P40 Kittyhawk aircraft found intact from WW2 in Sahara

[Alan Smith]

A good friend of mine flew P-40's in North Africa with the 66th Fighter Squadron of the 57th Fighter Group, USAAC. His unit was under British command and flew ground attack missions c. 1943 in support of the British 8th Army. On many occasions he has told me about how they "stayed as close as possible to the coastline" so that they would not get lost in the desert and meet the same fate as this British P-40 pilot apparently did.

Here is a photo of my friend's P-40, named "Monty's Saint" in a reference to the British general Montgomery under whose command they were operating.

I will be sure to show my friend the photos of the British P-40 found in the desert; he will find it most interesting (and, I'm sure, remind me again about the need to stay close to the coastline so as to avoid a similar fate).

[Jägermarty]

The locals are shooting up this P40 recently found according to those on the Flypast forum link, pics n video confirm it. Farken farken morons

[Jean-Loup]

Can you post the link?
Whoever located this plane should have realised that they needed to react as secretively as if they had found a container full of gold ingots; and organised something very carefully before making the find public.

JL

[Jägermarty]

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showt...116221&page=22

post 653 onwards JL

[CWP]

Very, very sad.

[TheCleaner]

Sad...

[Jean-Loup]

What a bunch of morrons, not only are they destroying a unique piece of history; but they are also damaging an item they could potentialy have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It is surprising the aircraft was far away enaugh from society to remain undisturbed for 65 years, but close enaugh to be vandalised the minute it was discovered.

JL

[DaveNZ]

It is surprising the aircraft was far away enaugh from society to remain undisturbed for 65 years, but close enaugh to be vandalised the minute it was discovered.

JL

exactly what I was thinking

[paddywhack]

sorry to have to be the one to say t but his is like that russian stug allllll over again! this is going to torn apart by locals now and by the time anyone official gets to it i doubt there will be much of anything left! am i surprised? not in the one to be honest!so sad but nothing any of us can do!!!!

[Chet Sowersby]

I am not surprized. Thoes of us who place a value on history are in the minority. When something like this is found in a third world counrtry what should we expect other than this? These people for the most part are good, yet they are still ignorant.

Chet

[Alan Smith]

My friend who flew the P-40 "Monty's Saint" (pictured above) has repeatedly told me how the Arabs would steal/haul off anything that was not nailed down; to the point where the security put in place around the airfield had very little to do with a threat from Axis forces but, rather, was primarily to keep the Arabs from stealing stuff from the aircraft, service vehicles, supply tents, etc. Sounds like nothing has changed in this area of the world . . . .

[StevenO]

I enjoy a P 40 as much as the next guy, but could we please avoid unconstructive judgments, having other priorities than interest in history doesn’t make someone ignorant and I won’t even go near the “Arabs” comment.

[Jean-Loup]

"I enjoy a P 40 as much as the next guy, but could we please avoid unconstructive judgments, having other priorities than interest in history doesn’t make someone ignorant and I won’t even go near the “Arabs” comment. "

Mindlessly destroying an item that can quite obviously be sold for a huge sum of money is ignorant, whichever part of the world you are from, and whatever your supposed 'priorities' are. The Egyptians that I know are perfectly aware that anything from WWII will sell to tourists for significant sums of money, and would have the brains not to consider shooting this aircraft up a priority.
Stealing in the hope of making a quick buck is one thing (priority=feeding family), vandalism is quite an other (priority=being an idiot).

JL

[StevenO]

I don’t think we should open a discussion about geopolitics here as to the reason for why artifacts are shot to pieces, and if yes or no the people who did the actual shooting did know the significant in monetary value. I really do not think we can assess from our armchairs the reason behind the destruction, but hey just follow the good old rule and without knowing all the facts just to call them Arab thieves and “idiots” , fine by me.
Cheers

[Grubhy]

Famous story! Unfortunately most of crew has been found in 1959. In late 60's wreck has been took by for study by McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft Corporation as part of research focused on effects of long term desert storage.

More:

http://www.qmfound.com/lady_be_good_...r_recovery.htm

Anyone here know the story of the American B-24 named "Lady be Good"? She went down in the Libyan desert in '43. The crew bailed out, met up and attemped to "walk out". They lasted nine days. Their diary was found describing their ordeal.

Chet