I’m not all that sure that I believe the whole tale but there we go.
Victor Kislyi, who made a fortune from the online game World of Tanks, is funding the search for Second World War Spitfires believed to have been buried in Burma.
But given Mr. Kislyi’s background perhaps someone would like to whisper in his ear about a much more interesting little rumour. One that’s been around for years.
Soviet forces in the Second World War did have their own legendary fighter planes, like the Yakovlev Yak. They even had some Spitfires, given to them by the British.
Again, that’s not something I’m all that sure about. Hurricanes, yes. Which is the basis of this interesting rumour. That up on the Murmansk peninsula are a number of said Hurricanes still in their packing crates. The Arctic convoys delivered them but they were never actually put into use. And there are, at least I’m told there are, fewer Hurricanes flying today than there are Spitfires.
But it is just a rumour, heard around Moscow in the mid 1990s.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Matthew L // Oct 28, 2012 at 10:49 am
I play that game, it’s pretty good. Nice to think that some of the money I spent on it is going to preserve some history.
2 Thornavis. // Oct 28, 2012 at 11:47 am
Yes they did have Spitfires, I actually saw a photo of one the other day in a magazine which I will look out, complete with red star.
3 Nick Luke // Oct 28, 2012 at 11:49 am
Uncle Joe is reported to have forbidden the Russian air-force to fly the Hurrifires because they would have shown up the poor quality of the then current Russian crates. Only a rumour…
4 Thornavis. // Oct 28, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Right found that Spitfire photo, taken in Iraq in 1943 during test flying before being flown to the Soviets. Can’t help with the Hurricanes I’m afraid.
5 Steve Crook // Oct 28, 2012 at 12:12 pm
The hurricanes were taken by the US at the end of the war, and are currently stored in a warehouse close to the ark of the covenant….
6 Charlieman // Oct 28, 2012 at 2:59 pm
There are two flying Hurricanes according to my recollection.
If Hurricanes in packing cases exist in Murmansk, let us hope that they have been kept in a warm corner of a hangar. If they have been stored outdoors, they will be flat-packed Hurricanes.
7 AlanL // Oct 28, 2012 at 9:01 pm
There were stories floating around in Germany a decade or so ago of an underground hangar full of intact Fw 190s being discovered under an airport in Berlin. Probably apocryphal.
8 pjt // Oct 29, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Russians did fly the Hurricanes. They also flew other Western aircraft, like Airacobras and C-47/DC-3 Dakotas.
Finnish Air Force bought some Hurricanes from the British in 1940 to fight the Russians who were then in pact with the Germans, against the British and the French. (The Hurricanes had to be flown from Britain to Finland over hostile territory i.e. Sweden and German-controlled North sea). Then the tides of war changed, Germans and Russians fell sour of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and soon the Finnish Hurricanes were fighting alongside German Me-109′s.
The British started to give Hurricanes to the Russians to give some pressure on the Eastern Fron, and some Russian Hurricanes were shot down or captured on airfields and the Finnish Air Force got those as well to join the Hurricane squadron.
Too bad that all those planes were scrapped after the war because no one though anyone would care about them.
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