Warbird Information Exchange

Much as I hate to be a pessimist, but there are nearly 5000 page views here, several thousand on flypast and that image is doing the rounds by e-mail. Its been reported on the BBC and several other places. The beach is not a closed one, and even in this, the depths of autumn with winter fast approaching there are going to be people looking for it just out of idle curiosity.

When they find it it will be difficult for them to come away without a "souveneir". It happens with every wreck in this country, high ground, beaches or otherwise.

This country of ours is only small. Inside eight hours you can be from top to bottom and you can cross it east to west in four to five.. The thieving scumbag pikeys are nicking everything here, be it war memorials, fencing, generators.. etc. as the price of scrap metal is at an all time high. We had one near here electrocute himself after trying to cut a live transformer at a substation apart with a set of bolt cutters, to get at the copper. Believe me when I say they will know it's there now.

The council won't be able to protect it.

It's had 65 years of anonimity. It should have been reported when it was recovered, not before. That would have been the safe way. If I'd got the licence to dig this out I'd be in a B&B or failing that a tent within sight of it until it was on the truck for the museum.

That is my thoughts on this.

Good Luck.

Regards

Ric

is there any word on what the recovery team intends to do to it? will it stay in the uk?

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i ain't getting on no plane!

It will definitely remain in the UK. Discussions are ongoing as to exactly where and how the plane will be best conservered and displayed, though it will certainly be at a major aviation museum (in my opinion the most desirable and likely candidates would be either RAF Hendon or IWM Duxford -- but, it remains to be seen).

Well it just hit my local newspaper today. http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... 1/71114023

I guess the cat is out of the bag.

I just hope the scavengers dont get to it.

I cant wait to see the recovery pics

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Well, I haven't even seen the 'circulating' images.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

well........ now that tighar is involved a media circus is sure to follow, & that sucks for the recovery.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I wonder if the big crabs led them to it...

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

A friend sent me this link, which has an overhead view photo of the airplane awash in the tide:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311724,00.html

Amazing! I sure hope the airplane gets recovered before the scavengers grab everything off of it that comes off.

Dean the hopeful

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Wow that thing looks fantastic! Much more complete than I expected.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Here's the picture from FoxNews... for those who have difficulty finding it.

kevin

[img][img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/tulsaboy/P-38underwater.jpg[/img]

[/img]

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

It's a lot more complete than I expected. It will be difficult to disassemble and move without incurring more damage to it. It looks really neat as is!

Yes it is

In truth, the BBC set the feline free last week -- having got wind of the project from a local government briefing. The photo followed on various online forums soon after.

In the interest of protecting the site, the original intention of all involved was to wait and announce the find at the same time as the planned recovery. However, now that the word is out anyway, they've decided to encourage attention and interest from the general public -- hopefully making it impossible for anyone (especially potential looters) from doing anything to the aircraft unnoticed. The photo went out with a new press release that was incorporated into a major story by the AP today and picked up by a number of other news services.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LOST_FIGHTER_PLANE?SITE=NCAGW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

In any case, I'm pleased that everyone on WIX can now view this amazing photo and I will continue to answer your questions as best I can.

They want to go there and get it out. Now.

Just cause they found it doesn't mean only they can play, and no-one else can touch....

Jeez.. have you been on a British beach on a regular basis? I have.

British & Beach are nearly mutually exclusive terms!

Wonder what went wrong with the P38 - have put a Herk down on Pendine Sands in Wales several times (whilst the tide was out)!

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Daddy always said, "If yer gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough" and I'm one tough sonofagun!

Okay so I slept on this and its no better.

There seems to be a lot of bleating about this aircraft and how anyone who goes near it is a thief or a looter.

I've posted my views above. The papers over here have a page with that kite shot on it, so the vandals and thieves are on there way.

Here's some more, 'cause people trying to tell me what I can look at or look for in my own country gets my back up. There are hundreds of us in this country who visit high ground wrecks that are little more than flakes of aluminium and a cairn to brave men... and we're not to be trusted to go have a look at this... yet some bunch who live halfway round the world are???

That's just arrogant.

TIGHAR didn't find the wreck. It was reported to the coatguard in MAY this year as the wreckage of a Jindivik target drone, and a lifeboat was dispatched to put a marker on it as a danger to small craft (wonder whether that's still there? )

TIGHAR says it was reporetd incorrectly in the papers. Well, its reported the same by the lifeboat crew and in their job they can't afford to get positions of things wrong...

Then on July 31 a resident "discovers" it. Of all the people in the world he can call; including LOCAL recovery groups... he calls TIGHAR. The 600 strong band of scholars, scientists, archeologists and educated people, with a big budget, who still can't find that pesky female aviatrix. Fred Noonan wants a medal for the best place ever in a game of hide and seek.

I swear I will laugh my ass off when some fishing boat in the pacific snags a Lockheed twin.

Turns out that despite them blowing off to the media and press releases and all, they don't have the licence to recover it, yet they think they're just going to waltz in in spring and take it off the beach.

Here's a snippet from the guidelines from the MOD over recovering crashed aircraft:

"A Licence will be issued for one year only and will authorise activity within a defined area. It should be noted that the Ministry of Defence is not prepared to grant sole rights of recovery to any one individual for any one site."

So there you have it. Fill in the forms, dig away. Annoy TIGHAR by having them turn up and find a marker buoy attached to an "I.O.U."note for one P-38 F.

I'm getting mad enough to send 'em off myself.

Balls to it.

I'm going to get my bucket and spade and a camera, and take my own photos, so I have my own record and memories of what it was like, not some guys assurance that he has couple of thousand photo's but he can't show them. A couple of decent shots from ground level would have laid to rest the curiosity of hundreds.

We've had photo's from gunnery and missile ranges, war zones, underwater, under ice and in swamps. We've seen recoveries done in the most dangerous places in dangerous conditions and even people die. But I forget. We musn't hav photo's before the media as this one's in the most dangerous place of all.....



Wales.




Ric