I have been reading this interesting thread and wanted to say that from the sideline where I am completely unbiased, with respect, I think Damien has somewhat over-reacted to mis-reading a harmless comment by Panther. It’s a pity because the rest of the thread is really interesting.

I was wondering, out of interest, who was the New Zealander who fought for the Nazis. Sounds like an interesting tale.

Thanks for clearing that up Errol. Especially the thing about the ‘month’ formula – a couple of old airman had told me that one was used, but I couldn’t work it out and thought they must have been mistaken.

In th NZT prefix, what was the ‘T’ for – Territorial?

I have comes across at least one that was NZA39… too. This was an airman who’d signed up to the Reserve in early 1939. I wondered if the A had anything to do with this.

There have been loads of books published that have been atlases of WWII over the years. Check your library.

Wow!!

Were they the only ones doing so? (Australians in the RAAF seem to just be a number sequence, like the RAF, and I’ve not got enough of a sample with RNZAF SAAF etc.)

James, in WWII the RNZAF almost always had the prefix NZ before the six-to-seven numeral serial. This came in very soon into the war. Before this airmen had a four digit number basically issued in the first months of war (or those already serving from prewar). But with the realisation of big numbers joining they changed the allocation system. The next two numbers after NZ denoted the year joined, so NZ39XXXX meant the airman joined in 1939. I’ve been told also that the second pair denoted the month, but this doesn’t always tally so I can’t say that for certain, and I doubt this. The serial was usually six numbers, sometimes seven.

As well as that NZ prefix, some airmen got an additional ‘A’, so it would read NZA39XXXX – and I think the ‘A’ stood for Auxiliary – ie those who had been in the Reserve prewar. This I have not confirmed. I’m certain Errol Martyn can correct me if this is wrong.

Additionally there was another prefix, that of the letter ‘C’. This was added into the serial if the airman had served in the Air Training Corps before joining, and was going through the slightly fast-tracked entry system so as not to go over stuff already learned. So their serial was like NZC43XXXX

Funnily enough when you ask an airman his serial number, they always remember the numbers but very seldom mention the NZ prefix. Most of the WAAF’s I’ve interviewed don’t rememebr their number at all, full stop!

Oh, that John Romain. I thought I’d heard the name but couldn’t recall exactly. Thanks. I’m not constantly at Duxford like many people on this forum.