Thread: Buried spitfires in Burma?

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Me too!

I drove Studebakers for lots of kms as A CMF transport driver in the early seventies. Good ones got 4/mpg. Great vehicles to drive up and down steep ranges on an exercise. Crash boxes and double de-clutching all the way.Cheers all round when we swapped them for the forward control Internationals and Fords.

Grahame

How about these?

White scout car - front view

There was a wreck down at the Warradale Army base for a while in the late 80's.

My father used these to knock down small trees when they were building airstrips in the NT during WW2.

He reconed the White roller went through most, but every so often you'd hit a hard one and almost go through the windscreen.

Iconic vehicle.

White scout car at Alice Springs
White scout car convoy - lined up at Alice Springs
White scout car rest break - main north south road

Hows this for overload?

Ford semi trailers on North South Road NT during WW2

Yeah, three ropes should do it

Amazing days.

Rob

The rumors of buried US Army Harley Davidson's seem to have persisted over the years, I remember a guy who swore blind they were buried under a sports oval in Bandiana ( near Wodonga )... but I've never heard of anyone actually recovering any buried treasure..

One of the terms of Lend Lease was that equipment was to be destroyed at the end of the war, the idea ( I think ) was that the US didn't want equipment finding it's way to potentially hostile countries.

If you've every watched the tv show Time Team, they have equipment to do high resolution EM surveys, I'd reckon hiring some of that sort of gear might be a good way to get started looking for this stuff...

Regards
Ray

PS... How about that... Google found a reference to the Harleys at Bandiana... Tunnel at Bandiana, about 5 kms south east of Wodonga, in Victoria, used by the military during WW2

Quoting:

"In the early 1970's, approximately 200 "brand new" WW2 Studebaker army trucks in crates, were stored in a WW2 tunnel near Bandiana in Victoria. Access to the tunnel was via an old Army Nissen hut located against the side of a hill. There was a story about a Police Sergeant in the CMF being a member of one of two crews of logistics personnel sent to pick up 14 trucks. They drove straight into the old Nissen Hut and straight into the hill and took out the 14 trucks.

Bandiana is about 5 kms south east of Wodonga.

Another source believes that the Studebakers and Harley Davidson motor cycles where lined up in trenches and run over by a large tank in an oval in the Army grounds at Bandiana. Once destroyed the trenches where covered with soil and became the Bandiana oval. An ex army friend of his witnessed the event and even rode one of the Harleys."

Anyone for a road trip?

Originally Posted by RayG

Anyone for a road trip?[/SIZE][/FONT]

Count me in Ray.
Anything for history

Phil

These stories are really interesting I love these stories of the past Thank you all for sharing them.

Originally Posted by RayG

One of the terms of Lend Lease was that equipment was to be destroyed at the end of the war, the idea ( I think ) was that the US didn't want equipment finding it's way to potentially hostile countries.

That's the way I understood it too, but much of the stuff stayed in service.

Eg the three Australian lend lease Kenworth M1A1 heavy wreckers (one of which my father was assigned to in WW2) appear to have been sold off after the war.

A lot of this stuff was war surplus regardless of where it came from, and was just scrapped adnauseum.

eg. all the big workshops/hangers on the NT strips at Gorrie etc were all scrapped and now only the strip and a concrete slab remains.

Rob

Originally Posted by RayG;1703582
Quoting:
[COLOR=#000000

"In the early 1970's, approximately 200 "brand new" WW2 Studebaker army trucks in crates, were stored in a WW2 tunnel near Bandiana in Victoria.

[/COLOR]?

I didn't know trucks came in crates ?

That sounds a bit strange.

I thought trucks were things you drove from point to point.

Rob

Originally Posted by j.ashburn

Yes Rob,farmers lost them if were new or less than 3 years old.They also ensured that the remaining trucks were to be co shared and an allowance was allocated to all farmers for extra petrol coupons.Our old farm had extra fuel allowance, we had no truck neighbors did.Other neighbors lost theirs.we had extra fuel ration too for our shearing plant as it was petrol powered.There was strong cohesion among farmers in those days. Cheers.

Hi

By late 1944 , surplus army vehicles began to become available to essential users . Initially, they got rid of the odd bodd stuff like British makes that arrived here as " refugee cargo " - these vehicles were destined for the British army in Malaya , but as the Japs invaded Malaya , the ships landed here instead .

The Govt. had a disposal scheme that allowed Govt. departments to have first go at the trucks - the CFA and SEC etc , then, usually , certain brands were allocated to dealers to sell e,g,. many surplus Fords were bought by Ford motor Co. and sold through Ford dealers .

I restored a 1941 British Fordson WOT2D army vehicle in the early 1980's . My other hobby is military vehicles .

Blitz trucks see this forum ......... MLU FORUM - Powered by vBulletin

It is a interesting topic . I used to attend the big army vehicle rally at Corowa , held in March . We had over 20 bren carriers one year , all lined up . Mike

Originally Posted by morrisman

Hi

The Govt. had a disposal scheme that allowed Govt. departments to have first go at the trucks - the CFA and SEC etc , then, usually , certain brands were allocated to dealers to sell e,g,. many surplus Fords were bought by Ford motor Co. and sold through Ford dealers .

It is a interesting topic . I used to attend the big army vehicle rally at Corowa , held in March . We had over 20 bren carriers one year , all lined up . Mike

That sounds about right. By all accounts the NT Kenworth M1A1 finish up in the South Australiam PMG Dept workshop.

Alan Scott who started and owned Scott's Transport was actually in the same unit as my father, and after the war bought a few WW2 surplus vehicles and started up that multi million dollar transport business.

He was one hard nosed dude according to my father.

Some interesting stuff went on during and after the war.

Rob

In the 1950/early sixties I can recall an aircraft wrecking yard on Taren Point Road near where I lived in the Sutherland Shire. It may well have been a general scrapyard that broke up aircraft but we got a bit of duralumin off some plane he had and it made a terrific sump guard for the rally car.

Hi All, I have been lurking on this forum for some time and recently became a member, this thread has prompted me to make my first post, when I was a kid I remember my dad on a couple of occasion talking about being in the school cadets (1950s)and going on a camping trip to an old base south west of Sydney (down near Goulburn or Mossvale I think) at some time during the trip they were with their teacher and they found a tunnel or a mine shaft I can't remember which, (I was about 12 or 13 when he told me, so mid to late 70s) he said they went a short way inside and there were US army Harley Davidsons and Willys Jeeps inside, further in he said there were wooden crates of rifles and machine guns stacked up, he said they opened some and they contained SMLE jungle carbines and Sten or Owen guns I can't remember which, but he said they were all brand new and the metal parts were wrapped in grease paper,at this point the teacher sensibly decided they should leave, he said that later he and his friends went back to try and find it but couldn't remember exactly where it was, but some of his friends eventually found it and brought back some souvenirs to prove it, I am not sure how true the story was and I may not be recalling it exactly as he told me (unfortunately I can no longer ask him about it to confirm the details) but as a kid it sounded so exiting like Alladin's cave or something, and reading through this thread brought all these memories flooding back and I felt compelled to share it,

During WW2 there were a plethora of defence establishment all through the NT. Most were made from wood and 44s filled with sand, consequently just about all have disappeared over the years, now only marked by signs put up by the NT government. One of the biggest was just a few klms north of Pine Creek called Snake Creek Depot. It was the most northerly point civvies could travel during the war without a pass. The depot was abandoned after the war and most of the buildings and materials were scavenged by the locals, only a few building survive: a couple of very heavy steel warehouse type buildings, a few wooden structures at the rear of the depot and quite a few foundations dotted throughout the depot.. The depot is quite large and the area quite hilly and was serviced by it’s own rail system.. Anyway the story: A truck driver turned up at one of the warehouses on the day the war ended with a truck load of stores, including a big stack of brass bed heads, washing machines, fridges, etc, all brand new, the storemen told him to unload and all the stores were carried into the warehouse. The warehouse was built into a hill as were a lot of the buildings (camouflage) and shortly after the warehouses were sealed and bulldozers moved in and covered them over. According to the truckie, the warehouses were full of brand new equipment including the big stack of bed heads. I explored the area over a number of years for days on end but never found anything save the buildings I listed; plus, one other: Totally out of place on a WW2 depot, a concrete structure, minus the roof, toward the front of the depot and down a road off to the right. The building is clearly of 70s design and when I asked around I was told the Navy occupied the building sometime in the 70s, nobody in Pine Creek new what the Navy did there and thought it odd the Navy would be operating so far inland. But back to the story: for the treasure hunters out there, those brass bed heads and other brand new stores are supposedly still buried on Snake Creek Depot somewhere. As is always the case with stories like this, be it WLA Harleys, Spitfires or brass bed heads, someone somewhere has a friend whose uncle new a bloke whose brother’s sister’s aunty was married to a bloke who new a bloke whose father’s mate’s brother was stationed at Snake Creek during the war and knows exactly where the buried warehouse is and so obviously can vouch for the veracity of the story,

Fantastic reading about all the war history and its Furphies. I went to an area about 1995 and looked through an area sounding a bit like Snake Creek, it was supposed to be a munitions dump, concrete bunkers everywhere plus the rail lines.
Would love to read a book about it all
Kryn

Originally Posted by j.ashburn

Thanks Bob,yes lucky to be of that age where I was interested and listened to all these tales.we all know of the Harleys under swimming pools and football grounds.
Bandiana vic was a warren of stores vehicles and sundries some yes underground.all moth balled.
Had relatives in all 3 services that served ww2,lots of old bosses too.Believe it or not not much ever came this way of yarns about ''buried treasure'' from the Navy boys.
Yes one of these days will pursue the article ,have snippets of a book laid down.
Am of the opinion that some find these articles interesting or just some one puffing his bagpipes to others. Feed back appreciated positive or negative.John.

John,

I, for one, do enjoy these types of articles. Don't know whether this is necessarily the best place for them, but I would like to see more of them either here or elsewhere.

As well as trucks I know personally of two new crawler tractors which were requisitioned from farmers by the Army early in WW2. I suppose there were many others. The first was an Allis Chalmers M owned by a great uncle in NSW which was only a month or so old. His only other tractor was a Fordson of about 1920 vintage, which left him in a difficult position. It was returned in very well used condition after the war. The second was a new Cat D6 owned by a local farmer in this district. He was lucky though - he was able to arrange that he could operate it for the army, and it was used in the building of numerous access roads and airstrips around the Atherton Tablelands. Since he was the operator, he was able to keep it properly serviced and maintained. It returned to his ownership after the war.

Speaking of lost vehicles and equipment, I was sitting in the orderly room at Macrossan camp near Charters Towers about 1955 where our CMF transport unit was based when two tired and thirsty blokes from another unit turned up. They had left a broken down Blitz some distance out in the bush on a cross country drive and asked if we could send our Diamond T wrecker out to salvage it. Would have been no problem, except that neither one had any idea where they had left it! I suppose someone found it eventually, but as far as I know, it had not surfaced by the time the camp finished.

We did solve one mystery that camp though. Every day the routine orders would be posted on the orderly room noticeboard, and every day someone had stolen them by lunch time. The culprits turned out to be a flock of wild goats who roamed about the camp at will, and seemed to eat the orders with every appearance of enjoyment.

Re cheap army disposals equipment after the war, I used to buy the "Motor Cycle", a British magazine, regularly in the 3 or 4 years after the war ended (wishful thinking!) A disposals firm in Britain for some time advertised brand new-in-crate army Indians for, I think, 19 pounds. I never saw anything comparable at anywhere these prices here.

Regards,

Frank.

"No problem with any of the above, its the gullibility of people who accept myth as fact that I find strange. The practicality of covering all those planes in grease and then burying them puts the whole thing in the myth department."

• You have obviously never served in defence (if you have or haven't I'm not trying insult you). The dumb things they make you do sometimes is unbelievable. The navy never have stores left over because they toss it all overboard, the RAAF bury everything and the Army just destroy it all.
  
  Ben.