Among legends of WW2 the #Spitfires #BuriedinBurma have much in common with the #NaziGoldTrain, #YamashitasGold and the theory Hitler escaped to Argentina set out in #HuntingHitler. Find out how much by reading The Buried Spitfires of Burma. thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/th…

In John Ford's classic western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the newspaper editor says famously: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." The Buried Spitfires of Burma are a textbook case of the media printing the legend. youtube.com/watch?v=bN0onE…

"Where the hell have these aeroplanes gone - nobody knows ..." Burma veteran , the late Group Captain Maurice Short MBE AFC. #BuriedInBurma #Spitfires #WW2

In the Spring of 2012 Lincolnshire farmer David Cundall and his supporters persuaded British Prime Minister David Cameron to believe the legend of the #BuriedSpitfires enough to agree a deal to excavate the aircraft with Myanmar's President #BuriedinBurma

Thanks to Prime Minister Cameron's apparent endorsement the story of the #BuriedSpitfiresofBurma went global. International computer gaming company, Wargaming.net decided to sponsor the search and hired a film crew from Room 608 Productions to follow the story.

With the green light to dig, Wargaming and Room 608 set about the business of producing a detailed project design. A key part of this was detailed research in archives in Britain and the United States into every aspect of David Cundall's version of the legend. #spitfire #Myanmar

Room 608's researcher Megan Hovath and British archaeologist Andy Brockman, joined later by Rod Scott, spent many hours in the archive trying to understand the historical context within which the legend of the Burma #Spitfires emerged.

Room 608 also conducted interviews with key surviving witnesses such as Stanley Coomb and Maurice Short who had both served at Mingaladon and remembered being told things about #Spitfires #BuriedInBurma.

By late 2012 everything was ready and the expedition in search of the #Spitfires #BuriedInBurma was launched officially at London's Imperial War Museum, in front of journalists and TV crews from all over the world.

In December 2012 the whole buried #Spitifres team came together in the same room for the first time at a final planning meeting in south east London. Once more the cameras of Room 608 Productions were there to record what transpired.

While everybody expressed a determination to work together to solve the legend of the #Spitfires, there was tension between David Cundall's optimism and the good humored, but evidence driven, approach of Field Director Martin Brown [C] and Field Archaeologist Rod Scott [R]

As the 2013 Wargaming sponsored expedition departed for Yangon in January 2013 in search of the #Spitfires #BuriedInBurma there were certainly more questions than answers about one of World War Two's strangest mysteries.

In early January 2013 the Wargaming research team, led by David Cundall and accompanied by Stanley Coombe were on the ground in Yangon. Stanley had visited Mingaladon in the Spring 1946 when David claimed the 3rd Spitfire burial took place. #BuriedInBurma Image Room 608

The work on site in Yangon was facilitated by Wargaming's partner in Myanmar, the Shwe Taung Por [STP] group and in particular site manager U Pe Win [L] and translator Daw Tin Ma Latt [Auntie Latt] [R] #BuriedInBurma

The team were only able to be on the ground at Yangon International Airport at all because of the tireless work of STP's CEO Htoo Htoo Zaw liaising with the Government and airport authorities. #BuriedInBurma. [Image c Gavin Longhurst]. #ww2 #spitfire

The work at Yangon Airport took place under the eye of the members of the Yangon Airport Police Battalion. [Room 608 Productions]. #BuriedInBurma

The work also took place under the eye of journalists & media crews from all over the world. Adding to the pressure, on the eve of the dig STP called a press conference promoting David's theory that Spitfires were also buried at Myitkina #BuriedInBurma [Andy Brockman]

The Wargaming team wanted their work to respect the history & culture of Myanmar. This included the Buddhist tradition which underpins life in much of the country. Here monk Po Po blesses the site with Wargaming's Tracy Spaight.#BuriedInBurma [Andy Brockman]

Finding runway light 46 N enabled David and Adam Booth to locate where they had carried out the survey and aborted dig in 2004, when soldiers had taken them off the site just as the excavator struck large timbers. [Room 608 Productions]

With the 2004 dig site located David was able to tell Field Director Martin Brown where to place the first machine trench.