Warbird Information Exchange

every now and then i hear a little blurb about a possible complete b-24 in india still as well as one in china somewhere. i've also heard speculation about a B-24 scrapyard or something to that effect in new guinea or thereabouts. i wonder just how much stuff or complete airframes are really still out there ? also does anybody remember the thread a few months back from a fellow claiming that his buddy found a cave full of japanese fighters and parts?? something about wings being stacked up against the cave wall comes to mind. i'm just throwing all of this out there to see if anybody has some info on any of this.

Hey Groundpounder,

I remember that Japanese aircraft in a cave story. There was a thread on here a long time ago. The thread had a link to another message board that was where the whole story came from, with one of the guys on it being "In the know."

And as for B-24's in India.... well I think there's 2 in museums there, but I may be wrong (I was wrong earlier to do... who knew.. haha).

There are still a lot of places to explore in this world, but with the ever increasing sprawl of mankind there are fewer and fewer places to look for treasures.

Cheers,

David

I don't know about wings against a wall or anything, but back in the early 90's I definitely saw several WWII era Japanese aircraft on Jeju Do. I've been nosing around and they don't seem to be there any more, which begs the question: where did they go?

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

I figure those airframes you saw were either picked up by a collector or taken by metal scrappers from China or the likes.

-David

What a strange double post> Anyway, DM, I guess you;re right. Breaks my heart to think it, but the S Koreans have no love for anything Japanese.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

I've seen significant B-24 remains in China, but nothing to indicate a complete aircraft exists. That doesn't mean that there isn't one however.

What have you seen and where?

As you know Biak (Dutch New Guinea) was a very large dumping ground for US aircraft. 100's and 100's of intact B-24's, P-38, P-47, P-61, A-20 et.al. were simply left there on the three contiguous USAAF airfields.
I made a trip there in the early 1990's and found nothing whatsover. Everything had been scrapped on the spot some time after the war.

There are some interesting photos taken on Biak at www.biak.nl
It's a bit cumbersome website as it's written in Dutch. When you get to the website then click on "Luchtmacht in Biak", then click on "Fotos", then click on 1945, 46, 47 on the LH side of the page. Many of the photos are rather scratchy and blurry but its still very interesting just the same.

Here is a photo and article about Biak from the March 1951 National Geographic. I saw this photo when I was just a little kid and it took many years before I finally tracked down a copy.

It wouldn't surprise me if there's something lying around India. There was a complete, authentic Battle of Britain Survivor Me-109 found at a school there not too long ago, that nobody previously knew about. There also supposedly exists (but I haven't seen pictures) of an A6M2-N "Rufe" which is basically a Zero on floats, at an Indian Naval base. There's also bits and pieces of various airplanes over there, so I'm sure there is more to be found. In addition, I have seen pictures of a Hurricane wing that still survives in India.

There is indeed some interesting stuff in India. We can only hope more may surface. This link has some info on whats currently there. http://www.warbirds.in/index2.html

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If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

Gary's really not going to like that!!!!!!!

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Shop the Airplane Bunker At
www.warbirdbunker.com

Speaking of India....

I was looking for info on the Float Zeke at the INS Jarawa Navy base close to Port Blair.

Still no evidient to be found on the WEB

Besides the potential to stumble across some warbirds, I'd really like to go to India one day.

As for not being able to find anything about the Zeke online, well I've learned that for very specific things the internet is actually a pretty lousy resource. Very often rarities are only local knowledge and people don't go out of their way to post info on it online.

For instance, it is very difficult to find information on Lancaster KB999's current condition/location. I digress.

Phone calls and travel are the best solution, though expensive.

Cheers,

David

info on that 109 here: http://www.warbirdsofindia.com/WDY/wbdy2002.html