If the crates were made out of wood, they're not going to be water tight for long in the wet, humid environment of Burma. Being entombed in cosmoline is about the only way those planes can survive intact this long.
If the crates were made out of wood, they're not going to be water tight for long in the wet, humid environment of Burma. Being entombed in cosmoline is about the only way those planes can survive intact this long.
Yeah, even then cosmoline doesn't keep it all out. I have purchased a few USGI M1 Garand barrels still sealed/wrapped in cosmo....opened one to verify condition and it still had a small amount of rust on it. Something buried underground might not fair that well even with cosmoline.
Was that the CMP sale a couple years ago of NIW barrels, of which some turned out to be WW2 vintage? I bought several of those barrels, and they came wrapped with a greenish sort of wax paper with dried cosmoline all over them. Fortunately, none of the barrels I got were affected by the rust reported by some of the folks. Unfortunately, none of them were WW2 vintage - had I known about that, I'd have bought more barrels before they sold out.
Lets not forget Tulsa's experiment with burying things went, and that was in a nice supposedly sealed chamber.
Yup, no WWII vintage for me either. One had some rust scales on it in a couple spots. I'm sure it was kept in better conditions than those planes.
It will be interesting to see pics of the Spitfires if they ever dig them out.
