Warbird Information Exchange

Is there a realistic chance that other planes still reside in the wilds of Russia just waiting to be discovered like the FHC's 190? I know there have been other recoveries from there in the past (a few Hurricanes and P-39's as I recall) but with huge areas of wilderness I was just curious if treasures are still out there.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

My guess is that pristine German treasures like the FW.190 are very rare and - at least those not in lakes - have likely all been found. These would be in the far- Western portions of the old Sovet Union, which is more populated. There may certainly be undiscovered treasures in the vast underpopulated areas of central and eastern Russia, but these would be Russian aircraft and not German aircraft.

I wonder if there could be some rare prewar Japanese aircraft left over from their boundary-dispute engagements of the late 1930s. Perhaps a "Claude" or a "Lily"?

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Kevin McCartney

Where the Fw190 was located was very forested at the time.

It was 1990 so only 45 years after the end of WWII.

Looking at the area on google earth there has been a staggering amount of cutting down and development work in the intervening 20 years. We have looked for other loses in the area including a Bf109 of JG54. The Fw190 was invisible from even quite close up. I wish there was an easy way to search.

The Fw190F-8 wreck that Mark Timkins has (not White 1) was located in a forest in Northern Russia (probably part of old Finland/Karelia) but unfortunately had been hacked to death prior to recovery. There is a Bf110G someone in a Finnish forest that force landed - looking for that as well.

Still a lot of forested areas but I think the lakes are still going to be the main recovery area.

Looking for a Ju87 that reportedly landed on a frozen lake - crew were rescued (but was the Ju87 salvaged by the Soviets). That is the question.

I hope there will be more.

regards

MS

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'Coups De Foudre'
(511FS, 405FG watering hole), St Dizier, France 1944/45

I suspect there is more thats not been discovered yet,, an aquaintance purchased the nose spinner off an Me109, the part was in Russia and after agreement on price the spinner arrived in the USA, next his contact in Russia offered him a complete instrument panel from the aircraft, this time it didnt show and he was unable to contact the seller anymore, this was not a scam as it was COD, so the buyer was out no funds, he suspects the seller found a "109" and was stripping it for resale and got caught. I have seen the spinner personally and believe it is off a JG 52 aircraft as the spinner decoration matches this one;
http://www.taphilo.com/jg26/bf109-head-on-44260002.JPG
http://www.taphilo.com/jg26/bf109-head-on-44260002.JPG
Inside the spinner was written "me109g2" which i suspect was written by the seller. So, yes , i believe there is the likelyhood of more treasures in europe/Russia.

Yes there is a reasonably intact 'Lily' in Kurils

Dave

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what about late model stuff like ki84's?....now they would really be something(a n1k1 would also be nice)

I've said it before, there must be more airframes in the many freshwater of eastern Germany and Poland, as well as western Russia.
The müritz See near Berlin is huge, had the Rechlin test facility on it's shores, must be everything in it from tested aircraft to casualties from the bombing campaign against Germany.
Oh to have the funds to searc those lakes!

JägerMarty

Funding is not an issue - the German legislation is.

Everything belongs to the German State and generally they do not want to recover/swap/sell anything in there own back yard. The did a deal with the Fw200/Ju88/He111 from Norway thansk mainly down to Dr Holgar Steile (DTM Director).

Get him on board and it might be possible.

Schwerinersee has at least 3 Fw190D's in there and Bu131? and also a MiG-17/19. I am sure there is also other German and Soviet types. Have not found any records to say 2TAF aircraft are in there.

The other lakes must also have airframes in them.

Just think what could have been recovered in the last 20 years.

Would love to row across with a fish finder/sonar

regards

MS

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'Coups De Foudre'
(511FS, 405FG watering hole), St Dizier, France 1944/45

Yeah it's such a shame they're like that. Must be different in Austria where that p47 was raised.
And then there's that pristine fw58 weihe at the bottom of a French lake, come on! Very frustrating!