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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 20, 2005 21:32:43 GMT 12
Thanks for that stuff Bruce.
I may have to write to Waiouru Museum and see if they can tell me more about that area's RNZAF connections.
I didn't know conscientous objectors were imprisoned in WWII - most who objected seem to have been told by the court hearing when they objected to work harder on farms, etc, and join the Home Guard (which defeated their purpose a little). Ed Hillary was an objector. he kept bees on my grandparents' farm at Ardmore. He eventually realised he was silly objecting when his country needed him and joined the RNZAF. He served on No. 6 (FB) Sqn I'm told, not sure what as.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 20, 2005 21:35:18 GMT 12
Just looked it up, Hillary was a Navigator.
Cheers for the Northland stuff Bruce. Man we're on a roll this week with the stations.
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Post by Bruce on Dec 20, 2005 21:39:46 GMT 12
I guess only the most consientious of objectors were imprisoned, NZ doesnt seem as hard as some countries in this respect. there were a few other detention camps around as well, mostly in the middle of nowhere! some of these (such as Erua) became civilian prisons postwar until they were closed by certain liberal governments who thought they were to far away from civilisation for proper rehabilitation of the inmates (dont get me started on that one...)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 20, 2005 21:52:53 GMT 12
hehe... steady Bruce, I can hear a "They should all be put against a wall and shot!" moment coming on...
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 21, 2005 15:38:25 GMT 12
OK, I am moving down the long list Sean kindly provided, doing updates where I can.
I have just updated Waharoa, Te Kopuru, and Claris based on info received here and elsewhere.
I have got down the list to Kaitoke and I'm confused. Previously my research had indicated that the RNZAF took over the Wanganui Aerodrome, which was a prewar airport. I looked up Kaitoke in a modern map book and found it's just south of Wanganui, basically on the outskirts of town, and the map has an aeroplane indicatig it is still the airport. So at once i assumed it was one and the same place.
BUT - Sean's book says Kaitoke was built for the RNZAF where other research says Wanganui was an existing airfield (originally iven authorization as such on the 20th of March 1935) that was taken over in 1939.
Were these two airfields, one old, one new-built? Or were they the same place and one of the sources is wrong?
is there any more in your book on Kaitoke or Wanganui Sean? Thanks chaps.
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Post by steve on Dec 21, 2005 17:24:15 GMT 12
Thanks for the info Bruce we are certainly on a roll. Te Kopuru...I knew nothing about and located it on the map...I rememeber going through there some years ago and noted a WW2 style hospital disused...I wonder if any staff were ever stationed at Te Kopuru?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 21, 2005 17:44:39 GMT 12
I did a google on the place and found several references to RNZAF airmen who were born there at Te Kopuru (most were killed in the war) and also a WWI VC winner was born there. From other links it seems it must be a reasonable sized town/district
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Post by SEAN on Dec 21, 2005 20:49:11 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 21, 2005 21:30:05 GMT 12
That's fantastic, thanks. I can see much there of interest so i'm afraid I may be bugging you for some time on this.
Regarding Waiouru, I wonder if this was at HMNZS Irrirangi. Always thought it funny having a Navy base int hte middle of a desert.
I have a sneaking suspicion Waiouru was mentioend in the RNZAF Radar book too as a Radar Station of some sort. I'll have to check that someday soon.
On the page/s about the Air Reserve Fuel tanks (ARF) on page 54, does it mention much about Cambridge? And is there any mention of the types of trains used to cart the fuel around? Apparently, though the tank was in the centre of town here in Cambridge, and fuel was trucked out regularly, people never saw the fuel trains coming and topping it up. But apparently they did, at night I expect. A local man was telling me he is a train buff and had tried to research the secret fuel trains. No records exist he reckons, and no photos, and he'd been through all the railways archives etc.
Of course, he may have just been a looney.
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Post by Tony on Jan 2, 2006 22:36:42 GMT 12
So do you mean the captions should be swapped around? The big building is on Parnell Rise, and the flats on Market Road??? I wonder if those barrack flats in the bottom photo where the men are parading are still there, they look fairly permanent and I'd not be surprised if they were still being lived in. (Note the airmen are in tropical kit, probably off to the Pacific I'd guess). ] Possibly this photo may have been taken postwar. Don't forget the KD Summer Dress issue |
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Post by steve on Jan 3, 2006 0:05:14 GMT 12
HMNZS Irrirangi i believe is still there 5km south of the army base on the right. Mostly automated now but still housing units there. Provides communication via HF to navy ships as the elevation is so high...volcanic plateau....Maybe sat, comms have replaced...not totally sure
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Post by steve on Jan 3, 2006 0:08:00 GMT 12
Macfire...I suspect the pic is posr war also...and yes the flats are still there...up parnell rise on the right opposite the park
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Post by Bruce on Jan 3, 2006 12:49:16 GMT 12
I notice on Sean's list of airfields at the beginning of the war, Taupo is listed - Would this be the Centennial park airstrip currently used by the Taupo Gliding Club? The current Taupo Airfield dates from the 1960s, SPANZ built and used the airstrip at Rangitaikei from 1963 up until that time. Can anyone confirm the Centennial park field has been around that long? or was there another strip somewhere else?
likewise the Rotorua Airfield is the old Whakrewarewa field (near the thermal area) that was used until the current airport was built, also in the 1960s (The Queen flew in to the Whaka field in 1953 on her Royal Tour). I would love to know the location of the old airfield - I guess it has probably been built over now, but does anyone have any info?
Queenstown would be the Frankton Airstrip, now lost underneath unaffordable holiday homes....
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Post by steve on Jan 3, 2006 23:30:48 GMT 12
I notice also on Sean's list Taupo and this has got me thinking as well. I do remember Rotorua Fenton Street airfield which the RAF landed a large 4 engine transport (forgot the type)in the fifties then realilising it was to short for take off with safety margins! Maybe Taupo the same ...but where?
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Post by SEAN on May 5, 2006 7:46:40 GMT 12
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Post by corsair67 on May 5, 2006 13:11:14 GMT 12
Great photos, Sean. I never knew Ashburton was quite so large during the war.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 5, 2006 21:31:08 GMT 12
Fantastic photos, thank you Sean. I had received the Delta ones before (and replied to you abou them). These extras are great.
I don't suppose the book has anything about (or a photo) of A.R.9? That's the Cambridge fuel base.
I am currently, slowly, working on the huge task of redesigning the RNZAF Stations pages of the website. Instead of two pages, North Island and South Island, as the info is growing rapidly and many photos from many peiople are coming in, I am going to break it dwon into several pages in regional sections. This way it won't take so long to load up the info hopefully. But it will take some time to get all this stuff online. So, keep the info coming, I am using it, you just can't see it yet on the site. Soon, someday soon.
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Post by steve on May 6, 2006 3:03:51 GMT 12
Many thanks Sean...Great to see these old stations ...especially ardmore and northland aerodromes.(from my neck of the woods))! And thanks Dave without this site these pics would take many hours research at national archieves, RNZAF photographic section etc...
RNZAF ww2 stations is really a interesting research topic...Whenuapai ww2 and post ww2 would really be great to see...My pics are focused more on the crashes ie hudsons,b17 etc than the layout of the station ...aerial shots... and most important the ...men and women in social settings etc...Again many thanks for sharing these photos...steve
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Post by SEAN on May 12, 2006 7:14:26 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 12, 2006 8:16:11 GMT 12
Sean, these are totally fascinating photos. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for posting them.
Wow, that photo of the Ohakea concrete hangar under construction is amazing, nothing like how I'd imagined they were built. I do know the concrete was wheelbarrowed up to the boxing all the way up.
Some of those Wigram photos are also interesting, seeing how similar it looked between 1941 and 1991 when I lived there. And now, almost all gone.
As an ex-Safety and Surface worker I was also fascinated to see how they dried the parachutes in those early days. We hung them vertically in a special tower with warm arm blowers, but the method above is quite different and one I'd not seen before.
Great stuff, thanks very much again.
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