WW2 operations bunker discovered at RNZAF Whenuapai

[McFly]

Buried WW2 air raid shelter/operations bunker recently discovered at RNZAF Whenuapai.

A long-buried and covered-over WW2 air raid shelter/operations bunker has been discovered during recent earthworks at RNZAF Whenuapai. The bunker was pumped out of groundwater, and a survey was conducted including gaining entry to determine any heritage significance as well as documenting both written and photographic evidence for future records and research. Historical plans show the original arrangement of the air raid shelter/operations room, and its location to an ancillary communications building referred to as the ‘Northern Relay Centre’. Aerial photographs from the mid-20th century show the Northern Relay Centre was constructed between 1940 and 1950, as part of the original airbase. Also constructed in this period were several bungalows, presumably as family homes for air force personnel, similar to those at Hobsonville. Cook (2000) identifies the bunker location as being constructed for use as an underground operations room, with similar structures at Ohakea (Palmerston North) and Waipapakauri (Northland) airbases. The relationship of the air raid shelter/operations room, Northern relay centre and the air force bungalows to the earlier base arrangement are shown in a clip from a 1950 aerial photograph. The air raid shelter/operations bunker certainly dates from the WWII period, as there would have been little need for this structure to be constructed between 1945 and 1950.

The interior includes little in the way of surviving panelling, equipment or machinery, but the main structural form is entirely intact. The rooms themselves were approximately 70cm deep in water with no lighting. Images show the internal concrete wall structures, residual cabling, ventilation holes in the ceilings and residual timber from internal walls and framing. The original floor has a timber T&G floor on top of the concrete. Water and time have started to degrade these along with the other timbers. Internally there are numerous steel fixings on walls and ceilings in a regular pattern. There is also the residue of steel door hinges on some doorways. On the floor underwater were some piles of debris, origin unknown, but appearance would suggest old door/window framing and doors along with the T&G floor.

This is being infilled and covered over as part of another project underway in 2022, and following this, there will be no further access to this area.

*Photos below from Jan/Feb 2023

(Site plan)

(Information from Cook P 2000. Defending New Zealand: Ramparts on the sea 1840-1950s)

[tbf2504]

Northern Relay Centre was a communications office for the teleprinter circuits as part of the nationwide RNZAF communications network. Signals traffic To/from hobsonville, Whenuapai, 1 Port Depot, would come through the relay centre on punched paper tape, and then depending where the signal had to go, would be onforwaded by tape reading transmitters (all landline connected) or duplicate tapes made if there were multiple addressees. I worked in the NRC
in 1970. It was closed when the Defence Tape Relay Network came into use in around the beginning of 1971

[davidd]

I think a "bunker mentality" is a good thing if you consider what NOT having a bunker when you REALLY THINK you might need one might feel like! A lot of people in New Zealand and Australia felt like that in 1942/43 when the war in the British Solomon Islands, and in Papaua New Guinea was at its most ferocious.

[McFly]

Mar 4, 2023 14:07:57 GMT 12 davidd said:

I think a "bunker mentality" is a good thing if you consider what NOT having a bunker when you REALLY THINK you might need one might feel like! A lot of people in New Zealand and Australia felt like that in 1942/43 when the war in the British Solomon Islands, and in Papaua New Guinea was at its most ferocious.

Indeed, and a further quote from the Heritage report supports that view.

"Japan’s entry into the war in December 1941 created a whole new dynamic for activities at RNZAF Stations, and by early 1942 it was feared that Japanese forces might invade New Zealand. One of the resulting features was the construction of the discrete and somewhat ‘distant from the base’ underground operations rooms. However, by early 1943, the threat of invasion had receded, and accordingly the need for concealed operations rooms had also receded. New Zealand’s operation rooms that were completed, were at Waipapakauri (near Kaitaia, the RNZAF’s northern-most base), Whenuapai, Ohakea, Gisborne, and Nelson. Of these, the structures at Whenuapai and Ohakea were termed as being ‘large station shelters’. The rest were planned to be smaller shelters. The intention of these structures was to provide key stations with alternative underground concrete bunker-style operations rooms that would hopefully be able to escape enemy attention during any potential air raids. The structures at Waipapakauri, Whenuapai, New Plymouth, Ohakea and Woodbourne, were, or were intended to have been joint fighter and bomber operations centres. These had their main area divided into three rooms. The smaller structures were either to be used in relation to fighter control or bomber control. These underground structures were referred to – along with similar above-ground operations rooms - as ‘raid shelters’ for security reasons."

[tbf2504]

You can still see the entrance to the Waipapakauri operations bunker on State Highway 1 just north of the township

[McFly]

Mar 4, 2023 15:04:58 GMT 12 tbf2504 said:

You can still see the entrance to the Waipapakauri operations bunker on State Highway 1 just north of the township

[Dave Homewood]

Is that bunker near the main gate area? If so I am sure we have discussed that before here. Great to see it unearthed. And Boeing biplanes stuffed into there?

[McFly]

Mar 4, 2023 16:01:53 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Is that bunker near the main gate area? If so I am sure we have discussed that before here. Great to see it unearthed. And Boeing biplanes stuffed into there?

Nope not by the main gate but well inside the base and up closer to the Base HQ (formally HQ 485 WG). And sorry no seaplanes this time.

(Circled in red )

[phil]

Ohakea's one was unearthed about 13 years ago, but it's off base in what is now a farmer's field alongside Wilson Road.

[oj]

When I was at Ohakea in the mid-60s, we had a working bee to clean up and whitewash the interior walls to get better lighting conditions.
We organised a couple of parties there (as had been done in earlier years).
It had been for many years called The Morgue. The vertical escape shaft became a default chimney for the necessary fires that were lit to provide heat and light.
But it was not a successful enterprise as there were no toilet facilities and the smoke soon blackened the walls.
So upon analysis, a pretty dumb escapade really; just another something to do to relieve the off-duty boredom.