Warbird Information Exchange

"Learn From The Past For Fear Of Repeating It"

I would hope that with a such a large cache of aircraft being discovered that all the airframes and parts would find homes. One possible fate would be another mass scrapping event 60 years late. Not everyone can appreciate history such as we do. Most do, unfortunately, appreciate the al'mighty "quik buck". So I fear that if the aircraft don't come out soon then the smelters will come in. I wish only the best for the new year. All my best to you and yours.

Shay
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Semper Fortis[/b]

Laurent

Not exactly Clark and not exactly an Official military project - Read your PMs and get back to me

Regards
John p

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Hello,

Spent some time locating the dump and boneyard area of Clark and found this :

Note: i'm using photobucket for the first time so hope it will work for attached photos.

Here is a photo of Clarck boneyard taken end 1945 :



You can notice in the backgroung the old runway and the new runways and taxiways almost perpendicular to the old one.

Now is a map of Clark in 1947 :



The old runway, even if disused is still detailed in the map :

Finally is an aerial shot of clarck in 1988 :



If you use the parade ground as reference point, it's very easy to locate the position of the dump site.

But is it the site were the P-38 were dumped ? I doubt it :

- No ravine and not river (please refer to John posts)

- What was commonly called "Clark" was in fact a huge complex of several airfields : Clark + Mabalacat + Porac + Florida-Blanca and at least 3 of them are known to have been used for scrapping after end of WWII.

Conclusion : the search continue.

I also found another picture of the P-38 pit :



I just sent an email to the author of the book in which it was published to see if he has anything else.

You can also find some nice shots of Clark boneyard and early post WWII shots of Clarck at this address :

http://clarkfield-ww2.com/cab8.html

Laurent

Good day,

follow up on a very old post. Even if we have to ignore all the BS that had been posted here by one of the ex forum member, we already new that :

- Yes, there were actually P-38 (surely among other types) that had been scrapped at and around clarck
- they had been bulldozed
- they had been buried.

Recently found those 2 very interesting photos that would help pinpoint more precisely their position (thanks to mount Arayat in the background) but also that they were :

- dynamited
- burned

before being buried.

Laurent

yikes.., what a site?

So, I read back through the post.., the guy speaking of having witnessed entire P-38's being pulled from a ravine wall was bee essing?

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S.

Would be great to hear from anyone who knows more about this story. Did setter ever give us an update on this amazing story.....what did he see being recovered? Where is setter anyway?

I honestly thought this was a new discovery and then saw 2004 on the first post! I guess nothing came of it.

Sadly the whole thing (along with several other reported 'discoveries' by the same source) turned out to be either a fantasy or a hoax. Setter hasn't been seen here since being called out over this and several other of his 'reports' a few years ago.

My dad witnessed three B-17's buried in Arizona in 1949.

Thanks Mike. It's such a shame...when I read the last posts on the subject I got the same gut wrenching feeling as when the Kee Bird went up in smoke.

I did find the following pictures posted by setter quite interesting....taken at Murray Griffiths facility in 2005 and supposedly showing some of the wreckage recovered from the Philippines.

http://rides.webshots.com/album/446443090ltwEaI

I'm tempted to believe this to be true as I know they were burned (pictures posted elsewhere) and this wreckage clearly shows fire damage, especially where the fuel tanks were located.
Not sure how useful fire damaged structures are in a flying restoration but got to be some useful material in there. Could well be more wrecks in this condition. When I read they'd been burned I imagined complete airframe destruction but it is possible that the fire wasn't intense enough to engulf everything and much could still survive. Perhaps setter wasn't so full of BS after all?

A severe case of 'Walter Mittyitus' I am afraid...possibly a medical condition.

I have a very similar email chain on the positive sightings of the Syrian Spitfires.

PeterA

Looks like a bit of WP and not dynamite.

Interesting and very sad photo at the same time.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Yeah, right!

Lemme guess: either famous combat veterans that the base commander wanted to hide from the scrapper, so he had them prepped, engines inhibited and everything sealed before having them carefully buried?

Maybe three zero-timed examples which were 'too good to scrap' so they were hidden for future salvation?

Because in 1949, labour was so hard to find that it made more sense to dig a few hundred yards of pits to bury them than it did to get some guys with gas-axes and a truck to chop them up and drag the remains away to be smelted?

As I said, yeah right!

Cheers,
Matt

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Matt Austin - playing with warbirds since the early 80s.

See my Lee-Enfield videos at - http://www.youtube.com/user/Jollygreenslugg

my, my.., such skepticism.., just because you burned out 43 back hoes and dulled 87 shovels looking for buried Spitfires.., you think everyone else’s are just hoaxes?

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S.

That's what my father told me.
These B-17s were not part of a scrap yard.
Left at some deserted location and that is why they were just buried.
My father helped!
This is not BS why even imply such?

No offense, mate.., but these are the rumors that rumors are made of and so many of them (99%) of them turn out to be just word of mouth of a friend who's uncle saw these planes (brand new) being buried at a secret location and does not remember where but they were there.., right out of the crate engines, zero time on the airframe, cheaper to bury them than sell off the metal (dig a 100' hole 40' deep..,how?)etc...

You provide them a location and they find the airplanes there.., then they believe you.

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S.