Dave HomewoodInteresting to see regional differences. The Argosys that operated in NZ were usually called Flying Wheelbarrow and Whistling Wheelbarrow. I never heard the Whistling Tit one used here
When I was in the RNZAF and I’m sure still now, the C130 was the Herc. I’ve never heard it called Fat Albert here.
Dave HomewoodExcellent paintings, thanks. They’re very evocative
Dave HomewoodI have seen a wartime RNZAF reference to the colloquial nickname Tigerschmitt. I am not certain of the origin – whether it was just an affection name for the Tiger Moth given by students to their first mount, or whether it referred to the offensively capable bomber versions we had.
Dave HomewoodSorry, I meant the RAF ALSO, as well as RAAF which you mentioned.
Dave HomewoodDon’t the RAF refer to the Hercules as Fat Albert, after the cartoon character?
Dave HomewoodAndover – RNZAF nickname was Leftover
Dave HomewoodPlastic Parrot from composite construction, not paint
‘Plastic’ from construction maybe yes, as some parts were GRP, but I understood it that the ‘Parrot’ bit came from the original 1970’s paint scheme the RAAF operated them in which was green and yellow. Is this not right?
Dave HomewoodAh, thanks for the correction on the Beaufighter.
Another Walrus nickname, it was known in the RNZN as the “Pusser’s Duck” for some reason.
A correction – the CT-4 Airtrainer was designed in fact by Pat Monk of New Zealand Aerospace Industries (Pacific Aerospace came into the picture much later). It is somewhat loosely based upon the previous design work of the Victa Aircruiser, but it is actually a significantly different design and a generation apart from the Airtourer (which in itself had vast improvements made when produced by AESL in New Zealand – AESL later becoming NZAI).
The Airtrainer is as much a progression on design over the Airtourer and Aircruiser as Pat’s design of the Cresco was over the Fletcher in the topdressing field. Pat used to be my nextdoor neighbour, and has worked on everything from the Mile M.52 to Concorde to Boeing to airships to hovercrafts. An amazing man.
Testament to his early 1970’s design work the Airtrainer is still in production into the 21st century.
Dave HomewoodI guess I would descibe myself as an enthusiast, researcher, historian, photographer, modeller, ex-RNZAF, book collector and sentamental fool when it comes to me passion for historic aviation
My interest in and devotion to the history of New Zealand military aviation has continued to grow, and will so for a long time to come. It is my main interest, the RNZAF, and researching it as I have been, and being able to record the stories I have that no-one else has done, gives me immense satisfaction. I am of course interested in other areas of aviation – mainly other WWII Air Forces and types, but for me nothing will eclipse the feelings I have for the history of New Zealanders in the WWII air forces.
Yes, Duxford is amazing. But for me, the number one airfield was Wigram. Not just because I lived there for two and a half years, or that the RNZAF Museum is situated there, but having read of and been told so many tales of that station, NZ’s most important military aviation site, I find an amazing feeling every time I read or hear the word Wigram. When I lived there in 1991-93 that the place was very little changed at all from 1941-43, I felt I was living in an amazing time capsule. I could envisgae every story because I truly knew the place. I used to see many veterans who’d returned to the base to see the museum, who were wandering round, the memories flooding back to them.
It is very painful to think now what has become of that incredibly important site. The greed of the few have taken away the tangible link to the memories of many tens of thousands of people for whom that place was home, whatever era they lived there.
Hobsonville for me also held the ghosts of many a Catalina, Walrus, Sunderland and perhaps even a Cutty Sark moored in the stream. And its hangars, then with helicopters when I lived there, still seemed to me to need the return of Oxfords, Vincents and Harvards… sadly this base will also soon be gone.
Why can others not see the significance of these historical sites as we do? Are they not as important as some old Norman castle, or some Maori Pa site? Yes, perhaps moreso! But the majority simply think “land, build houses, make money”. It’s pathetic.
As for collecting, I have experienced the occasional thrill when winning issues of RNZAF Contact magazine on auction. For me, with these old wartime magazines, it is not just the interesting stories, articles and photos inside that are special, but also the thought of who’s hands this issue has passed through to get to me. Perhaps it had been passed around a crew room on a bomber squadron at Whenuapai before they moved up to the Pacific, or the Sgts Mess on a small station somewhere, or it was lovingly cherished by a boy who was then in the ATC and aspired to be in the RNZAF… I’ll never know who of course, but I do wonder what journey each issue has made and where it has been before it reached me.
We all know just what a fantastic repository of information this forum is and the joy we all get from helping each other and sharing in our knowledge.
Absolutely. No. 1 forum on the web, hands down!
Or is it the companionship and undoubted sense of community this forum engenders? Steve’s passing showed just how much of an impact an internet community such as this can have on our lives. How many of us have spent years attending airshows and museums and never seen a face we recognise? Now it’s hard to go anywhere without bumping into a friendly face
.
Though in these far distant lands it’s not so easy to meet up with people – I get to so few airshows these days as it is too – but even for me the forum provides so much more than simply reading the FlyPast magazine ever could. Not just the friendships, but the opportunity to learn so much more. Isn’t it amazing, simply astounding, how ten years ago we’d buy a magazine, read an article, and be left with unanswered questions that you’d always wonder about forever more. Nowadays those questions that pop up are usually answered within minutes on the forum, and often by people involved in the story somehow. Fantastic.
For me, being involved with the veterans is the pinacle that I have so far reached – having gone through the progressive stages from childhood to adulthood of making models,reading about planes, seeing planes at airshows, going to museums, reading about pilots, and then joining the RNZAF and getting involved in historic aviation through that service, nothing has meant more than the chance to meet and discuss and ask things with the men and women themselves who were there. I spent almost every Sunday afternoon I had at Wigram museum, not just because I loved looking at the exhibits, but because I struck up great friendships with the volunteer guides who were all WWII veterans.
I went for a considerable period away from such discussions with veterans as life moved on, till ten years later in 2003 I began my research into the Cambridge air force people (see my website) and I suddenly remembered how fulfilling it was to be able to ask, discuss and thank. I have since then interviewed many veterans, and my interest of just Cambridge people has now been expanded with my latest project.
In that I have been interviewing veterans of the General Reconnaissance and Bomber Reconnaissance squadrons of the RNZAF. These squadrons, with their Vincents, Baffins, Vildebeests, Hudsons, Singapores, Rapides, Express’s, and Venturas have held a fascination with me for years and I’ve loved reading about them. They were the key defence to NZ in the early days of the war, and a key part of the Allied offensive in the Pacific. Recently I decided to get off my chuff and do something more personal and tangible about it, rather than wish more had been written. I decided to track down veterans and record their stories myself. So far it has been most fulfilling, I have been learning a huge amount that has never been recorded, I have made many new friends, and I have been invited to their last ever reunion in November which will be amazing. I now wish I’d started this ten years ago when I first thought about doing it. What I am recording is, I feel, important not just to satisfy my own curiosity but also in the nation’s interest. I fully intend to try to get a book written and published out of this material. In fact, at the moment this has eclipsed my Cambridge research which many of you know is very dear to me too.
Of all things to do with this passion, one of the proudest moments of my life was in November 13th 2004 when we held the reunion I organised for Cambridge people who were in the RNZAF. The place was packed, people had come from far and wide, and they were all thrilled to be remembered. When the plaque I had designed was unveiled and the ceremony undertaken by the RNZAF padre was going on, I could have burst with pride. Now every time I walk through town I go past the plaque to check on it, under its tree in Jubilee Gardens next to the Town Hall and Cenotaph, and I stop and reflect, thinking about the faces of the veterans gathered there that day, and the faces of those who’s names are on the nearby memorial, as the hussle and busstle of life goes on around me. That, for me, pretty much somes it up.
Dave HomewoodThat is just the thing, there is no mention in any official book or even a personal biography that I have read about a submarine being attacked in NZ waters. I have heard that the Air Force was searching for the sub who flew its aircraft over Wellington, but never heard/read of it being found and engaged.
This chap, Keith Sommerville, seemed completely genuine in what he told me of what he remembers and it seems it was his most vivid memory of his days with the squadron. What I’m wondering is, did the squadron track the sub, attack it and believe it was destroyed, and yet it got away? That’s a possibility.
No matter what the books say, official sources are never the only sources. There are countless stories that abound about Japanese submarine activity, most have never been acknowledged or denied officially as far as I’m aware. Japanese submarines have been said many times to have been assisted by certain radical anti-British factions of Maori who signalled to them and gave them food supplies. I have heard of this happening at Hokianga, at North Cape, at Coromandel Peninsula (where Japs and collaberating Maori were allegedly shot dead by the Home Guard!) and at Ratahi near Wanganui way (where an army company was sent to investigate the lights being flashed from Ratahi Pa out to sea).
Who knows whether any of it is true. Some books have recorded these rumours but no real evidence has surfaced. One has to remember many of the official history books were written soon after the war when many secret files would have still been closed.
Do the Japanese Navy’s offical records of their submarines activities survive complete anywhere?
The other thng is, 2 GR may have actually attacked and sunk a whale. Stranger things have happened.
Dave HomewoodHere is a little more on that Russian women pilot film, Night Witches (if it is to be believed) from http://www.countingdown.com/movies/2792302
No date is given to this info and notes it’s “in development”
Who’s in it? Anna Friel , Malcolm McDowell.
and this site
http://www.laqat.com/movie.cgi?id=3524
notes the writer director as Alexander Siddig
Dave HomewoodI decided to try to find out more about this film to be made about the Russian woman fighter pilots. So I signed up (under the auspices of GR_Hudson – my favourite aircraft!) to The Bastar*s Have Landed forum, which is an official Peter Jackson forum. I got an intresting result – a working title perhaps at least…
http://tbhl.theonering.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=qanda;action=display;num=1125659631;start=0
Dave HomewoodI’d love to hear that ‘Bomber’ radio adaptation someday. I’ve never even seen the book here.
I did very much enjoy another Bomber Command radio adaptation recently on BBC7, H.E. Bates’ book “Fair Stood The Wind For France” about a crashed Wellington crew in France, starring Sean Pertwee in the lead role.
Dave HomewoodSorry but that wouldn’t attract much of an audience. Individual “special” raids such as the Chastice operation catch the audience imagination, how would this particular raid do the same.
Bombing raids were long drawn out affairs, quite often just hours of tedium interspersed with moments of shear terror. How would you build it up, the Dam Busters featured the problem solving with the weapon, the crew selection and training, it would be hard to show this to any great extent about just one raid and keep the audience interested.
From what I’ve been told by the widow of a three-time DFC winner who was on that raid, which apparently had the biggest losses in one night for the RAF, it was pretty ‘hot’ and full of excitement. Of the 57 raids he made this was the worst by far she said!
I think the idea is very good. It is a true event that hundreds of crews witnessed, and it had a profound effect on them and others in the RAF.
You could certainly have a lot of action that would catch the attention of the public given all the night-fighters shooting down that many planes. The film doesn’t have to show the whole raid, it could start just as they’re approaching the target. An innovative writer could do it. I believe most of the trouble was on the way home. You could create a fictional crew on the real raid and weave lots of real stories into it, ala Memphis Belle. Or you could probably find recorded memories of a real crew and recreate real events that one of the many crews experienced.
You could pick a crew that gets home. Or one that is shot down and has to evade capture. There are lots of options.
Dave HomewoodOn Togun Reject’s topic… I watched a film a few weeks ago called The Mackenzie Break about a british POW camp for German prisoners who were planning an escape. I found that quite novel as there are so many the other way round. It featured som nice flying shots from some sort of Percival or Miles thingy too.
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