a letter to the MOD asking permission to remove parts etc. The MOD passed the letter onto the Fleet Air Arm Musuem, who were very interested in the find, and they sent up the curator, Graham Motram.

He took some photos and confirmed that we had found the centre sections, complete with wing folding mechanisim, of at least five Fairey Barracudas. We also found other parts around the site, which went on for 30 metres around the centre, such as bomb shackles, data plates, hydraulic/fuel pipes.

The museum were rightly excited about the find, as there were in the process of restoring a Barracuda, as there are no complete examples anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, due to the 'location' of the parts and lack of funds, they were unable to recover the visible parts, nor do an excavation of the site.

Anyway, when the curator was up, he was telling us about the museums hunt for Barracuda parts, and he said they used to literally chase any story about buried aircraft, as most times there was a small element of truth to them. In fact they had even sent a team upto this airfield many years previously, but they never found anything.

So you never know what you may find on some of these old airfields.......

[Gainesy]

While researching something else I stumbled across this web site[URL=http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/quarry.htm[/URL]
(If the link fails look up Archerfield Quarry on Google).
I know lots of US-built Lease/Lend a/c and spares were dumped at sea from RN carriers at the end of the war so perhaps some land-based aircraft were bulldozed in as more economical than shipping them back to the USA?
Hmm... how much WD40 to get a waterlogged Stuka running? <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[Bus429]

One hears about buried aircraft from time to time. If the aircraft were boxed and brand new, digging them up and rebuilding them to fly is a possibility. However, an aircraft buried as is would suffer the usual natural rigours. Aluminium alloys and magnesium bits would have suffered greatly. I have seen aircraft that were parked on prairies in Canada for "only" 30 years and they were bad enough (mind you, one and then another of this particular type has since flown).
Remember the P38 recovered from Greenland (one due to fly very soon)? They were new when they were force landed but were a bit bent when recovered.
However, where there is a will...

[Steepclimb]

I remember a story about boxed Lancasters buried in a quarry.
They were there all right, but had been effectively fossilised when they were finally surveyed.

I also read about buried Luftwaffe underground hangars filled with booby trapped aircraft. There must be an element of truth there. But I haven't heard anything lately.

Imagine how much that lot would be worth.

[newswatcher]

Stan,

Got this from a quick search, quite interesting!

<a href="http://indianamilitary.org/FreemanAAF/FF_museum.html" target="_blank">http://indianamilitary.org/FreemanAAF/FF_museum.html</A>

[Stan Sted]

Newswatcher

What a great story...thanks for digging it out. It would be fantastic if the interest in digging for aircraft or parts being generated here on PPRuNe leads to an amazing find somewhere in the world.

Perhaps we ought to form PPRuNeX (an excavation arm of Sir Danny's empire) and submit any finds to PPRuNeM (a PPRuNe air museum).

cheers

SS

[ShyTorque]

My Father, an apprentice working for a company connected with RR during WWII told me about a quarry where many dozens of unused Merlin engines were dumped. I'll bet there's not much left now though.

[ 02 January 2002: Message edited by: ShyTorque ]</p>