UK PM secures historic deal with Myanmar

David Cameron, who was the first top western leader to visit Myanmar after its opposition party won by-election, reached an agreement with the Myanmar authorities to dig up and ship the aircrafts back to the UK about 67 years after the UK army hid them 40-feet below ground amid fears of Japan’s occupation.

It comes right after Cameron met Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy party (NLD), and invited her to visit Britain in her first trip abroad for 24 years.

The UK PM also urged the European nations to suspend Myanmar’s sanctions, as the opposition party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary by-election, securing 43 of the 44 seats it contested.

It was reported that the Spitfires were sent to Myanmar in the summer of 1945, two weeks before the US force bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.

The UK’s campaign to force the Japanese out from its colony, Known as Burma, was described as the longest and bloodiest of the war began after Japan invaded the country in 1941.

The Spitfires were deployed to Myanmar to protect the ground troops and provide crucial supplies. However, about 20 of them were kept in secret place and never saw action. Earl Mountbatten, Prince of Wales’ uncle who was supreme allied commander of South-east Asia Command, ordered the aircrafts to be hidden avoid Japanese forces’ access to them as the British army demobilized.

A British team has been sent to the Asian country and will begin the excavation, predicted to cost about £500,000, imminently.

A No 10 source said that the government was planning to unearth the planes and restore them to their previous glory. “The Spitfire is arguably the most important plane in the history of aviation, playing a crucial role in the Second World War.”

SAB/JR/HE

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