RNZAF Stations Web Update

[Dave Homewood]

Hi all,

I have been promising this for a long time and have finally sorted out a ormat I like. The RNZAF Stations pages on my website which currently consist of two pages, North island and South Island, are getting seriously large and very slow to download on some PC's.

So I intend to break them up into smaller pages, based on regional areas. So the existing introduction page will stay, and you'll still click on either NI or SI, but these will take you to a small page with just a map of that island you chose, with regional areas picked out. You then click on the region and get a page with all the stations and depots in that region.

So, I have been working on the prototype, which I randomly picked to by the Marlborough region.

Here is a tentative link to the first draft which i hope you guys can look at and comment upon, whether you like the new layout etc. Any ideas or suggestions will be considered and any criticism taken on board in the spirit it's meant. So, what do you think?

Go here, then navigate the region from the map at the top of the page
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/RNZAF%20Stations%20Blenheim.htm

I have some questions too about this region:

Has anyone got information about RNZAF activities at Wairau Valley? I found reference to something being there, but I don't know what.

Also, does anyone know where Dillons Point is on the map? It's not in my map book of NZ. It's somewhere near Blenheim, and I believe it may be near Whites Bay. But all I can find on a websearch is Dillons Point Road in Blenheim itself. Does anyone now where the airfield land may have been?

Does anyone have details of the airstrip lengths and types at Grassmere, Clarence and Fairhall? I'm sure they'd all have been grass, but want to make sure.

I am certain i saw somewhere about a year or so ago a photo of hangars being erected at RNZAF Fairhall, which were half round prefad types like at Ardmore or Ashburton. Does anyone know where I may have seen this photo? I cannot recall where.

Lastly, when did the sealed runway get built at Woodbourne? I'm assuming that the airfield was all grass strip throughout the war?

Answers, clues and comments on the page are all welcome and appreciated, thanks.

[steve]

Dave you deserve a medal...excellent presentation...and yes regional is the way to go with maybe input from locals who have memories of the stations and the varies stories that can be told...offcourse due consideration to size etc...This is all valuable recent NZ history and the airforce should be asked (used to be Photo Establisment Ohakea?) to provide assistance with any historical photos that they can provide on all listed stations/locations...so their history is more available via the internet and not the subject of timely and expensive reserach of the past...

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Steve.

[Dave Homewood]

I have now also created the Nelson regional page. I suspect there's a lot more I could learn about this region.

www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/RNZAF%20Stations%20Nelson%20Region.htm

[corsair67]

I have to agree with Steve: you have done an excellent job with this, Dave.

Very well presented, well researched, and very easy to read. 10/10.

By the way, which font(s) did you use?

[Dave Homewood]

Thank you Craig. There is a lot more work to do yet of course... especially in the research field

The font I am now using for the text and titles is called Garamond, with the italics on

[corsair67]

Well that font ceratinly looks good with the background and page format you've chosen.

When you were doing your BR/GR Squadron research at Wigram in April, did you get a chance to look at anything about these wartime airfields?

[Dave Homewood]

I didn't actually get much chance to look at anything at Wigram because a) the staff were all busy getting packed up to go to Wanaka, and b) I found most of what I need isn't held there any more, it's all in Wellington. All official records are there. Wigram only holds unnofficial stuff now. Things like logbooks, diaries, etc. I am now plannig a trip to the National Archives.

I did however have a very nice chat with Jane Provan about the book and she was very supportive. She was going to have a look and see what she could find among their collection of unnofficial paperwork that may help. I must chase that up.

So no, I didn't get to delve into the wartime stations side of things. However I have been finding lots of info which will eventually go up, and hopefully more will continue to roll in.

[SEAN]

Dave

The site looks really good, pat yourself on the back. Well done. I had a look into some of the questions you posed, and mostly came up with nothing.

One thing I did find out was the RNZAF built a Radar Station at the mouth of the Wairau (not quite the Wairau Valley), and Radar Unit 34 was housed there for a very short time. More or less built, and then closed down. Source "Radar Stories from the RNZAF 1939-45". There were also a heck of a lot of Army units based in and around the Wairau, so some confusion might have come from this.

I found nothing on Dillions Point, but you have got my interest, so I will keep looking.

Also I have found a lot of details re COs of the Delta, where do you want this info posted ?

Sean

[Dave Homewood]

Ah, it must be the radar station then that I need to pinpoint. As of yet I have not even attempted to add the many radar stations to the site, that's a future project.

Dillons point is mentioned in Arthur Bradshaw's excellent book, as he was the officer who selected it. I have never heard anything else about it, apart from after the war the currently-Ferrymead Hudson was owned by a farmer there, which is an interesting connection.

Please add the CO details here. That'd be excellent, thanks.

[Dave Homewood]

The Nelson and Marlborough pages are now officially online, linked through a new regions page when you click from the main RNZAF Stations page. The other regions will eventually go online as and when I get the time.

As I'm currently laid up with a stuffed ankle, resting on doctors orders, I might get a bit done on the site. Just a bit...

[SEAN]

RNZAF Station Delta - Commanding Officers

“Station Masters”
07 Jun 43 SQNLDR McGregor-Turnbull
03 Nov 43 WGCDR FA Swoffer MBE
WGCDR SL Gilkison
WGCDR IE Rawnsley MBE

CO “Ashford Wing” (Opened 24 Oct 43 – Closed 01 Dec 44)
RNZAF Hospital commanded by STR (Sister) KS Williams – whole period

CO “Bedford Wing” (Opened 01 Jul 43 – Closed Sep 44)
Not listed. Bedford seemed to house a number of “medical units”, so could have also come under the command of STR (Sister) KS Williams

CO “Cheshire Wing” (Opened 01 Jul 43 – Closed Sep 44)
01 Jul 43 FGOFF WR Caton
Nov 43 WGCDR EG Gedge MC
Apr 44 SQNLDR A George DFC DFM
Jun 44 FGOFF J Baker
SQNLDR WB Cowan DFC – Until Cheshire wing closed (Sep 44)

CO “Dorset Wing” (Opened Sep 43 – Closed 26 Apr 44)
Sep 43 SQNLDR SN Wiltshire GM
Jan 44 SQNLDR A George DFC DFM

CO “Evesham Wing” (Opened Aug 43 – Closed 31 Jan 45)
Aug 43 SQNLDR McGregor-Turnbull
01 May 44 SQNLDR C Weinstein
SQNLDR LW Garrard Until Evesham wing closed 31 Jan 45

CO “Fareham Wing” (Opened 16 Oct 43 – Closed 11 Nov 44)
SQNLDR Clare
SQNLDR WB Cowan DFC
Sep 44 SQNLDR J Joll DFC DFM *(Commanded Guernsey at the same time)
SQNLDR HH Blackwell

CO “Guernsey Wing” (Opened Feb 44 – Closed 16 Dec 44)
Feb 44 WGCDR VGH Gee RAF
15 Feb 44 SQNLDR JT Davison GM
Sep 44 SQNLDR J Joll DFC DFM *(Commanded Fareham at the same time)
SQNLDR MD Nairn – Until Guernsey wing closed 16 Dec 44

[glow=red,2,300]Another RNZAF Unit found in the Marlborough area which was administered by the Delta from Apr 44 until control passed to RNZAF Woodbourne on 01 Nov 44 until it closed in Apr 45, was No 2 Convalescent Depot. The camp was established on the west point of East Bay, near Dieffenbach, “Curious Cove”. The camp was to provide an ideal environment for men recovering from sickness or injury.[/glow]

Source – The Delta, Military Camp – RNZAF Station by Robert E Montgomery

[Bruce]

There is a kids Holiday camp at Curious Cove nowdays - I wonder if that is on the site of the convalescent depot? I know a lot of former military buildings became youth camps etc postwar.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks very much Sean, that'll be really helpful.

Yes, the Narrows Camp on the Waikato River was an RNZAF camp too for men working at Rukuhia. I know of another RNZAF convalescent hospital, possibly No. 1, which was at Rotorua.

[SEAN]

Dave

Found some more, this time for RNZAF Station Taieri:

Officially opened 20 Oct 1939

SQNLDR GL Stedman 20 Oct 39 - 22 Jan 44
WGCDR RJ Sinclair 23 Jan 42 - 30 Apr 42
SQNLDR AC Parson 01 May 42 - 17 Jul 42
SQNLDR Gilkison 17 Jul 42 - 20 Aug 43
SQNLDR PA Matheson 24 Aug 43 - 25 Sep 44
SQNLDR KB Robinson 26 Sep 44 06 Nov 44
WGCDR WR Kofoed 04 Nov 44 -

Source - RNZAF Station Taieri - Station History, Published by RNZAF Station Taieri 194?.

[Dave Homewood]

Brill, cheers mate!