No's 40 and 41 (T) Squadrons

[Dave Homewood]

During WWII No. 40 Squadron and No. 41 Squadron both operated Douglas C-47 Dakotas, Lockheed C-60 Lodestars and Lockheed C-63 Hudsons. They were both based at RNZAF Station Whenuapai alongside each other.

Did they use the same Servicing Unit?

Were their maintenance and hangar facilities shared?

Did they sometimes borrow each other's allocated aircraft?

And why was No. 41 Squadron formed as a separate but virtually identical unit? Why not just expand No. 40 Squadron and keep all the administration within one unit? Was there a possibility that one would be posted forward in the islands, or perhaps elsewhere in New Zealand, and that never happened?

Was there a healthy rivalry between the two squadrons, operating side-by-side doing the same work in the same aircraft types in the same way?

[camtech]

I believe one reason for the two squadron setup was the sheer number of aircraft involved.

[davidd]

Dave, when 40 Squadron was "split in half" in August 1944, 40 Sqdn kept all the available C-47s, while 41 Sqdn took over the C-60s and C-63s, so they did not operate the same aircraft as one another till about the period from March to June 1945 when 41 Squadron began to re-equip with new C-47s and gradually disposed of all its C-63s. Some of the C-63s were then sent up to re-equip the Utility Flight at Henderson Field (Guadalcanal), which had been operating converted Hudsons up till this time, and the rest I believe went into storage at Rukuhia. So for that earlier period (Aug 44 to June 45) the two squadrons operated very closely together, but having different aircraft types they operated the services which most suited their particular aircraft, although in October 1944 it was reported that 41 Sqdn "commenced to fully function as a separate transport squadron, being briefed to run a schedule of two machines, five days weekly, operating on a three-day trip ....", etc. Each squadron (from August 1944) had an establishment (planned strength) of about 24 aircraft crews (C-47 crews comprised 4 men, C-60/C-63 crews 3 men), although it took time to build up both squadrons to meet their establishments in aircraft and complete crews.

I do not know exactly how Whenuapai Station was organised for engineering support (for want of a better phrase) during this period, but from 11th July 1944, all technical personnel of No. 40 Sqdn were posted to the brand-new Whenuapai Maintenance Wing, which was sub-divided into at least three or four Servicing Squadrons (as were Ohakea and Ardmore). The latter two gave their SS's an identifying number, such as 1 SS, but I have a suspicion that Whenuapai used letters for this purpose - this option was deliberately left to the individual station commander. Needless to say, another of Whenuapai's Servicing Squadrons would have been dedicated to maintaining 41 Squadron's aircraft. These SS's were mainly intended for simple day to day maintenance (refuelling, daily inspections, minor trouble shooting, etc), but major inspections were probably handled by either Station Workshops (which always had a much higher proportion of Fitter personnel than the SS's) or perhaps more likely, No. 1 Repair Depot (or No. 1 Aircraft Repair Unit as it had been recently renamed), located at Rukuhia (airframes) or in converted commercial buildings in Hamilton itself (aero engines, plus components of all kinds). I know that No. 1 ARU received most of the later C-47s as they arrived, and did quite a bit of engineering support - in fact it may have been the main provider of major inspections - the running down of the PV-1 Ventura force from about late March 1945 onwards released a lot of technical manpower and facilities that would be transferred to C-47 work, particularly as the RNZAF was rapidly building up its transport capability at this time, to have four transport squadrons of 16 C-47s each, although this was later amended to three squadrons, with twenty C-47s and 36 full crews each. No. 43 Squadron was in fact never formed, as the war finished about a week later. A separate Transport OTU (No. 1) had been functioning at Ohakea since late June of 1945 to train up more new crews to operate the planned new services to as far away as Borneo.

Hope this gives a better picture of the employment of wartime RNZAF transport aircraft and the details of advanced planning, squadron sizes, etc.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks David.

However, No. 40 Squadron was still operating Lodestars into 1945 acordig to logbooks I have been looking at - even if they had been transferred to No. 41 Squadron's inventory.

[davidd]

Although I have no definitive proof that all the Lodestars (and C-63s) were with 41 Squadron all through 1945, I would find that hard to believe. Generally the crews stayed together and flew the same aircraft type. I imagine there was not a huge amount of difference for crews between C-60s and C-63s; however C-47s were a different kettle of fish. The fact that 40 Squadron kept very poor records for its aircraft (even less for its crews!) for practically all of WW2, and those for 41 Squadron was only marginally better, makes if very difficult to make confident pronouncements on such things. Possible that a C-60 or C-63 of 41 Squadron could take over a service supposed to be flown by 40 Sqdn, in an emergency, and only on the shorter routes, so will be interesting to hear any other instances of this type of practice.

[Dave Homewood]

Here is one of the examples I spotted. Maybe I am interpreting it wrong? Joe McVicar was a Wireless Operator-Air Gunner on No. 40 Squadron RNZAF from August 1944 right through till the day they became NAC in 1947 (in which he carried on the same role as a civvie). He never served with No. 41 Squadron RNZAF.

In this period depicted he was in a C-47 crew for sure and usually was right through, he joined the unit just after the Lodestars and Hudsons had just been (supposedly) all transferred to 41 SQN. But as you can see he did a Lodestar trip to the Pacific and back in 1945, in NZ3515. The captain (F/Lt Probert) was not his regular C-47 captain (F/Lt McLachlan). So did No. 40 Squadron make this trip? Or was Joe strangely seconded to No.41 Squadron for one Pacific run,and then returned to normal duties? That would be unusual. Perhaps it was in support of something that No. 40 Squadron was doing? Was a C-47 broken down at Bougainville maybe?

[davidd]

I see that F/L R A (Roland) Probert was a pilot with 41 Squadron from September 1944 onwards, having just come off a tour with 9 Sqdn (PV-1s, Bougainville). I think he went on to NAC postwar, but don't quote me on that! Having just flown PV-1s (and Hudsons before that) it would not be surprising if he was posted to 41 Sqdn because of the aircraft types they operated. So it seems possible that McVicar was seconded to Probert's crew for that Lodestar trip up to the islands (possibly replacing a sick crew member?)
Dave D

[Dave Homewood]

It seems strange that the squadron might be that short of their own wireless ops, but I guess it is possible. I guess we can put this down to an oddity then, but I am sure i noticed a few Lodestar entries in other post-Aug 44 No. 40 Squadron logbooks. If I come across them again I'll post them here.

[tbf25o4]

Dave, the two squadrons probably operated a "pool" of wireless operators towards the end of the war and grabbed whoever was available for the next trip

[chinapilot]

Davidd - there was a Doug Probert in NAC post war that I know of but always assumed he flew Corsairs. Retired c1979 ( unfortunately passed away a year or so later)

[errolmartyn]

Jun 16, 2019 15:33:18 GMT 12 chinapilot said:

Davidd - there was a Doug Probert in NAC post war that I know of but always assumed he flew Corsairs. Retired c1979 ( unfortunately passed away a year or so later)

May be same as NZ431097 John Douglas Probert, enlisted 22 Jan 43 (had been an ATC cadet).

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

John Douglas Probert as in Errol's post did fly Corsairs.