USAF in Cook Islands during WWII ?

Sorry to bring this back up to the top but I have just located more information.

The first aircraft to land on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands group was the RNZAF Lockheed Lodestar NZ3508, captained by Flt Lt Tom Mounsey, on the 25th of Nov 1944. The airport was constructed by the New Zealand Aerodrome Services Branch, and was a gift to the Cooks from NZ Prime Minister Peter Fraser.

This was reported (with photo of said first landing) in NZ Wings magazine in August 1986, as part of a wider report about an RNZAf Exercise there from 8th July-5th August 1986 called Operation Joint Venture, with Hercules’s, Iroquois’s, Andovers, Skyhawks, an Orion and a Boeing 727 plus NZ army troops and Navy Wasp.

USAF in the Cook Islands

Dave Homeward wondered about the Americans in Samoa as well as the Cook Islands. I’m currently re-reading “The First Team” by John Lundstrom(US Naval Institute Press) which covers the USN carrier war from Pearl Harbour to November ’42. There are many references in both volumes to the USN task forces using Nukualofa Roads (Samoa) as a safe anchorage from before the Coral Sea Battle and well into 1944. Lundstrom’s researches are from US and Japanese records the latter showing the IJN plans for 1942 to include both the occupation of Port Moresby, and more to the point of the thread, Tulagi and the Solomons as a precurser to taking New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa. I can only guess that the US forces created a Cook Island base as a fall back as they knew of the Japanese plans From ULTRA feedback.

What’s wrong with Coastwatches

Arn’t we allowed to say Coastw*tches

Is TW&T the problem!

I have found a little more info on the Aitutaki airstrip youy may find of interest, though it doesn’t really address your initial questions Panther. In the book “To Fly A Desk – Sir Geoffrey Roberts: Father of Air New Zealand” by Noel Holmes (Reed Publishing, 1982) there is the briefest of a mention.

It reads, referring to Geoff Roberts being concerned with setting up airstrips in the Island for the defence in the Pacific, thus:

“He got some grim amusement out of one at Aitutaki, in the Cooks, a more or less circular atoll, where a dog-leg had to be introduced – shades of the North-West Frontier. This strip, of consolidated crushed coral, was put in by the Americans but was never used seriously, although it was later to come in handy as a civilian touchdown point.”

The war movie “South Pacific” was made in the Cook Islands. USN Catalina’s are prevalent throughout the film.

Interesting post Dave !
Thanks for the feedback.

On a slightly related matter, while I was on Rarotonga, I was told about the merchant ship that sunk just off the coast (it’s boiler can still be seen protruding from the water!). It sank on christmas eve, 1916 while attempting to enter the port (it’s cargo included many Ford Model T cars !).

Anyway, while out on a tour of the bay area of Avarua, the tour guide (a Kiwi, BTW) told us that the wreck had perhaps saved Rarotonga from the German Navy ?!

Apparently when the captain of a German warship saw the boiler protuding from the water, he believed it to be a British ship or submarine, and so did not land on Rarotonga !

This is an interesting question. I have done some digging around but cannot find much at all.

Pretty much all islands in the Pacific were considered at risk from invasion. There were certainly Allied airstrips and garrisons at Fiji and Tonga, which both included US and NZ forces. Also one was built at Norfolk Island by the Allies.

As the Cook Islands are a New Zealand protectorate, and have been since 1901, I’m sure the RNZAF must have kept an eye on the islands. Though as yet I have not found hard evidence, I’d wager that they were regularly visited by RNZAF Catalinas and possibly other types such as our Hudsons and Dakotas. Such communications flights were standard for the RNZAF, not only to patrol the waterways for any suspicous shipping etc., but also to take mail and supplies to the military units, coas****chers and civilians on the islands. The Catalinas visited even the tiniest of islands that most people haven’t heard of, to check all was ok and to keep morale up.

I did find this reference from http://wais.stanford.edu/Pacific/pacific_cookislands61801.html

“Rarotonga is 6 miles long and 5 miles wide. People from the United States may recognize the name of Penrhyn because there was a US landing strip on that atoll during the Second World War. “

I guess the strip at the Cooks was probably laid to act as a fall back base should more Allied territory be taken by the Japanese, and to enable protection of the Cooks themselves, as well as allowing communications flights in, etc.

I’m keen to see if anyone else comes up with more info on the Cook Islands at war – and for that matter, also Samoa – were there troops and airmen based there? There must have been I guess. Either in Western Samoa or American Samoa? (Did you know NZ’s first campaign in WWI was invading Samoa and taking it from the Germans!!)