New Zealanders who flew with Photo Reconnaissance Units

[Dave Homewood]

Following on from my most recent WONZ Show, Wings Over Britain: Sandy's Spitfire, I want to follow up on one matter that the show guest Tony Hosking talked about. He and his team have amassed a huge database of names - from scratch - of pilots who series with the unarmed Photo Reconnaissance Unit squadrons. They have identified 44 of them as being from New Zealand originally. But loads of the names on their list they still have not yet identified where they came from. There are possibly more Kiwis on their list. Tony wants to see if anyone can help with filling in the blanks.

The Kiwi names known so far are:

Surname	Forenames	Rank	Loss Detail	Age	Adopted Name
Adlam	Frank Percival	F/Lt	Returning from Ops 21.03.45	29
Andrews DFC	Clifford Grainger	S/Ldr	Survived
Baird	Sexton Ivan	S/Ldr
Bartley	Maxwell Logan	F/Sgt	KIA 04.01.44	23
Batenburg DFC	Raymond	F/Lt
Blackwood BEM	Francis John	P/O	MIA 02.06.42	28
Boyd	Kenneth Leslie	W/O	MIA 21.08.44	24
Brown	Francis David Colin	W/O
Brown	Roland Kenneth	Sgt
Brown	W E	W/O
Buchanan DFC	Roy Currie	P/O
Burnet	Jack Bruce	F/Lt	MIA 02.10.43	27
Carpenter	Eric Paris Brooke	W/O
Clark DFC	Leonard Ernle	S/Ldr
Coldbeck DFC	Harry Gift	F/Lt Act	POW 10.11.42
Coleman	John Herbert	P/O	KIA 19.05.40	27
Cotterill DFC	George William	F/Lt
Cottrell	Spence Grainger	F/Sgt	MIA 21.04.43	22
Croy	Douglas Marchbank	P/O	Killed in Training 07.08.43	22
Cummins MBE	Peter Lindly Dick	F/Lt
Debenham	Thomas Reginald	W/O
Dooley	William James	P/O	POW 14.05.43
Foster DFC CdeG	Ronald Henry	F/Lt
Gray DFC	Eric Lindsay	F/Lt
Hallam	Ian Lewis McGregor	S/Ldr	POW 24.08.42
Hardman	Donald Francis Ignatius	Sgt	MIA 03.03.43	26
Hickey	James Brian	W/O
Jones	Ralph Leopold	F/O	KIA 18.03.43	21
Lankshear	Ernest Howard	F/Sgt	MIA 21.04.43	25
Lavin	James Francis	F/O
Loasby	Laurence David	F/O	MIA 10.4.41	23
Martyn	Frederick Thomas	Sgt	Killed in training 11.09.42	21
Millen DFC	Samuel James	P/O	KIA 16.12.40	26
Milne OBE DFC	Cecil Dunn	F/Lt	POW 25.04.40
Newman DFC & Bar	Kossuth John	W/Cdr
O'Brien	Arthur Haig	F/O
Olson DFC	Olaf Patrick	F/Lt	POW 29.12.44
Papps DFC	Colin Ernest Baird	F/Lt
Parker	William Baker	F/Lt
Richmond DFC	Ian Gordon	F/O	POW 30.06.42
Swift DFC	James Frederick	F/O	KIA 30.09.41
Turton	Robert Alfred	F/O	KIA 01.11.43	22
Tye DFC	Andrew Frederick Henderson	W/Cdr	KIA 01.07.45	24

Wendelken	William John	F/Lt			16Sqn
Whaley DFC	Noel Patrick	F/Lt	KIA 24.12.44	24

Plus one that I missed but cannot seem to slot in above:

Hall DFC

Peter Francis Locker

P/O

 
Can you add any names of New Zealanders who flew in PRU Squadrons?

Can you identify the countries any of the others on the list came from?
www.spitfireaa810.co.uk/for-those-who-served

[Dave Homewood]

The episode I mentioned is here: cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2023/08/wonz-281-wings-over-britain-sandys-spitfire/

[pjw4118]

Jack Shorthouse is another. He flew PR Spitfires after returning from France in 1940 until posted to Canada as an instructor

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Peter!

[30sqnatc]

SQNLDR Andrews history is discussed at airforcemuseum.co.nz/blog/everest-flight-1945-a-new-zealand-pilot-and-the-new-route-up-everest/

[Antonio]

Harry Colbeck's story is told in his autobiography:  The Maltese Spitfire

[colford]

Dave,

You missed a couple down the end of the list (the way it scrolls on the website is not ideal)

Wendelken William John F/Lt NZ 16Sqn

Whaley DFC Noel Patrick F/Lt KIA 24.12.44 24 NZ


Regards,

[Dave Homewood]

Yes Antonio, I told Tony about that book, he was unaware till I mentioned it in our interview.

Thanks Colin, I have added those names to the list but they didn't format right. Annoying.

[pjw4118]

Theres also Bryan Currie who flew PR Mosquitos with 544 squadron.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Peter, regarding Jack Shorthouse, who was born in Britain but seems to have grown up in NZ, I let Tony Hosking know, and he replied:

"Thank you Dave, yes you are spot on. We had to standardise a process for recording individuals and their nationalities - so Jack went down as British. About half our American aircrew flew in the RCAF Pre-americas entry to the war so they have Canadian service numbers. Confusion reigns with a few Indian and Caribbean born individuals who are actually British - born to parents who were in commonwealth countries on business or serving the government!"

So I wonder, was Bryan Currie born in NZ?

[errolmartyn]

Sept 13, 2023 10:08:33 GMT 12 pjw4118 said:

Theres also Bryan Currie who flew PR Mosquitos with 544 squadron.

NZ431163 Brian William Currie was born in New Zealand on 10 Dec 21.

Errol

[errolmartyn]

Sept 13, 2023 11:54:47 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Thanks Peter, regarding Jack Shorthouse, who was born in Britain but seems to have grown up in NZ, I let Tony Hosking know, and he replied:

"Thank you Dave, yes you are spot on. We had to standardise a process for recording individuals and their nationalities - so Jack went down as British. About half our American aircrew flew in the RCAF Pre-americas entry to the war so they have Canadian service numbers. Confusion reigns with a few Indian and Caribbean born individuals who are actually British - born to parents who were in commonwealth countries on business or serving the government!"

So I wonder, was Bryan Currie born in NZ?

John Sydney Shorthouse was born at Portsmouth, England on 11 Apr 20. He migrated to New Zealand c. 1926.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Errol, good information.

[Dave Homewood]

Tony really appreciates this info, and said, "Legend, thank you Dave, and please thank all your guys on the forum - this is potentially another airman identified for the memorial!!! 🙂"

Peter, would you happen to have copied Bryan Currie's logbook or photos?

[angelsonefive]

Hi Dave,

I think I have found another NZ PR pilot for you.

27/3/1943 Spitfire PRIV BS505 No.4PRU, undercarriage collapsed in heavy landing Gibraltar, Cat. B damage, pilot Sgt DAF Smith RNZAF okay.

From Spitfire Production.

[errolmartyn]

Oct 12, 2023 16:37:45 GMT 12 angelsonefive said:

Hi Dave,

I think I have found another NZ PR pilot for you.

27/3/1943 Spitfire PRIV BS505 No.4PRU, undercarriage collapsed in heavy landing Gibraltar, Cat. B damage, pilot Sgt DAF Smith RNZAF okay.

From Spitfire Production.

NZ416175 Darrel Albert Farrar SMITH.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Great work Ray and Errol!

[Dave Homewood]

By pure chance during a phone conversation with a friend, I just got told about another kiwi PRU pilot who flew both Spitfires and Mosquitoes, called Reginald 'Reg' Duffy. My friend thinks his middle name was Tony but was not sure. Do you have any record of him please Errol?

[errolmartyn]

Oct 12, 2023 20:01:41 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

By pure chance during a phone conversation with a friend, I just got told about another kiwi PRU pilot who flew both Spitfires and Mosquitoes, called Reginald 'Reg' Duffy. My friend thinks his middle name was Tony but was not sure. Do you have any record of him please Errol?

This will be NZ427265 Reginald Bertram Duffy, continued his training in Canada but I don't have anything about what he did afterwards.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks very much Errol! Excellent, another one for Tony and his team to add to the list and to research.