I’m currently reading an excellent book called “Tool Box On The Wing” by Geoffrey Ellis (Mallinson Rendell, 1983). He was working in 1942 in Air Department at Wellington and his boss, the Director of Repair and Maintenance was Gp Capt Micky Keogh. Ellis wrote of Keogh:
“He had been trained as a pilot himself, though was not in practice. Later on, when it seemed quite on the cards that the Japs would be invading our shores, he put a proposal before Air Staff that all older men such as he who had received pilot training. should be formed into a Kamikaze unit comprising Tiger Moths fitted with bomb racks which would be flown into the invading ships. I was pleased such desperate measures were unnecessary.”
Whoa! The RNZAF did in fact fit bomb racks to many of its Tiger Moths, Harvards and Oxfords, plus other training aircraft, in case of invasion. They set them up as reserve squadrons for defence, to be flown by the instructors at the schools to which the aircraft belonged. But I’d never heard of this proposal to use them as Kamikaze aircraft before.
Imagine if it had happened! The entire Japanese invasion fleet wiped out by Tiger Moths and a handful of brave pilots sacrificing themselves for the good of the whole country. Amazing what might have been. Unlikely that it would have worked though.
By: Flood - 26th February 2005 at 12:47
We live and learn!:D
I would hate to have done it myself, or to have even suggested it to the brave guys who would have had to do it, and probably feel uneasy if I heard about it afterwards that it had been done in my name. Lets face it – it wouldn’t be too far off the results of the ill-fated Channel Dash when all six Swordfish sent against Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen as they transitted from Brest to Kiel or Wilhelmshaven through the English Channel were shot down, with the loss of all but five of the eighteen aircrew. Sheer suicide.
Flood
By: Dave Homewood - 26th February 2005 at 10:58
Yep – it’s a tradional Maori word mate! 🙂
I guess Wing Commander Ellis was writing with hindsight.
By: Flood - 26th February 2005 at 10:29
I’m currently reading an excellent book called “Tool Box On The Wing” by Geoffrey Ellis (Mallinson Rendell, 1983). He was working in 1942 in Air Department at Wellington and his boss, the Director of Repair and Maintenance was Gp Capt Micky Keogh. Ellis wrote of Keogh:
“He had been trained as a pilot himself, though was not in practice. Later on, when it seemed quite on the cards that the Japs would be invading our shores, he put a proposal before Air Staff that all older men such as he who had received pilot training. should be formed into a Kamikaze unit comprising Tiger Moths fitted with bomb racks which would be flown into the invading ships. I was pleased such desperate measures were unnecessary.”
Whoa! The RNZAF did in fact fit bomb racks to many of its Tiger Moths, Harvards and Oxfords, plus other training aircraft, in case of invasion. They set them up as reserve squadrons for defence, to be flown by the instructors at the schools to which the aircraft belonged. But I’d never heard of this proposal to use them as Kamikaze aircraft before.
Imagine if it had happened! The entire Japanese invasion fleet wiped out by Tiger Moths and a handful of brave pilots sacrificing themselves for the good of the whole country. Amazing what might have been. Unlikely that it would have worked though.
So was the use of the word Kamikaze common-place in New Zealand, prior to the infamous suicide attacks of 1944/45?;)
Flood
By: turbo_NZ - 26th February 2005 at 07:09
Yeah it’s quite amazing for sure.
Move over B-2 and F-117, for the budget Stealth bomber from NZ is taking over !! 😀
TNZ
By: Dave Homewood - 26th February 2005 at 05:52
I guess it demonstrates just how serious the situation really was when senior officers seriously considered this as a measure!
I suppose Tiger Moths would have been harder to pick up on the ship’s radar – NZ’s stealth kamikaze bombers – crikey!
By: turbo_NZ - 26th February 2005 at 04:50
Far out !!!, 😮
First I’ve ever heard of that….Surely the Tiger’s would be sitting ducks to ground fire…as they’re not the fastest bird in the world…
That’s Kiwi enginuity coming through, but still pretty radical !!
Cheers
TNZ
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February 26, 2005 at 2:43 am