TAF colours & markings early-mid 50's

[rob]

Hi All

I hope I have posted this in the right place.  If not, please feel free to move or delete as you see fit.

I was wondering if anyone has any idea about aircraft colours and markings used by No. 3 Squadron during the mid-late 50's on all aircraft used by them at the time?

There seems to be no shortage of shots showing the mustangs in their bare metal finish with the checkers either side of the fuselage roundels, but I was wondering if this was extended to Harvards in this and other TAF squadrons, and was there a similar paint scheme for Tiger Moths also, and if not, what was the colour schemes given to them?

Many thanks in advance for your time

Rob

[baz62]

I've seen photos of Harvards with the TAF markings, never seen anything on a Tiger Moth.

[shorty]

3 (Canterbury) Squadron did not wear the red and black checkered markings on their Harvards for the reason that the aircraft required by them were drawn fron the resident Wigram Harvard population and returned after the exercise. The other Squadrons had aircraft allocated to them and based at the respective stations.As such they wore the coloured checks of their Squadron.

[ZacYates]

NZ1052 wears checkers but I've no idea how accurate the current paint job is compared to service machines.

[Dave Homewood]

The TAF Harvards seem to have worn a wide variety of colour schemes depending on the time period you're looking at. As the TAF reformed in 1947 most of the schemes were ex-WWII schemes, and then as time went on the later schemes came through including with the checker boards as worn by NZ1052 now. I am sure Brett Nicholls could add more about that Harvard's current scheme as he's a syndicate member. But I believe it's accurate.

WWII veteran Ron Hildreth joined No. 2 (Wellington) Squadron postwar while he worked for de Havilland (NZ) Ltd, and worked on their Harvards, Tiger Moths and Mustangs that were based at Rongotai/Ohakea. Here are his photos from the period early in the squadron's reformation.

The Tiger Moths all seem to be silver with dayglo bands as per the regular RNZAF at the time



Harvards were more a mixed bag of colours















Harvard NZ1036 after a slight mishap








Who says selfies are a new thing??

[Dave Homewood]

More from Ron's collection

[Dave Homewood]

Note among those Harvards there are some in silver, some in yellow and some in wartime camouflage.

[rob]

Hi All

Thanks all for the valuable information.  It would seem that there is a lot of room for interpretation with this one.

Many thanks again

Rob

[Dave Homewood]

The second to last photo shows NZ1012 which still wears wartime camouflage. It had previously flown with No. 2 Fighter Operational Training Unit in WWII so the colours are probably the green/blue camouflage colours.

[baz62]

Apr 14, 2015 21:43:03 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

More from Ron's collection

I think this Tiger Moth is still flying as ZK-CCH owned by Tom Pinkney.

[davidd]

Please note that the TAF had been disbanded (August 1957) for two years prior to the introduction of the dayglo orange "training" bands, so all Harvards and Tiger Moths in silver schemes would have had the previous yellow bands. From memory, the TAF squadrons only used Tigers for the first year or two (the TAF was reformed postwar in NZ in 1948, not 1947), generally just two per squadron, with the Harvards being main aircraft until the introduction of Mustangs in 1951 (4 Sqdn) and July 1952 (other three squadrons).
Dave D

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks David. I thought I had typed 1948 too but it seems that was a typo. A good point about the yellow bands rather than dayglo too.

[davidd]

The "checkers" markings were added to the TAF's Harvards and Mustangs in latter part of 1952 and early 1953 (from my fallible memory) after there appeared a colourful article in, I think, "Flight" or "Aeroplane" magazine, which included drawings of the newly introduced squadron markings of the RAF as well as Royal Auxiliary AF fighter squadrons, which seemed to stimulate local versions throughout the old Commonwealth. If my poor old back (ruined it yesterday) wasn't giving me such gyp at the moment I would sort through my files and magazines to get the exact date of that article, plus the RNZAF response and communications from the TAF squadrons requesting permission to paint on such markings. This seemed to coincide with a smartening up in the appearance of TAF aircraft, although this may have been quite a separate development, as the reinvigoration of the Harvard fleet at this time also meant that all the older aircraft with WW2-type markings (overall yellow, disruptive camouflage, or bare metal with yellow wing bands) received major upgrades through this period, including total updating of colour schemes.
David D

[tbf25o4]

David,

you are almost correct,
In my forthcoming book SEEK AND DESTROY (No.3 Squadron History) I detail how that came about when in October 1952 Group Captain Webb (station commander at Whenuapai) forwarded a request for
No.1 Squadron TAF aircraft to adopt the markings being adopted by the RAF as seen in an Aeroplane magazine dated 28 March 1952. One of the Auckland mustangs had been painted in a trial scheme.
Ops 2 at Air Staff (Squadron Leader Fred Tucker) sponsored the idea and the individual TAF squadrons were called on to provide ideas based on the respective provincial colours. The final markings were approved by air staff on 12 August 1953. Mustang NZ2415 was the first for No.3 TAF to be painted and a photo of it with the markings is on the air file.
David please note that my research collection of 50 years plus is currently being transferred to the museum and includes a copy of the air file that has this detail in it

[Dave Homewood]

The photos in Ron's collection of TAF Mustangs all have them with the roundels and the white bars from the previous USAAF markings, so they are all pre-checkerboard. I note one of the Mustangs is NZ2415 which was well known as S/Ldr Ray Archibald's mount in No. 3 (Canterbury) Squadron, so it must have been visiting for a camp.

Regarding those first checkers painted onto the No. 1 (Auckland) Squadron aircraft. I am certain they were painted by Safety and Surface Worker Bill Fitzharding-Jones, who had painted all the Mustang markings on previously when they came out of storage. I recall Bill saying there was a shortage of aircraft grade paint and Dominion Paints could not supply roundel blue so he had to improvise and bought some house paint mixed to the right colour. He said that for some reason this blue paint faded really quickly to a pale blue. So when you see drawings, decals etc of the Auckland squadron with pale blue roundels and checks, that is why. It was not intended.

[Toby]

This is cool. There is very little info on the TAF (That I can find) so I always find it cool when I stumble across some pictures or something on the Internet relating to the TAF.

[isc]

There is a short section in Peter N. Anderson's book "Mustangs of the RAAF and RNZAF that would be worth looking at. Such things as the aircraft at first retaining their USAAF numbers as 8" figures on thefin and rudder, and most retained the USAAF designation panel foreward and below the cockpit on the port side. All except one TAF machines had the chequered patterns NZ2429 of 4 Sqdn had a blue bar with a gold diamond. Some had their serial number under the starboard wing(eg NZ2412). isc

[Dave Homewood]

Peter "Ando" Anderson is of course a valued member of this forum, none other than Mustang51.

There is a more recent book that delves a lot more deeply into the RNZAF and TAF Mustang colours, "Southern Cross Mustangs" by David Muir, another forum member. Here's an older thread on that great book.
rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/9182/southern-cross-mustangs-released-month