Is this correct? Facts concerning Rukuhia / Hamilton Airport

[komata]

Those who live within the boundaries of the Waipa District (an area south of Hamilton that incorporates Cambridge and Te Awamutu/Kihikihi within its boundaries), will by now have probably received the Waipa District Council's Sesqui-Centennial (150 years) publication Between the Rivers.

The volume contains the following statement.  It '...Was authored by Kingsley Field and Richard Stowers under commission by Waipa District Council.  While every attempt has been made to verify historical information the Council and authors cannot be held responsible for error or omissions'.

The books contains a chapter titled 'Wings over Rukuhia (on pp.66-67), which provides a history of Rukuhia (or Hamilton) airport.  On page 67, the following appears:

"The airport was taken over by the RNZAF...becoming RNZAF Station Rukuhia', and when talking about engine and instrument repair facilities, the article states that these were '...Overhauled by RNZAF Station Hamilton'.

From memory the legend 'RNZAF Hamilton' appears on a building near-to the entrance to the repair area (and former RNZAF hangar) at the North end of Hamilton airport, so the statement is confusing.

Which is correct ; or are both Stower's statements accurate, and RNZAF Station Hamilton was the name given to the one-time 'Winter Show building' located in central Hamilton? 

As well, when talking about the famous Rukuhia scrapyard, the book also states that 'The dissasembly and reclaiming of in-demand metals was mostly done by Asplin Motors of Rukuhia'.

Is this correct? I always understood that J.D.(?)  Larsen was the main contractor for the scrapping, and that Mr.Asplin only came in at a later stage, so again, was somewhat surprised to read the statement, and confused as a result.

Can anyone confirm that Mr. Larsen was the first and primary 'scrapper'? 

Finally, according to the article, the following numbers of aircraft were scrapped at Rukuhia:

Warhawks and Kittyhawks:118
Venturas: 81
Harvard: 1
Avengers: 9
Corsairs: 248

I cannot check these figures at the moment, but are they in fact correct?  Given what I have just detailed, there is now an 'element of uncertainty' about these figures. 

As they appear to be confusing, verification of the accuracy of the statements made in the book (as detailed above) would be appreciated.

Thanks

BTW: FWIW: Biographies of the following individuals also appear in the volume:

'Hawkey' Wells

Roy Calvert

'Ozzie' James 

[Dave Homewood]

RNZAF Station Rukuhia and RNZAF Station Hamilton were two separate stations, Komata, but they were the same unit. They were both parts of No. 1 Repair Depot.

RNZAF Station Hamilton was in the city centre (then merely a town). The RNZAF took over almost all the garages (Ebbett Motors became the Transport Section, for example), many office buildings including in the Public Trust building), Bledisloe Hall (when No. 1 Stores Depot moved out of there to go to RNZAF Station Te Rapa), and the Innes Tartan factory (now the Meteor Theatre), which became the Instruments Repair Section. They also took over three hotels to become Waaferies, the Central, the Riverside and one other that escapes me but was where Gary Keith Motors is now. One of the hotels is still there, it used to be the Loaded Hog, God knows what it is called this week.

On top of this they had a large camp for men's accommodation (the half canvas, half wood huts) up the north end of Victoria Street at Edgecumbe Park where the Squash Club is now, which was then known to the RNZAF as 'Snake Gully'.

There was another camp of the same construction at the very bottom of Angelsea Street, and this ran right across Palmerston Street into where the tennis courts now are. And then it ran west right over to where the Trustbank Theatre or whatever they call it now is.

This was a huge station, carrying out repairs and overhauls on engines, instruments, components, and all sorts of items that were removed from aircraft at Rukuhia.

The station at Rukuhia was small by comparison. They had one tented camp at The Narrows camp, now some kid's camp these days. I don't think any WAAF's lived at Rukuhia, any that might have worked there would have commuted from Hamilton.

I helped Richard compile these histories by the way. I have known and interviewed many people who served at RNZAF Station Hamilton, most of them on the engine reconditioning line at Bledisloe Hall (which was massive and not only did our own radials and inline engines but also many hundreds if not thousands from US aircraft in the Pacific. I also have known WAAF's who worked there too. Lots of Cambridge airmen and WAAF's got postings to Hamilton so they could be close to home and could go home on leave easily.

[komata]

Thanks Dave - much appreciated. I did wonder if you had been involved.

But what about Asplin's? Were they the 'Premier' aircraft-scrapper' at Rukuhia or was it Mr.Larsen?

Thanks

[Dave Homewood]

Jim Larsen and Jack Asplin seem to have been buying airframes at the same time, but I am sure Larsen had by far the biggest number of aircraft. I am just not certain. Richard and I never discussed this aspect in his research.

[komata]

Thanks Dave.

I have always understood that Mr. Asplin became involved in the scrapping AFTER Mr. Larsen had started, and that this was as an adjunct to his garage rather than as a 'Main event' This was possibly in an attempt to 'cash-in' on the extreme shortages of 'bits' and 'machinery' which was being experienced throughout the the Waikato at the time. a shortage which Mr. Larsen was well-placed to fill. However, an attempt to confirm this and to find out when Mr. asplin started 'scrapping' has so far met with no success.

Perhaps someone can give me a date when Mr. Asplin became 'involved'. War Assets Disposal Board records perhaps?

[Dave Homewood]

If you look here you'll see that dates that Asplin purchased his Corsairs, some of them in 1949, the same year that Larsen was buying them.
www.adf-serials.com.au/nz-serials/nzcorsair.htm

[camtech]

Larsen purchased the bulk of the aircraft (Corsairs, Kittyhawks, Venturas, Hudsons) put up for disposal in March 1948 at Rukuhia. Asplin acquired his a year later, when, among others the surplus FG-1s were disposed of.

[komata]

Gentlemen, I thank you. Another mystery solved; Larsen first, Asplin second.

[Dave Homewood]

But only just by a few months.

[davidd]

Dave,
Are you certain that the RNZAF overhauled aero engines for the Americans at Hamilton? I have never heard of this, and the US Army Air Corps (actually USAAF) had a huge overhaul depot at Tontouta (New Caledonia) which overhauled mostly P&W Twin Wasp (fitted mainly to the B-24/PB4Y, C-47/R4D, PBY, F4F), Double Wasp (PV-1, B-26, F4U, F6F, C-46/R5C), and Wright Cyclone (R-1820, fitted in B-17, SBD, C-60, and the R-2600, fitted in B-25, TBF, SB2C, PBM) plus Allison V-1710s (P-38, P-39, P-40); also probably P&W R-985 and R-1340 as well, fitted in trainer, utility and communications aircraft. I have only included appropriate important operational aircraft used by the South Pacific air forces here. This depot overhauled all the engines "worn out" by our P-40s overseas, and these aircraft also received engines back from this depot, including one which caught fire on arrival back in NZ in April 1944 - turns out the depot made a serious error by fitting standard sized pistons into bored out cylinders! Incredible but true.
All our Catalina engines were overhauled at this depot in 1943/44, although I suspect that the Hamilton depot may have taken over this responsibility later in the war, but I could be wrong. In the early days the RNZAF did not even remove the time-expired engines from the Catalinas - instead they ferried the entire aircraft up to Noumea where US Navy servicing crews removed the expired engines and promptly installed overhauled ones for us. Likewise, in 1944/45, all the RNZAF's operational aircraft in the forward area (P-40, TBF, PV-1, PBY-5) handed over their time expired or damaged engines to the American supply system (mostly US Navy by this time), and it seems that these were all returned to the USA (mostly mainland from what I can gather, rather than Hawaii as you would think) for overhaul by major depots run on civilian lines. That is why the RNZAF gave up on trying to centrally maintain aero engine records for its aircraft in the forward area as it all seemd a bit pointless, and Wellington simply left it to No. 1 (Islands) group to supervise their documentation and make certain that all the "i's" were dotted and 't's" crossed. The only engines in the forward area of any special interest to the RNZAF in Wellington were those which suffered some dramatic or worrying failure, such as an R-2800 from a PV-1 incident at Bougainville in August 1944, and another R-2800 from an F4U, also at Bougainville in about June 1945; both these engines were air freighted back to Rukuhia for close inspection, and both yielded valuable results with direct application to all other engines of these types in service. I suspect that the big USAAF depot at Tontouta may have been closed down at some time in 1944, possibly because of doubts about the quality of its output (the RNZAF certainly had its doubts about the Allisons), and the trend seemed to be to send all engines all the way back to the USA. Of course all these arrangements had been decided upon quite early in the war (perhaps late 1942) which were actually very sensible, as all RNZAF operational aircraft under American operational control were to be considered part of the Allied Pacific air forces and were to be treated as such for most purposes, including technical support, supplies of bombs, ammunition, fuel and lubricants, plus urgent spares and other items. However they were normally to be ferried up from NZ (or the assembly point in theatre in case of the F4Us) complete in every way and with an initial issue of spare parts. However this system immediately broke down as many of the spares intended to back up these aircraft in New Zealand had not arrived prior to their departure for the overseas operational locations, in which case they were automatically entitled to "gain succour" from normal US Navy (or USAAF) supply channels as appropriate. This in fact affected our TBFs and PV-1s mostly, and of course our allocation of A-24s which never arrived at all which is why SBDS had to be scrounged for our two squadrons from "within theatre" as an interim measure. The timely supply of spare parts back-up did not work at all in the case of the NZ PV-1s as the US Navy supply system only had very limited supplies of a few spares in theatre, so the US Navy and RNZAF squadrons equipped with these types just had to manage without for several months, with some recourse to robbing crashed aircraft for a few items.
You can see that it would be somewhat incongruous that the Americans would be sending timex engines down to NZ for overhaul, while we were DEFINITELY handing over all our V-1710s (P-40) R-1830s (Catalinas only), and R-2800s from F4Us and PV-1s in the operational theatre to the US military for overhaul, although I don't think our TBFs were at Bougainville for long enough (just over 4 months, late March to late July 1944) to time out their own R-2600s. However the RNZAF DID overhaul the engines of all its home-based aircraft, transport, training and operational, including all engine types already mentioned, plus large numbers of British-type engines, with many obsolete types. Although we occasionally assisted with minor problems affecting engines in visiting American aircraft in New Zealand during WW2, the only American aircraft that actually received more atention here was the USAAF Beechcraft C-45 which was at Rukuhia for a while in 1944 or 1945; I cannot vouch for the similar USMC Beechcraft in NZ in 1942/43, nor the Howard used here by the US Army attache.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Feb 3, 2014 9:24:24 GMT 12 davidd said:

Dave,
Are you certain that the RNZAF overhauled aero engines for the Americans at Hamilton? I have never heard of this,

Well it must be incorrect but I was told that by at least one of the veterans I knew who worked there, I am not certain now who it was - the Cambridge veterans I knew who worked on that Bledisloe Hall overhaul line included the late Eric Ford who was one of the line Sergeants, the late Roy Paton, the late Ray Hirst, Bob Peake, I think Peter Hulse worked on the line for a time too. Whoever it was must have been mistaken. Thanks for the extra detail to clear that up.

RNZAF Hamilton must have overhauled the Hudson engines, right? They flew them all back to Rukuhia from the Pacific for their major servicings each time.

This depot overhauled all the engines "worn out" by our P-40s overseas, and these aircraft also received engines back from this depot, including one which caught fire on arrival back in NZ in April 1944 - turns out the depot made a serious error by fitting standard sized pistons into bored out cylinders! Incredible but true.

Was that Skip Watson's P-40 that caught fire as he was in the circuit for Waipapakauri after a ferry from Norfolk Island?

[delticman]

Slightly OT but after the fall of France, who was "in charge" at New Caledonia? The NZ Army were there and USAAF with Repair Depot.

[errolmartyn]

Feb 3, 2014 9:55:08 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Feb 3, 2014 9:24:24 GMT 12 davidd said:

This depot overhauled all the engines "worn out" by our P-40s overseas, and these aircraft also received engines back from this depot, including one which caught fire on arrival back in NZ in April 1944 - turns out the depot made a serious error by fitting standard sized pistons into bored out cylinders! Incredible but true.

Was that Skip Watson's P-40 that caught fire as he was in the circuit for Waipapakauri after a ferry from Norfolk Island?

No actual 'fire', apparently. Accident form for Watson's P-40 NZ3052, 28 Apr 44, states:

Oversized piston had been fitted to standard size bore inNo. 6 cylinder resulting in seizure and burning away of piston. This allowed oil vapour and lubricating oil from crankcase to enter combustion chamber where it became ignited and discharged into exhaust system and that amount of smoke which came from engine due to this cause misled pilot into believing that engine was on fire. (D.R.M.)"

"Underlying cause: Faulty assembly by U.S.A.A.F."

Errol

[davidd]

Delticman,
The answer as to who was in charge in New Caledonia after the fall of France was that the pro-de Gaule faction may have had a slight advantage, so the territory was considered to be in the Allied camp, but only just. I seem to recall that this subject is covered in the Craven & Cates series of volumes on the Offical History of the USAAF in WW2, in some detail. The fact that Allied air forces were actually located on the island and flying operational patrols from it tends to support this, as well as large army camps and other depots, and so afar as I know, there were no clashes between the small "Free" French forces based there and the Americans or the RNZAF. However I doubt that the indigenous locals were asked what they thought about all this by anybody.
David D

[davidd]

Dave H,
You are quite correct, RNZAF Hudsons were indeed flown back to NZ when their engines (and airframes) were due for major inspections, although this was a rather wasteful use of valuable flying hours, and led to considerable embarrassment when the return of these aircraft to the forward bases fell below the numbers arriving from the islands and led to 3 Squadron having to refuse operational duty due to lack of available aircraft in July 1943. It is little wonder that it was found to be more convenient to plug into the American supply system. I can only presume that the RNZAF wanted to appear more self-sufficient in the forward area than it really was during 1943, as the exact model of R-1820 Cyclone fitted to the Hudsons identical to those in C-60 Lodestars, although there were precious few of the latter used by the USAAF or USN in the South Pacific theatre. However they cannot have been too different to those used by SBDs and B-17s, for instance, if one ignores the Turbos on those fitted to B-17s. The Hudsons could be ferried back to New Zealand relativley easily, which was not the case with P-40s of course, so their engines were in effect marooned within the theatre along with the aircraft themselves. Anyway, when the Venturas took over from the Hudsosns in late 1943, they used the American supply and overhaul systems for aero engines without too much bother, so all work was now carried out in theatre. By this time the Base Depot Workshops at Espiritu Santo were well established and could easily undertake this airframe work, thus avoiding having to return these aircraft to NZ as had been the case earlier. The Servicing Units soon took over these airframe duties, assisted by the BDW when required. The F4Us (Corsairs) were maintained in the theatre from April 1944 onwards along similar lines, without recourse to facilities in NZ except under special circumstances such as accident and engine failure investigations.

On reflection, I think it was actually the airframe overhauls at Rukuhia which was the real problem with the Hudsons, but as the RNZAF tended to try and carry out engine replacements at the same time while at Rukuhia, they were obviously attempting to carry out the engine overhauls in New Zealand as well and thus maintain full technical control of these aircraft. Probably a subsidiary reason was that originally the RNZAF only maintained sufficient technical personel in the tropics to carry out normal servicing duties and were therefore insufficient in numbers and their facilities were inadequate to carry out this sort of work during the earlier period (late 1942 - late 1943). Attempts to set up more extensive technical facilities in the tropics from late 1942 onwards (originally known as No. 4 Repair Depot, or 4 RD for short) were frustrated due to insufficient qualified personnel fit for tropical service, lack of control of shipping, lack of techical equipment and lack of space on airfields. Thus all the best facilities tended to be in New Zealand where more congeniel conditions prevailed, and men unfit for tropical service could be usefully employed.
David D