by What might be considered the ultimate curio and relic will be auctioned off by Christie’s on July 9th. This curio and relic is a restored Vickers Supermarine Spitfire Mk1. It was shot down during the evacuation of Dunkirk and it lay buried in the beach mud of France until 1980.
The legendary fighter aircraft, dubbed the ballerina because of its grace in the skies, was originally piloted by Old Etonian Peter Cazenove during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
He was shot down by a single bullet on May 24 1940, and despite radioing in to say “Tell mother I’ll be home for tea!” he crashed down on the Calais coast and was captured.
As he was marched off to a German prisoner of war camp his plane remained buried in the sandy beach for decades.
The proceeds from the auction of this Spitfire will be split between the RAF Benevolent Fund and Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. It is expected to fetch in the neighborhood of £2.5 million.
You can hear more about the restoration and see this beautiful plane in flight in the second video.
There is no word on whether is still has its .303 Browning machine guns or where you could even get non-working replicas.
I'm bidding a hundred bucks. I might go two. After all, it's only a Mk1.
Who am I kidding? I'd bid my house, my car, most of my guns and two Shepherd dogs for that!
Beautiful, just beautiful!!!
Beautiful, just beautiful!!!