Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 26, 2005 21:15:41 GMT 12
In my research for the Wings Over Cambridge website I have found a few wierd stories. Two of them may be connected and somewhat interesting.
When I interviewed local man Ernie Gorringe (his interview is yet to be typed up and added to my site) he told me a rather interesting memory. He was a Transport Driver, and was a Sgt stationed at the time at RNZAF Station Whenuapai, Auckland.
He says one day he got special orders to take the biggest truck the station had, and drive up to RNZAF Station Waipapakauri which is near the top of the North Island and on the coast. He told me of the epic drive up there, trying to get the huge truck round the tiny country roads, etc.
When he arrived he found his secret cargo was all under cover and under armed guard. It was loaded onto his truck, and an armed guard hopped into the cab with him for the trip back to Auckland.
He had to transport this load, which he had worked out from experience that it was a biplane with wings folded or detached under the tarps, back to Auckland and deposit it into a warhose on Parnell Rise. Somehow he got it out of someone what exactly this top secret load was. He said it was apparently a Japanese float plane biplane that had washed ashore damaged onto the beach at Waipapakauri.
When he told me this I did some investigation. The Jap subs certainly did use small biplanes with floats for observation, and they had flown this type over Auckland too, and Wellington. But from what I found, that sub and its aircraft continued on its way intact after its visit to NZ.
I contacted the eminent RNZAF researcher David Duxbury, who's a great bloke, and he was also intrigued. He looked through all the records he could think of that might hold some clues and turned up nothing. That seemed odd. He suggested one of two scenarios - the load was in fact one of Waipapakauri's own resident Vickers Vincents and was kept so secret because it carried ASV radar. By 1943 this seems unlikely but possible. The other scenario he suggests is they kept it so secret no paperwork was kept or even generated.
The RNZAF facility at Parnell was I believe a transit station where goods and airmen would go to before shipping off overseas. Maybe it was whisked off to the USA for assessment?
Anyway, the leads went cold on this. Then this week I interviewed local lady Melva Sayer who worked in RNZAF Radar during the war. She said whilst based at a Radar Station in late 1943 a mystery aircraft without IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) was tracked flying just above New Zealand's northern tip, heading from west to east in a straight line. It flew past NZ and out to sea and then disappeared off radar. No-one found out what it was, and one theory was it was a US plane that was damaged and lost and well out of the way from where it should be (no RNZAF aircraft were missing), or it was possibly an enemy aircraft.
I wonder if this was one and the same plane - it is the right place, about the right time, and maybe it had returned towards NZ after the sub had headed into the Tasman for some reason.
Can anyone shed any more light on this or any clues?
Cheers
Dave
When I interviewed local man Ernie Gorringe (his interview is yet to be typed up and added to my site) he told me a rather interesting memory. He was a Transport Driver, and was a Sgt stationed at the time at RNZAF Station Whenuapai, Auckland.
He says one day he got special orders to take the biggest truck the station had, and drive up to RNZAF Station Waipapakauri which is near the top of the North Island and on the coast. He told me of the epic drive up there, trying to get the huge truck round the tiny country roads, etc.
When he arrived he found his secret cargo was all under cover and under armed guard. It was loaded onto his truck, and an armed guard hopped into the cab with him for the trip back to Auckland.
He had to transport this load, which he had worked out from experience that it was a biplane with wings folded or detached under the tarps, back to Auckland and deposit it into a warhose on Parnell Rise. Somehow he got it out of someone what exactly this top secret load was. He said it was apparently a Japanese float plane biplane that had washed ashore damaged onto the beach at Waipapakauri.
When he told me this I did some investigation. The Jap subs certainly did use small biplanes with floats for observation, and they had flown this type over Auckland too, and Wellington. But from what I found, that sub and its aircraft continued on its way intact after its visit to NZ.
I contacted the eminent RNZAF researcher David Duxbury, who's a great bloke, and he was also intrigued. He looked through all the records he could think of that might hold some clues and turned up nothing. That seemed odd. He suggested one of two scenarios - the load was in fact one of Waipapakauri's own resident Vickers Vincents and was kept so secret because it carried ASV radar. By 1943 this seems unlikely but possible. The other scenario he suggests is they kept it so secret no paperwork was kept or even generated.
The RNZAF facility at Parnell was I believe a transit station where goods and airmen would go to before shipping off overseas. Maybe it was whisked off to the USA for assessment?
Anyway, the leads went cold on this. Then this week I interviewed local lady Melva Sayer who worked in RNZAF Radar during the war. She said whilst based at a Radar Station in late 1943 a mystery aircraft without IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) was tracked flying just above New Zealand's northern tip, heading from west to east in a straight line. It flew past NZ and out to sea and then disappeared off radar. No-one found out what it was, and one theory was it was a US plane that was damaged and lost and well out of the way from where it should be (no RNZAF aircraft were missing), or it was possibly an enemy aircraft.
I wonder if this was one and the same plane - it is the right place, about the right time, and maybe it had returned towards NZ after the sub had headed into the Tasman for some reason.
Can anyone shed any more light on this or any clues?
Cheers
Dave
