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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 1, 2023 8:22:10 GMT 12
The bringing back of old threads is always welcome Chris, especially when it is a great post like that. Thanks for the photo.
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Post by Antonio on Nov 1, 2023 11:01:20 GMT 12
Just have to place the pic.  |
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chrisr
Squadron Leader
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Post by chrisr on Nov 1, 2023 19:21:37 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 1, 2023 21:22:56 GMT 12
I found an older thread about the same aircraft, so have now merged the two together.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 1, 2023 21:32:13 GMT 12
So there was talk in older posts that it was recovered from the Pacific by Ross Jowitt, and that is out there on a few websites too.
This must be incorrect, because after Marine Air Group 14 handed NZ5021 over to the RNZAF, it remained here till being retired from service, stored at Hobsonville, and then sold to scrap dealer James Edwards.
So how did it survive between the scrap dealer's ownership, and it's sale to the USA where it went to the USS Hornet Museum at Almeda?
And where was it stored, who owned it, and when did it actually leave NZ?
I think though this proves that the rumour that circulated many years ago that someone allegedly had several ex-Seagrove Dauntless bombers hidden in a shed. Is there possibly more still out there in a Kiwi barn or farm shed?
Also, as it previously served with MAG-14, it is most likely a combat veteran of the Solomons campaign. But I cannot find any history of it with the USMC. Someone needs to look into that if the USS Hornet Museum and Castle Air Museum have not already done so.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 1, 2023 21:42:20 GMT 12
It looks like it spent time at Pima too, it was photographed there in 2002.
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Post by Antonio on Nov 1, 2023 22:41:15 GMT 12
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Post by Brett on Nov 2, 2023 8:25:53 GMT 12
ProBoards and Facebook do not play well with each other.
You can't just embed an image using the "Insert Image" button. You have to use the Embed function "</>" and insert the Facebook post.
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Post by Mustang51 on Nov 2, 2023 11:19:54 GMT 12
Brett.....Ahhhhh, of course....
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chrisr
Squadron Leader
Posts: 136
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Post by chrisr on Nov 2, 2023 16:30:45 GMT 12
Silly question, is Ross Jowitt still around could someone ask him for more information?
Found this on papers past About the Seagrove Dauntless'
Press 10 July 1946
Veterans of the battle for Guadalcanal 24 dilapidated Douglas Dauntless dive-bombers parked at Hobsonville have been virtually written off by the Air Force. The aircraft, some of them still scarred by Japanese shells, were originally flown by the United States Navy. The Marine Air Corps took them over and later brought them to New Zealand, where they were based at the American airfield at Seagrove. R.N.Z.A.F. pilots were trained to fly them, and the Dauntlesses were handed over to the Air Force. At the end of the war they were taken to Hobsonville hnd partly unassembled for return to America, but were never sent.
Another article suggests tenders for those aircraft closed on January 5 1948
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Post by camtech on Nov 2, 2023 20:08:58 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 2, 2023 21:59:11 GMT 12
Silly question, is Ross Jowitt still around could someone ask him for more information? He is still around. He is out of aviation now I believe, though I understand he still drops into Avspecs occasionally. Wal probably has a contact for him if you want to track him down. Interesting, proper combat veterans and served with both the Navy and the Marines. Actually a New Zealand airfield. Why the media thinks it was an American airfield I do not know. No's 15 and 17 Squadrons had P-40s based there before the Dauntless fleet arrived in NZ. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2023 12:47:09 GMT 12
Thank you so much Chris, Dave and Antonio for the photos! It looks like it spent time at Pima too, it was photographed there in 2002. Back in June 2017 Castle Air Museum curator Tony Rocha told me the restoration was projected to take 10yr - I suspect COVID may have interfered with that! |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 6, 2023 13:37:32 GMT 12
But Zac that information is clearly wrong. NZ5021 went from service at Seagrove to storage at Hobsonville. Here is a photo of it stored there in 1947.  Air Force Museum of New Zealand Photo LINKIt was disposed of to scrap dealer J. Edwards from Hobsonville on the 1st of March 1948. Now I very much doubt that Edwards or anyone else took it from NZ to the Pacific for it to be recovered again later by Ross Jowitt. So that info is clearly wrong. If one was recovered by Jowitt, as reported in NZ Wings back in the 1990s, it cannot have been this one. |
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Post by Mustang51 on Nov 6, 2023 14:09:48 GMT 12
.....or that is the information that RJ passed on to Geoffrey G......
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