British Spitfire to be recovered from Ireland

[Ursus]

An American flying a British spitfire crashed in Ireland. He spent the next several months having soccer matches and drinking games with British and German prisoners of war.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13924720

[caesar novus]

Wow, I would love to be a WW2 archeologist. But the neutrality of Republic of Ireland was a sordid affair, indirectly stemming from a secret WW1 sabotage mission ordered there by the Kaiser. He also had some responsibility for the cold war, due to his secret WW1 support of Lenin's re-entry to Russia. He even affected my Norway holidays, by paying to rebuild Alesund (destroyed by fire) in a uniform art deco style. All by an oldtimer titled like Julius, who wore a pickle spike on his head.

 

The greatest ever single-seat, piston-engined fighter

So this nonsense gets past BBC editors now? Maybe the Spitfire was marginally best on it's introduction, but even the later enhanced versions probably ranked below the top all time 5. Even Nazi top aces can be seen in documentaries giving a nod to that tiresome candidate, P51. The new generation of BBC editors no longer seem to know history or their heritage of understatement. (A Korean war documentary relates that a British tank group was not rescued due to the commander reporting to a UN coordinator only that things were "a bit sticky" when they were totally engulfed with enemy even atop their tanks)

Edited June 29, 2011 by caesar novus

[caldrail]

It amazes me that there are still recoverable wrecks from that period. There must be a finite number, since only so many went down, though if you think about it the numbers involved must have been huge. However, many crashes must have been cleared soon after they occurred. A farmer cannot plough his field effectively if there's a crash-landed bomber sitting on it. Of those left, not all are able to be returned to flying condition sadly, but I remain in awe of people who restore old aeroplanes from crushed and rusty piles of scrap.

[Ursus]

All by an oldtimer titled like Julius, who wore a pickle spike on his head.

 

I like the pickle spikes. German military uniforms always had character.

[Melvadius]

It amazes me that there are still recoverable wrecks from that period. There must be a finite number, since only so many went down, though if you think about it the numbers involved must have been huge. However, many crashes must have been cleared soon after they occurred. A farmer cannot plough his field effectively if there's a crash-landed bomber sitting on it. Of those left, not all are able to be returned to flying condition sadly, but I remain in awe of people who restore old aeroplanes from crushed and rusty piles of scrap.

 

In a lot of instances as much wreckage as possible was retrieved at the time for salvage if nothing else but this was complicated by exploding ordnance or the dynamics of the actual crash - whether a controlled glide or nose first impact, etc. Once everything salvagable had been retrieved from farmland or wherever the simple expedient was to push sufficient soil over any other remains and put the land back into use.

 

However on some sites the planes went into soft ground such as amarsh on this occasion so drove down too deep on impact to be recovered with the technology of the day or else landed on water and sank to the bottom again in an unrecoverable condition. The Battlefield/ aerial recovery groups have been going back through flight loss records looking for sites where something may remain to be recovered. Apparently there is always a demand for more 'authentic' parts for reconstruction of original planes and/or to aid displays in museums often a significant proportion of metal and some other objects can survive in a reasonable condition over a 70 year period.

 

Personally I think they are out of their trees, given how much unexploded ordnance and other nasties like fuel can remain around such crash sites. However if they want to do it and they get permission from the appropriate authorities/ landowners on their own heads be it and good luck to them.

[Northern Neil]

I am more of a Hawker fan, so permit me to mudsling.

Typical! I'm away for two days and miss all this fascinating debate. I take your point about Hawkers - I'm not actually a massive fan of the Spitfire, preferring the Hurricane for style, manoevrability and ability to take more punishment than the Spitfire. And I must confess, I forgot all about sea furys and Tempests, assuming we were talking best piston engined fighter of WWII - although I concede, the Tempest did see limited action before May '45. Typhoons I believe were a bit lacking in manoevrability compared to the Mk. XIV Spitfire. When I was at Duxford last year, the fighter that impressed me the most was actually the P47. Chunky body, 12ft. prop and massive radial enginne - its just a no nonsense beast that, with its eight .50 Brownings, could knock a steam engine off its tracks.