Warbird Information Exchange

Spitfire Australia-bound following quarrel Tom Wald, AAP Europe Correspondent
February 10, 2011 - 11:34AM

AAP

A quarrel over the fighter plane of an Australian World War II pilot turned bitter this week after French police forced its discoverer to hand it over.

French war museum owner Fabrice Corbin was threatened with 48 hours in jail before agreeing to turn over the Spitfire that was sitting in the courtyard of his house in Normandy in northern France.

Mr Corbin and his family and friends dug the plane out of an estuary in Ouistreham last November and he had initially promised to hand over Mr Smith's remains and plane for free to the Australian people.

Advertisement: Story continues below The plane was that of Australian Flight Lieutenant Henry `Lacy' Smith, the Sydney pilot gunned down in action on June 11, 1944, just five days after the D-Day landings.

Mr Smith had attempted to land in a field but his plane ended up plunging deep into the mud of the waterway only to be discovered two thirds of a century later.

Being a British plane, it was initially offered to the United Kingdom before French authorities asked their Australian counterparts if they were interested in the damaged aircraft.

They were.

Now three months after Mr Corbin's discovery, there has been a massive falling out between him and local authorities.

The irate Frenchman said he felt like he has been treated like a grave robber while an official from France's Ministry of Culture said the owner of the Grand Bunker Museum had asked for compensation for the costs of extracting the plane.

"After what happened, I think I should have not done it, I should have left the pilot rotten in the cockpit," Mr Corbin said this week via an interpreter.

"I respect the Australian people, but not the Australian bureaucrats."

Mr Smith's remains were handed over in November and he is to be buried with full military honours at a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at Ranville on April 19.

Mr Corbin said he was never informed about the ceremony and is devastated about his experience.

"Even if the Australians invite me to come, I would not come," he said.

However French authorities paint a very different picture of his behaviour.

Olivia Hulot, an archaeologist responsible for the North Sea and English Channel within the French Ministry of Culture, said that Mr Corbin had forced the department's hand.

"Since November the aircraft has been in the garden ... it was necessary to get the aircraft for conservation reasons," she told AAP.

" ... we want the restoration of artefacts.

"I wanted to speak to Fabrice but he told me he doesn't want to see me and he told me the property was his and he would like some money for pulling the aircraft out of the water."

Ms Hulot said that Mr Corbin had been involved in 18 excavations in the area, which is littered with war-time artefacts.

She said the authorities had to step in as the plane desperately needed to be submerged to slow down the rate of decay.

Besides solving a 66-year mystery surrounding the final resting place of Mr Smith, part of the attraction of the find was the quality of the condition of the Spitfire - the plane renowned for its role in the defeat of the Nazis.

Ms Hulot suggested there had been a "commercial aspect" to Mr Corbin's behaviour.

"The last solution was to get legal help from the authorities," she said.

"We don't like to do all this ... we are archaeologists."

A media conference is due to be held on Thursday morning in the French regional capital of Caen regarding the transfer of the plane into Australian hands.

Defence Attache at the Australian Embassy in Paris, Mark Green, said: "The RAAF is currently investigating options for potential recovery of the aircraft to Australia."

The Royal Australian Air Force's Museum at Point Cook in Victoria is the Spitfire's most likely destination.

Ms Hulot suggested there had been a "commercial aspect" to Mr Corbin's behaviour.

"The last solution was to get legal help from the authorities," she said.

"We don't like to do all this ... we are archaeologists."

"Since November the aircraft has been in the garden ... it was necessary to get the aircraft for conservation reasons," she told AAP.

" ... we want the restoration of artefacts.

This statement really bothers me and makes me lose respect for Mr. Corbin:

"After what happened, I think I should have not done it, I should have left the pilot rotten in the cockpit," Mr Corbin said this week via an interpreter.

That's very disrespectful to our fallen Veterans.

Actually, that sounds more like something said out frustration and through a translator.

I hope this gets resolved but I am happy that the Pilot was laid to rest peacefully and honorably. The plane, well, we have others laying around in better shape with no care at all.

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Does Ms Hulot work for free? Sounds like big brother exercising power. And what makes the profession of "archaeologist" so holy? What possible archaeological value could that Spitfire possess anyhow?

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The aircraft was deteriorating in the garden BECAUSE of their meddling. Government agencies always feel so deserving of the efforts of others.

A picture from another news story...