LONDON — British excavators are heading to the Myanmar city of Yangon to find a nearly forgotten stash of British Spitfire aircraft thought to be carefully buried beneath the former capital's airfield.

The venture is backed with a million-dollar guarantee from a Belarusian videogame company. Backers say it will uncover dozens of Spitfires locked underground by American engineers at the end of World War II.

Uncertainty still remains over whether the planes are down there and what kind of condition they might be in. But the man behind the effort, 63-year-old David Cundal, told reporters Friday that eyewitness testimony from U.S. and British veterans claiming to have been involved in the burials left him in no doubt.

The expedition leaves Saturday for Myanmar and could begin digging in less than two weeks.