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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 11, 2014 20:36:19 GMT 12
Can anyone please provide me with contact details of ex-RNZAF wartime ground crew members living in New Zealand and able to be interviewed about their war years? It doesn't matter what aircraft or squadron they worked on necessarily nor their trade. In fact technical and non-technical ground crew are of equal interest.
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Post by pjw4118 on Oct 18, 2014 13:16:26 GMT 12
Dave , theres Joe Tomlin in Tairua and Charlie Shepherd from Maungatapere. Kiwi ground staff were pretty rare in RAF Bomber Command , so we generally have RAF bods as members such as Wally Halliwell and Geoff Pattenden.
There should be plenty of Pacific guys still around.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 19, 2014 9:32:47 GMT 12
Thanks Peter. Yes there must be still a fair few around who served in the Pacific and in NZ, but finding them is the difficult thing. Most of those who I have met in the past are no longer around. Thanks for these two contacts, I'll pass them on.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 19, 2014 9:35:33 GMT 12
Actually what did Charlie and Joe do? Trade, aircraft types, squadrons?
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Post by pjw4118 on Oct 20, 2014 17:09:58 GMT 12
Charlie Shepherd NZ391907 went to UK in 1940 as an LAC armaments fitter and posted to 10 squadron . He served on 75 squadron from March 41 and finally with 486 then 627.He tells a great story that some months after the war was over an officer noticed his New Zealand shoulder patch and asked what the ... was he still on an operational squadron as everyone else had gone home. He thought he must have been overlooked as there werent many Kiwis ground crew in UK to start with. He eventually left in December 1945. He has given the NZBCA the best collection of groundies photos we have.
Joe Tomlin NZ401045 transferred to the RNZAF as an Instrument Repairer and left for the UK in November 1941.After serving on ASR squadrons and 1651 HCU he applied to Bill Jordan to get " operational " and was posted to 75 squadron at Mepal. There he specialised in auto pilot repair.Joe was posted back to NZ in 1944. Post war he kept up with aviation , building Jodel ZK- ECF and later rebuilt the NZBCA/MOTAT Lancs auto bombsight. We have a terrific video shot in Joes garage of the sight controlling a plotting pen across a map laid on the floor.
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