The sponsor of a
British-led team hunting for dozens of rare World War II Spitfires said
to have been buried in Myanmar has abandoned the search, saying stories
of the stashed planes are merely "legend".
Research materials of a
buried British Spitfire are presented during a press conference in
Yangon, on January 9, 2013. The sponsor of a British-led team hunting
for dozens of Spitfires said to have been buried in Myanmar has
abandoned the search, saying stories of the stashed planes are merely
"legend".
Rumors that dozens of the iconic single-seat aircraft
were buried in 1945 by Britain, the former colonial power in what was
then Burma, had excited military history enthusiasts, but surveys at
Rangoon airport in the Mingaladon district have failed to bear fruit.
The
project backer, online game company Wargaming, said the team "now
believes, based on clear documentary evidence, as well as the evidence
from the fieldwork, that no Spitfires were delivered in crates and
buried at RAF Mingaladon during 1945 and 1946".
Lead
archaeologist Andy Brockman said the investigation into the stories of
buried Spitfires was undertaken in the spirit of US television forensic
police series "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation).
"We followed the
clues in the documents, period maps, pictures and air photographs; we
talked to surviving witnesses, and visited the 'crime scene' in order to
turn our study in the archives into facts on the ground," he said.
"As
a result we believe that the legend of the buried Spitfires of Burma is
just that: a captivating legend about a beautiful and iconic aircraft."
In
a statement released late Friday, Wargaming said the search for
Spitfires in Myanmar was rooted in persistent rumors that began among
servicemen in "the bars and canteens of South East Asia" as early as
1946.
It added that no surviving witnesses had actually seen
planes being buried and that its research in British archives had failed
to produce any evidence of the arrival of the aircraft in Myanmar in
the latter months of the war.
But a local businessman involved in
the project, Htoo Htoo Zaw, on Saturday vowed to continue the planned
digs in the northern city of Myitkyina and Rangoon airport, signalling a
split within the team.
"We haven't started any digging yet. So how can we say for sure whether there are Spitfires or not?" he told AFP.
It
was unclear to what extent the excavations would continue and project
leader David Cundall -- a farmer and aircraft enthusiast who has spent
around 17 years chasing the Spitfires -- was not immediately reachable
for comment.
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