Warbird Information Exchange

Well I finally made my move back home to Dayton from Hampton Roads after 8 longs years. Today I was rummaging in the basement through boxes of my stuff and I came across one box full of my old Air Mags. While rereading them I found one that talked 6 Lancs burried in merry old England around South Humberside. I was wondering whatever became of this story? Fact, Fiction or what? The Issue was Jan/Feb 1991 Vol 10 Num 1 of Warbirds International. I don't recall hearing anything else about this story since or do I see anything in my magazines about it. Thanks

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Appeared in Flypast several times also, but apparantly some dodgy group was making the claims and it was all 'pye in the sky'.

Dave

Six Lanc's would want to be a very large hole?
now if we were talking about a B29 or what we Aussies called the Washington Bomber, I could point you in the right direction. Outback South Australia, place called Woomera, old rocket range, the story goes along similar lines to the Lanc's, except I have met a fella who says its true, problem is, this is a restricted area, but perhaps sometime in the future.

cheers

Digger

Any idea what year that would have occurred?

Not sure on the year, Woomera was a testing ground used by the English and Australians to test all sorts of giszmo's. Alot of pilot-les aircraft were blown up, shot down and bombed all in the name of making better and more destructive devices. The guy I know was a member of the security there and in those days that was done by the Commonwealth Police. He used to draw the short straw on some duties and this meant guard duties on some of the most remote parts of the range, especially out back and beyond of the western range, he told me that to reduce the travelling time they would often cut through the old rubbish and salvage yard, which was effectively an old open cut quarry. as the various bits of aircraft remains were collected, examined and then disregarded they would be dumped in this location. He recalls seeing the B-29, along with a Lancastrian, a Mustang ( which may have been one from Maralinga) and numerous meteors all piles up either partly buried or pushed against the side of the quarry ready for burial. The Commonwealth Police changed in 1979 and I know he stopped working at Woomera about that time so I would say from 1975 to 1979 sort of time frame. there is a picture getting around that shows alot of these aircraft, including the B-29 sitting on the tarmac at Woomera. I'll see if I can get a copy of it from somewhere.

cheers

Digger

Sorry Shay, didn't meanto get side tracked on the buried Lanc's.

i did want to include a memory i had as a kid here in Adelaide South australia. We have a local RAAF base in the northern suburbs and I can definately recall going out to a site, outside of the base and on private property ot play around an old Lancaster that was sitting probably 2 to 300 metres north of where the original base boundary was. The Lanc was there for many years I I can remember going out there when I was a teenager and just getting interested in this stuff only to find it was gone. I asked my father about it and he said it had been stripped then buried on site. Possibly 5 years later I saw a couple of Merlins sitting side by side in a scrappers yard here in Adelaide, sadly I didn't pursue them and they too have gone. I have often wondered what hapeded to that Lanc and if the engines I saw came from it.

cheers

Digger

I spotted this the other day but thought somebody else would jump in first.

The Lancs were reputed to have shown up on ground-penetrating radar but when they, apparently, sank a test hole they didn't find anything.

As Dave said, it was a dubious group that were involved.

Hi All,
Yeah, I heard something about this some time back. Seemed abit far fetched at the time, but it would have been quite an intriguing possibility to actually see someone go after them and actually begin retriving the parts, that is if the rumors and speculation proved to be accurate.

Paul

Back to Woomera (sorry to go off topic again) there is the remains of a Sea Hornet there but apparantly it is very "hot", Setter is the the guy with the knowledge on this area.

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Wow, has it really been that long since I last visited?

Hi Guys

2 Washingtons were scrapped in Aus - one at Womera and the other somewhere else in Aus which escapes me at present - I have a bit of one (hatch) sorry they were not buried - they were scrapped. There are a number (6 I think) Supermarine Swifts buried in the desert from the Bomb tests and they are supposed to be as hot as hell so I guess they won't be coming home for about 500,000 years - There is a buried Canberra and some Lincoln wreckage both from crashes of contaminated aircraft. 6 CAC built Mustangs were recovered from a test site and included the Aus prototype - they all ended up in the US with some surfacing but 3 still in storage in Florida. Thats all I can think of at present but if I think up any more I will post.

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Hello,
Pretty sure that the three Lincolns that were quarantined at Amberley after the Maralinga tests are buried near the 3AD hangar. A friend of mine asked a couple of chaps one day, a couple of years back, what they were doing with some test equipment and they said they were checking the radiation levels.

The Lancs were actually there. I dug them up one dark night and have been dribbling them out in bits on ebay for years *












* this may be a lie

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Awfully nice aeroplane piccies available

DamienB

Please supply me with the exact details of your medication - I want some

Regards
John

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Setter, sorry old boy, just relayed you "scrapped not buried" response to my Woomera contact who says, well I won't say exactly what he said, but he disagrees, he is 100% sure the significant remains of a Washington "is" buried just north of the main west firing range, along with other types and none, he placed alot of emphasis on this part, none were hot (radioactive) He seems to think you are getting the Maralinga and Woomera test sites mixed up.

back to you

cheers

Digger

I thought you Guys in Australia where Nuke Free? I heard our CVN caught a bunch of flak for visiting ports there, I stopped on the Kittyhawk and we did not rustle any feathers in that arena.

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