He has given General McChrystal the chance to achieve the first, crucial part of his strategy: to regain the initiative in a war that has been slipping inexorably into the enemy's hands.

ECONOMIST: The surge in Afghanistan

Mr Brockman said the idea that the Spitfires were hidden to stay out of enemy hands was not necessarily correct because Japanese forces would have not been in a position to use them at that point.

BBC: Search for missing Spitfires in Burma due to begin

In Japan, Samurai warriors would carry out Seppuku, a ritual suicide by disembowelment, rather than fall into enemy hands.

BBC: When suicide was illegal