|
Post by pjw4118 on Jun 29, 2010 9:47:58 GMT 12
Having looked at what is left of Te Pirita in South Canterbury and Fairhall in Marlborough, can anyone report on what is left at the proposed B17 field at Reporoa.Did work actually start.
|
|
|
Post by shamus on Jun 29, 2010 10:47:13 GMT 12
Did not know their was a B17 field to be built at Reporoa. Their was one to be built at Rotherham, near Hamner Springs in Canterbury but this was never started. Would be interested to hear more about this North Island airfield.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 29, 2010 20:53:28 GMT 12
Are you sure you do not mean Waharoa? That airport (just north of Matamata) was built as a back-up for USAAF heavy bombers such as the B-17 and B-24.
|
|
|
Post by The Red Baron on Jun 30, 2010 7:43:25 GMT 12
Reporoa/Broadlands would have been a good choice as its flat as a pancake and there was the big American army camp at Rerewhakaaitu. However I think you'll find it never got past the proposal state.
|
|
|
Post by Bruce on Jun 30, 2010 13:00:31 GMT 12
I did some pretty intense Google Earth searching in the Reporoa area looking for the Strathmore internment camp - didnt find anything that looked remotely like a military airfield. Would be a sensible location for one though.
|
|
|
Post by pjw4118 on Jun 30, 2010 13:19:22 GMT 12
I think that it was surveyed but by the time machinery and man power was available the need had gone. Maybe TePirita was finished because those two essentials were available in Canterbury.
|
|
|
Post by monkeyboy73 on Mar 18, 2011 2:30:09 GMT 12
Hi all, im a rotorua resident, there was a airfield where whakawerawera is now in rotorua, hudsons were flown there, my father in law had one crash land in his garden as a boy, teacher wouldnt believe him lol. a u.s. army camp where our arawa horse racing park is now. Look up mud and pumice, annual book for rerewhakaaitu, yankee rd follows closely to road used ww2. Camp was north east of lake rerewhakaaitu. Used by U.S. and NZ for artillery, tanks, army cadets 1920s etc Airfield on mt tarawera, dunno if used during ww2, look up "defending new zealand" parts 1 and 2 in library, two excellent references, maps, schematics etc
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 18, 2011 7:02:15 GMT 12
I know someone who has a photo of that Hudson in the garden, but i have not yet seen it.
|
|
|
Post by eieio on Mar 19, 2011 18:58:27 GMT 12
Runways on Mt Tarawera were built by a tourist flight operator [Volcanic wunderflite?] in the eighties[19].Not in use now due to ownership of the Mountain I believe.
|
|
|
Post by johnnyfalcon on Feb 26, 2017 21:16:52 GMT 12
I had a job to do out the back of Hororata last week. Got chatting afterwards with the customer, a friendly cockie. Turns out he farmed at Te Pirita for some 45 years before moving to his present locale.
He told me a story about how, shortly after completion of the field, an American bomber (B-17?) was used to test the new runways. Evidently the bomber suffered considerable 'gravel rash' to the underside of its wings as a result of the shrapnel (locally crushed glacial stone) thrown up by the prop-wash and undercarriage. Said bomber was flown back to Wigram (Woodbourne?) for repairs.
Is there any factual basis to this story?
|
|
|
Post by Ian Warren on Feb 26, 2017 22:14:34 GMT 12
Having looked at what is left of Te Pirita in South Canterbury and Fairhall in Marlborough, can anyone report on what is left at the proposed B17 field at Reporoa.Did work actually start. Weird thing I was sourcing the article for international interest, found it here Nov 2011 WINGS magazine, about Te Pirita and the planned B-17 base, I'll scan it tomorrow and post, appears to be a large resurgence in this sort of information just recent for some reason .. be a B-17 thing , We all love those
|
|
|
Post by Ian Warren on Feb 27, 2017 11:28:18 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by isc on Feb 27, 2017 23:27:47 GMT 12
Nice photo of Eric Early(left) and my late next door neighbour Keith Jarman. When I first heard of the works at Te Pirita it was at a meeting of the Malvern Motor and Machinery Club, a talk given by Eric Early. One thing I did note at the time was that Eric's wife didn't know of what was happening until some time after the war. isc
|
|
|
Post by davidd on Feb 28, 2017 8:35:14 GMT 12
Johnny, Only story I have heard about American use of Te Pirita was that a B-17 pilot was taken there after completion of the field and stated that he would have no hesitation in landing at Te Pirita should the need arise. Pretty certain that no B-17 actually landed there, although there is no good reason why one could not have done so. Perhaps the word of a serving USAAF pilot who had made a ground inspection was sufficient in itself. There were a number of B-17s passing through NZ of course, from Fiji and Australia, including one that landed at Wigram (the one that had suffered an engine failure) and a number went through Whenuapai in 1942, mostly "E" models. There was also a D model (the "Swoose") that landed at Woodbourne in early 1942. Incidentally the Beam Approach system mentioned in the article was installed by the RNZAF and was for their benefit alone, as this was well after 1942 and was intended purely for training purposes with the Oxfords of the BAT Flight, which was attached to 1 SFTS at Wigram. I very much doubt that any American aircraft had on-board equipment that was compatible with the British-sourced Beam Approach equipment used in NZ (technically a pre-war German-developed system known as Lorenz, and originally intended for civil aviation.) Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can comment on this. David D
|
|
|
Post by davidd on Feb 28, 2017 9:29:05 GMT 12
The two other back-up dispersal fields built on behalf of the Americans in New Zealand in 1942 were Rotherham (as already described earlier in thread) and Galatea in the North Island. These sites where chosen because practically no real work was required apart from pulling out various shrubs, moving scattered boulders, etc, out of the way, and removing existing fences. These fields were surveyed and more or less held in reserve in case the Japanese managed to advance further south than they already were, which of course they did not. So the sheep occupying these fields were never really disturbed by the throb of four turbo-charged Wright Cyclones. Incidentally neither of these two "fields", nor Te Pirita, were ever intended for mounting of operations as such - they were purely for dispersal purposes. The amount of fuel located at Te Pirita could have coped with refuelling a small number of B-17s (and no doubt oil could have been provided as required) but the maintenance of bomb stocks, ammunition, let alone accommodation for crews and ground staff, etc, was never envisaged. Even before the outbreak of the Pacific war the Americans were very keen on dispersal fields, and particularly those suitable for their very expensive new B-17 4-engined bombers. Unfortunately after the attack on Pearl harbour the USAAF fell into the old trap of believing that the Japanese had swarms of eager collaborators in Hawaii as well as in the Philippines, and although this did not create any unintended major losses in Hawaii (so far as I can recall) and they used their dispersal fields there very quickly AFTER the attack, in the Philippines it was a different story. After the expected Japanese air attacks on their permanent airfields failed to materialise at dawn, they lined up their available bombers in the middle of the fields and placed guards around them as a defence against saboteurs, rather than dispersing them to outlying (and unknown to Japanese) fields. As is well known, the Japanese bombers had not arrived as predicted in the morning because of heavy fog at their own fields, but after this had cleared they took off and arrived several hours later over the American permanent fields to find the B-17s, etc (including B-18s?), all lined up and ripe for slaughter. This tended to greatly sharpen the Americans' appreciation of the value of dispersal fields, and that is why they insisted that the permanent fields being provided for them in NZ should also have the protection of (secret) dispersal fields as a backup, particularly when it was learned that both Whenuapai and Ohakea were peculiarly unsuitable for the construction of revetted protective pits due to drainage problems. as is well known, Te Pirita was also equipped with a few of these revetted pits, but this did not alter the fact that the prime advantage of this field was its remoteness, and its lack of any obvious facilities. Also the decision was made that the construction of these pits was very labour intensive, and that it was much more economical to simply ensure that good taxiways were provided to enable B-17s to taxi themselves over considerable distances and hide among the numerous plantations which had been thoughtfully provided by the Selwyn Planation Board. The large (750,000 Imperial gallon) Reserve fuel tank located at Bankside (not far from the main south road and railway), the biggest reserve aviation tank in New Zealand at the time) was never intended to be for the use of Te Pirita, despite its obvious proximity. AR 16 as it was know, was mainly intended for the RNZAF's bulk fuel reserves. However it was never fully completed, and apparently failed its test filling. There was no branch railway line built to the airfield. Some of the old stories surrounding these secret airfields have, not surprisingly, grown lots of legs, both during and since WW2. David D
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 28, 2017 11:40:30 GMT 12
Wasn't Waharoa airfield (north of Matamata) also built for the specific purpose of landing and dispersing large US bombers should Guadalcanal and Santo, etc, fall, I have had many people tell me this. The AR9 fuel reserve tank here in Cambridge was intended to be emergency fuel for Waharoa and Rukuhia should the balloon go up.
|
|
|
Post by pjw4118 on Feb 28, 2017 11:51:45 GMT 12
Dave according to the Aerodrome records I have , it was built by the RNZAF in 1940 as an emergency landing field. It seems to be the only airfield built by the RNZAF rather that PWD
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 28, 2017 12:09:38 GMT 12
The RNZAF (No. 1 Aerodrome Squadron) did build the original solid runway and hangars at Rukuhia, just after they got back from Singapore. That was built on an existing aero club grass airfield of course so was not from scratch as such.
It's interesting that Waharoa goes back that far. It's apparently a massive airfield and seems odd we'd build one that large in the days of biplanes. I wonder if it was extended in 1942 for heavy US bombers?
When you look on Google Maps satellite image, in the V that forms between Hororata Road and Thwaites Road in mid-Canterbury there's a massive airfield visible. Is that Te Pirita? I know it's still visible from the air as a strip because the wattle seed used in the airfield grass mix. Or is that another airfield?
|
|
|
Post by johnnyfalcon on Feb 28, 2017 20:03:16 GMT 12
Dave, that airfield, opposite the Studholme Salmon Factory was, up until recently, an active gliding airfield. I'm unsure of its history. Te Pirita can be seen very vaguely on Google Earth. Form a box with Ardlui Rd on the West, Mitchell's Rd on the East, Illingworth Rd to the North, and Sharlands Rd to the South. To the South of Illingworth Rd (inside this box) you can see a shelter-belt of trees running almost parallel with Illingworth Rd. There is a gap near the NW corner of this shelter-belt through which one of the old runways goes. Another of the vectors can be seen to the SE running up to the NE across this pale box of paddocks. The fields have been turned into dairy, Wattle trees are gone, and according to the chap I was talking to, despite the intensive irrigation, pasture doesn't grow so well.
Happy hunting, that should keep you occupied for a while
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 2, 2017 19:02:07 GMT 12
Thanks.
|
|