RNZAF Stations

[pjw4118]

Being in a valley , it would be a strange place, the nearest I know of is Hot Water beach on the other side of the Coromandel range. Did the Ardmore Corsairs use the swamp area near Paeroa for gunnery/ rocket practice ? If so then a target store nearby could be needed.
There was also an artillery range up in the Kaueranga valley that was still marked on post war survey maps as dangerous.

[davidd]

RNZAF gunnery/bombing ranges in WW2 were almost invariably right on the coast, not inland, and so far as I know, swamps were NOT considered as sites for such activities. In fact later in war, the old Seagrove airfield on shores of the Manukau harbour was designated, and used as a gunnery target (no so certain about the bombs though) by the Corsairs from Ardmore. Locations of Air and Ground gunnery and bombing ranges were normally included in the official NZ "Air Pilot" publications to warn off civilian pilots (not that there were many of those in the air for most of WW2). I think that preparations for rocket training in New Zealand were under way when the war ended, not certain that any actual courses were even started.

Main RNZAF WW2 aerodromes which required dedicated weapons ranges were basically Whenuapai, Ohakea, Ardmore, also (overseas) in Fiji, and at training stations in New Zealand such as Wigram and Woodbourne. However the bombing ranges for the training units were only intended to use light practice bombs to best of my knowledge. For gunnery it was also just as easy to use pieces of seaweed or driftwood as targets, but I imagine these activities would normally be carried out within boundaries of the official safety ranges. These ranges could also be used for air to air gunnery (with drogues as target), and target "sleds" could likewise be used for practice bombing; don't think these items were used for air to sea firing practise though, possibly too dangerous to the towing vessel.

David D