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Some times, disturbed earth...

Posted by Chris Hinch on Tue Apr 22, 2003 05:15:13 AM

...is disturbed earth with nothing underneath.

After chasing down all the leads I had regarding the burial of crated aircraft at RNZAF Hobsonville and Whenuapai, I finally got in touch with an actual eye witness, not several someones who THOUGHT they were eyewitnesses or were reported to me as eyewitnesses.

Yes, there is a "disturbed earth" site on an airfield tip inlet between Whenuapai and Hobsonville. Yes, equipment was disposed of there after the war by putting it all together in a small gulley and filling it with dirt. Yes there were crated aircraft on the airfield at the end of the war. Yes, photography shows the site clearly, even 50- years later, and that the site is still accessible, and supports the above facts. Topography analysis supports the above facts as well.

However, none of that tells us that the crated aircraft were buried there. In fact, and much to my disappointment, they weren't. According to an RNZAF serviceman who served there from '46 onwards, the crated aircraft were land lease P51Ds. They were shipped to Ardmore in the crates, reassembled and passed onto the TAF squadrons around New Zealand. Of the hundreds of airframes that littered Hobsonville in the late 40's and early 50's, all bar one went to the scrappers furnace. One Sunderland which crashed (landing? taking off? taxiing?) on the harbour was hauled up to the base tip and burnt. One man was crushed to death while moving the wreck when the undercarriage collapsed on the way to the tip. The only equipment buried at the candidate "disturbed earth" site was some surplus rifles.

As for the buried P40's? My guess is someone saw equipment being buried, and the crated fighters, and put two and two together and came up with five. My eyewitness was unequivocal. No buried aircraft.

Sorry to get anyones hopes up, but at least this is a myth we can most likely now put to rest.

And I could just see myself, shovel in hand, furtively digging by the light of a small hurricane lamp, with a wee twinkle of madness in the eyes...

Chris

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