Post by vgp on Feb 27, 2009 10:43:41 GMT 12
Statue finds home
By CARALISE MOORE - Rodney Times | Thursday, 26 February 2009
Several Rodney veterans are joining others from throughout New Zealand and Australia on Sunday for the unveiling of a controversial memorial for New Zealanders who served with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.
The special ceremony is at the Auckland War Memorial Museum from 11am.
Bomber Command Association administrator Peter Wheeler of Waimauku says some veterans are in their 80s and 90s, but very few people have declined the invitation.
"What’s also been good is that in some cases people who had slipped off our records have turned up again."
Warkworth’s Harry Saunders will attend, celebrating his 87th birthday the same day.
Mr Saunders was among ground crew servicing Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain.
He then served on Catalina flying boats as a flight engineer, and with Liberator bombers in Burma during the latter part of the war with Japan.
Mr Saunders is secretary of the New Zealand Goldfish Club, whose members bailed out of aircraft and landed in the sea, using vital equipment to save their lives.
Mr Saunders landed in the North Sea near Murray Firth when mechanical problems hit the Catalina he was in. Catalinas did the run from Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay, escorting shipping.
Other Rodney veterans expected at Sunday’s ceremony include Orewa’s Gordon Woodroofe, George Cammish of Orewa, ‘Bunny’ Burrows of Manly and Whenuapai airbase commander Edwart Poot.
The memorial is a collaboration between the New Zealand Bomber Command Association and the museum.
Agreement for the unveiling was reached following a dispute over the permanent home for the memorial.
Bomber Command veterans hoped the $100,000 sculpture, fundraised by the public and designed by Wellington’s Weta Workshops, would be housed within the museum’s Hall of Memories.
But museum bosses said at 1.8 metres high, 1.2 metres wide and a tonne, the work was too big to be permanently installed there.
Instead, the bronze and marble statue of a Lancaster bomber and seven crew will be unveiled in the Hall of Memories, then moved to a nearby location on the museum’s third floor for public viewing.
"The museum trust board is pleased with the positive outcome," says board chairman David Hill.
"It was always our desire to find an appropriate and suitable home for the memorial, and now we feel sure that we will develop a plan that is both high-quality and respectful to all parties."
A museum spokesman says a long-term strategy is still being worked through.
Bill Simpson of the NZ Bomber Command Association echoes this sentiment and hopes to attend.
"It has always been a high priority for us to have a formal dedication ceremony within the museum as soon as feasible," he says.
www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4860755a23016.html
After almost 65 years, Bomber Command veterans will see a memorial in their honour unveiled at the Auckland War Memorial Museum this weekend.
Bomber veterans get their memorial at long last
By CARLY TAWHIAO - Auckland City Harbour News | Friday, 27 February 2009
Among the 200 guests expected to attend the ceremony, including some of the remaining 100 veterans of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, Des Andrewes and George Hiam will be standing proud and tall.
Eighty-five-year-old Mr Hiam served as a navigator in bombers like the Lancaster Mk III and hopes the memorial will give recognition to the 2000 Bomber Command airmen who lost their lives during World War Two.
"There were 6000 in the Bomber Command, but a third of them never came back," says Mr Hiam.
Mr Andrewes was also a navigator, a job he says would now be replaced with GPS.
"We’re long in the tooth," the 88-year-old says.
"You can talk all you like but unless you’ve been there you can’t really understand what it’s like. Not really. The crew were like your family."
The Sandringham resident says it was sheer luck that he returned to New Zealand with a new wife and son after the war and the memorial service means a lot to the veterans still alive today, as well as their families.
A small group of Bomber Command veterans meet weekly at Motat as service volunteers, and have done so for at least 20 years.
They are part of a dedicated team responsible for bomber memorabilia at Motat, including the restoration of a Lancaster.
The idea for a memorial was initiated by Bomber Command Association president Bill Simpson and driven by administrator Peter Wheeler, who wrote a book about the Bomber Command in 2005.
The memorial’s unveiling follows a dispute over the permanent home of the memorial.
Veterans hoped it would be housed within the museum’s hall of memories, but museum bosses said it was too big to be permanently installed there.
The $100,000 memorial designed by Weta Workshop features a crew of seven sculpted out of bronze and set in marble clouds.
The unveiling will take place at 11am on Sunday in the Hall of Memories before being permanently installed by the Spitfire Gallery entrance.
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/4861170a6016.html
By CARALISE MOORE - Rodney Times | Thursday, 26 February 2009
Several Rodney veterans are joining others from throughout New Zealand and Australia on Sunday for the unveiling of a controversial memorial for New Zealanders who served with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.
The special ceremony is at the Auckland War Memorial Museum from 11am.
Bomber Command Association administrator Peter Wheeler of Waimauku says some veterans are in their 80s and 90s, but very few people have declined the invitation.
"What’s also been good is that in some cases people who had slipped off our records have turned up again."
Warkworth’s Harry Saunders will attend, celebrating his 87th birthday the same day.
Mr Saunders was among ground crew servicing Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain.
He then served on Catalina flying boats as a flight engineer, and with Liberator bombers in Burma during the latter part of the war with Japan.
Mr Saunders is secretary of the New Zealand Goldfish Club, whose members bailed out of aircraft and landed in the sea, using vital equipment to save their lives.
Mr Saunders landed in the North Sea near Murray Firth when mechanical problems hit the Catalina he was in. Catalinas did the run from Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay, escorting shipping.
Other Rodney veterans expected at Sunday’s ceremony include Orewa’s Gordon Woodroofe, George Cammish of Orewa, ‘Bunny’ Burrows of Manly and Whenuapai airbase commander Edwart Poot.
The memorial is a collaboration between the New Zealand Bomber Command Association and the museum.
Agreement for the unveiling was reached following a dispute over the permanent home for the memorial.
Bomber Command veterans hoped the $100,000 sculpture, fundraised by the public and designed by Wellington’s Weta Workshops, would be housed within the museum’s Hall of Memories.
But museum bosses said at 1.8 metres high, 1.2 metres wide and a tonne, the work was too big to be permanently installed there.
Instead, the bronze and marble statue of a Lancaster bomber and seven crew will be unveiled in the Hall of Memories, then moved to a nearby location on the museum’s third floor for public viewing.
"The museum trust board is pleased with the positive outcome," says board chairman David Hill.
"It was always our desire to find an appropriate and suitable home for the memorial, and now we feel sure that we will develop a plan that is both high-quality and respectful to all parties."
A museum spokesman says a long-term strategy is still being worked through.
Bill Simpson of the NZ Bomber Command Association echoes this sentiment and hopes to attend.
"It has always been a high priority for us to have a formal dedication ceremony within the museum as soon as feasible," he says.
www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4860755a23016.html
After almost 65 years, Bomber Command veterans will see a memorial in their honour unveiled at the Auckland War Memorial Museum this weekend.
Bomber veterans get their memorial at long last
By CARLY TAWHIAO - Auckland City Harbour News | Friday, 27 February 2009
Among the 200 guests expected to attend the ceremony, including some of the remaining 100 veterans of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, Des Andrewes and George Hiam will be standing proud and tall.
Eighty-five-year-old Mr Hiam served as a navigator in bombers like the Lancaster Mk III and hopes the memorial will give recognition to the 2000 Bomber Command airmen who lost their lives during World War Two.
"There were 6000 in the Bomber Command, but a third of them never came back," says Mr Hiam.
Mr Andrewes was also a navigator, a job he says would now be replaced with GPS.
"We’re long in the tooth," the 88-year-old says.
"You can talk all you like but unless you’ve been there you can’t really understand what it’s like. Not really. The crew were like your family."
The Sandringham resident says it was sheer luck that he returned to New Zealand with a new wife and son after the war and the memorial service means a lot to the veterans still alive today, as well as their families.
A small group of Bomber Command veterans meet weekly at Motat as service volunteers, and have done so for at least 20 years.
They are part of a dedicated team responsible for bomber memorabilia at Motat, including the restoration of a Lancaster.
The idea for a memorial was initiated by Bomber Command Association president Bill Simpson and driven by administrator Peter Wheeler, who wrote a book about the Bomber Command in 2005.
The memorial’s unveiling follows a dispute over the permanent home of the memorial.
Veterans hoped it would be housed within the museum’s hall of memories, but museum bosses said it was too big to be permanently installed there.
The $100,000 memorial designed by Weta Workshop features a crew of seven sculpted out of bronze and set in marble clouds.
The unveiling will take place at 11am on Sunday in the Hall of Memories before being permanently installed by the Spitfire Gallery entrance.
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/4861170a6016.html
