25 Sqdn Dauntless documentary

[chrism]

Seems to be quite a well researched and in depth look at 25 squadrons history with the Dauntless

[davidd]

Yes, I would agree, a worthy effort, although some of the early material (mainly that describing the problems of actually acquiring the aircraft in the first place) should be taken with a grain of salt. So far as I know, the British Government played no part in these negotiations, as New Zealand had signed a "Lend-Lease" (better described as a Mutual Aid Agreement) with the United States Government as early as September 1942, under which the supply of all munitions and war supplies requested by the NZ government were negotiated. However most of these discussions, so far as I can tell, were between the Lend Lease people in Washinton, and the theatre commander (and his representatives, all United States Navy), with the NZ government then being advised of the actual outcome! New Zealand was very much the price taker, with very little in the way of bargaining chips; all these supplies had to be paid for, mostly in the supply of "war supplies" to be used generally by United States forces or their Allies in the South and SW Pacific theatres, with foodstuffs being one of the most important categories, along with creation of large airfields in these theatres, as well as in New Zealand, and manufacture of (light) naval vessels for the United States Army, and possibly also the US Navy. As many will probably know, the Mutual Aid agreement debt between NZ and the USA resulted in our "Reverse Lend Lease" anabled us to almost balance the disparity, with only a small amount of cash being involved in the final reckoning.

[Dave Homewood]

An interesting video for sure. Well researched and interesting.

One other major item that New Zealand produced for the US troops was leather boots, which this country also supplied to other Allies too, with something like 1.5 million pairs being produced through the war.

The video made it sound like No. 26 Squadron spent a fair bit of time on the Dauntless before they were removed from Divebombing. However I have spoken with a member of that unit and seen his logbook, and they were a divebomber squadron for less than a week. He only got to fly the type once before the squadron's pilots including himself moved to Ardmore and went onto P-40s, and the wireless operator-air gunners went to Ventura squadrons.

I wonder if the Buffalo film will cover No's 243 and 488 Squadrons?

[Dave Homewood]

I am also very impressed that as a North American, he pronounced RNZAF correctly with a Zed and not a Zee.

[davidd]

What I should have included in my last post (22 hours ago!) was that the SBDs issued to RNZAF were NOT the Lend-Lease aircraft we patiently waited quite some months for, but were the result of "local arrangements" between the South Pacific theatre commander (US Navy) which provided the second hand aircraft ferried to New Zealand as well as all the SBD-4s and SBD-5s issued "in the field" at Espiritu Santo which served at that base for training as well as on operations from Bougainville. This was alluded to in the video, but the thing is that these aircraft never appeared on Lend Lease documents, although they certainly appeared in RNZAF docments as well as those of the Munitions Assignment Board in Washington.

[pepe]

Sept 30, 2023 13:14:59 GMT 12 davidd said:

Yes, I would agree, a worthy effort, although some of the early material (mainly that describing the problems of actually acquiring the aircraft in the first place) should be taken with a grain of salt. So far as I know, the British Government played no part in these negotiations, as New Zealand had signed a "Lend-Lease" (better described as a Mutual Aid Agreement) with the United States Government as early as September 1942, under which the supply of all munitions and war supplies requested by the NZ government were negotiated. However most of these discussions, so far as I can tell, were between the Lend Lease people in Washinton, and the theatre commander (and his representatives, all United States Navy), with the NZ government then being advised of the actual outcome! New Zealand was very much the price taker, with very little in the way of bargaining chips; all these supplies had to be paid for, mostly in the supply of "war supplies" to be used generally by United States forces or their Allies in the South and SW Pacific theatres, with foodstuffs being one of the most important categories, along with creation of large airfields in these theatres, as well as in New Zealand, and manufacture of (light) naval vessels for the United States Army, and possibly also the US Navy. As many will probably know, the Mutual Aid agreement debt between NZ and the USA resulted in our "Reverse Lend Lease" anabled us to almost balance the disparity, with only a small amount of cash being involved in the final reckoning.

There was actually no final cash payment made by NZ to the US Govt at the termination of the Mutual Aid Agreement. The US cancelled the outstanding debt "for the furtherance of cultural relations of mutual benefit to the two countries".

The below link to the excellent Victoria University NZ Electronic Text Collection details the final arrangement and also the additional "purchase" of surplus machinery and equipment located in the Pacific and NZ.

There was also a similar agreement with Canada who also wrote of a debt of of 6 million pounds.

nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Econ-c19-25.html

[Dave Homewood]

Yes and I believe it was a similar case for Australia, with no debt to Lend Lease when it was tallied up, too.