James, I have pm’d an historian in NZ for information on your grandfather. Hopefully he can share some detail on his efforts in the war for you.

As an edit, he said that if you have anything specific about his establishment in the RNZAF and history leading up to his final sortie then he can probably hep you. He has a lot of info in his book(s) he has written on (all?) RNZAF staff who were active in WWII and still has resources on tap.

That family name Atkinson, was in my local country district in Sth Wairarapa but they had links to origins in Christchurch too, just sth of Hagley Park.

Graeme