RNZAF and RAAF

[ams888]

Did the RNZAF and RAAF ever operate out of the same fields in the Pacific during the war? More specifically did the RAAF and RNZAF operate P40's together?

[Dave Homewood]

They certainly operated together from Bougainvile, RNZAF Corsairs and RAAF Boomerangs and Wirraways operating together hitting jungle targets. The RAAF were providing the Forward Air Control and the RNZAF the bombs.

[Dave Homewood]

I do not believe the two Air Force's P-40's ever met on the same airfield.

[davidd]

I have an idea that an RNZAF Corsair (F4U) squadron and an RAAF Spitfire squadron may have shared a field briefly, probably Jacquinot Bay at about the time the RNZAF squadron arrived (May 1945), as several RNZAF pilots were allowed to fly the Spitfires there (at the discretion of the RAAF squadron CO). Or am just I getting mixed up with the FAA aircraft at Los Negros? I will have to look further into this. Regardless, they NEVER actually operated together on operations from this field. These events took place very late in WW2, possibly just after the surrender. The RNZAF pilots (at Jacq Bay) also flew some of the surrendered (not captured!) Zekes at about this time. To get back to Bougainville, the RAAF also operated the following aircraft types regularly from the Piva strips from Oct 44 through till VJ-day (apart from Boomerangs and Wirraways): Beaufreighters (look it up!), Dakotas, and Auster Mk. IIIs; however none of these types operated directly with the RNZAF squadrons, they were complementary rather than "brothers in arms". Still, many people are still rather mystified as to why the two Antipodean air forces scarcely ever flew together during WW2 (but much more commonly since that war). Reason of course was that New Zealand and Australia were placed (by geography) in two quite different operational commands (SOPAC and SWPA) until October 1944, although the RNZAF was also included in NORSOLS (Northern Solomons) sub-command from 1st September 1943 onwards, which was under general operational supervision of SWPA HQ. From October 1944 the RNZAF in the forward area was by now mostly based in the SWPA (west of the SOPAC area) so was now in territory controlled by Douglas McArthur and his 5th AF, and the advanced operational formations and units of the RAAF. The RAAF aircraft in use on Bougainville from late 1944 onwards were only there because the Australian Army was the primary land force on the island, and all the RAAF units were in direct support of them - as Dave H says, the RNZAF just provided the bulk of the muscle - they had no true Army co-op, let alone AOP aircraft there.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Interestingly though a lot of our Army Co-op Squadron pilots who'd flown that role in Hinds, Harvards and Vincents in New Zealand went on to fly operationally in Corsairs, so perhaps they could have done the job themselves if the RNZAF had taken up a few Harvards or similar types.

[davidd]

Many of our Army co-op pilots were sent to undertake advanced courses in that black art at the RAAF's school of Army Co-op in Canberra, ACT, in 1942/43, although I am not certain what type of aircraft that school was operating - Wirraways perhaps? Or Hawker Demons?
David D