RNZAF WWII Footage - Air Strikes, Catalina Dumbo, etc

[chook]

I reckon some of the Pilots in the first video from Jun 11 "Activities of NZ Pilots..." are, from back row left, Dick Mills, Ramsey Boyd, Dennis Page, unknown, Pat Tilyard and finally Keith Mulligan. 16 Squadron Pilots, not sure about the chap obscured by the watermark. Great clip.

[davidd]

I have never seen any mention in Japanese records that they lost a submarine in that area, or any other area for that matter, at that time or place. Only Japanese submarines for which no actual fate is known would be the Japanese Army freighter subs which were launched in about 1943/4 from memory (about 12 of them), and they can thus be discounted. The United States Navy and the Royal Navy formed a committee to carry out quite a major investigation after World War Two to try and account for the fates of all Axis submarines (Germany, Japan Italy). Although some of their assumptions and "best guesses" of this committee have been challenged since then, and a few have proven to be plain wrong, I think the vast bulk of their conclusions have stood up pretty well over the years. For instance, in recent years, the substantial remains of two (identified) U-boats, both sunk in the seas near Britain, have been located, but their actual locations do not match those stated by this committee. Nevertheless the presumed or known locations of all, or practically all the Japanese Navy's subs are known and fairly well recorded, and credits for the sinkings have been apportioned among all the claiming navies and air forces. Japanese submarines include the well-known I and RO types (1st and 2nd classes, respectively large ocean-going and coastal) as well as the small Ha types. There are some good reference books available compiled from Japanese sources which list all their fates in a certain amount of detail. Losses of each month of the war are included. I don't think we should put our Singapore crew forward as a possible claimant of any Japanese submarine, as there would seem to be no candidates available. There were a few submarines for which the Japanese Navy could provide no actual fate; matching these with Allied claims provided a lot of answers, but for the remainder, the most likely fate was as a "marine casualty", sometimes also referred to as "operational Loss". Needless to say, none of these took place anywhere near Fiji.

Official losses of Japanese submarines, by month, for 1942 were not particularly heavy. I have not included the smaller Ha-boats (midget submarines) The actual identification numbers of the lost boats were as follows:

January: (I-boats) 23, 60, 73, 124.
February:(Nil)
March: (Nil)
April: (Nil)
May: (I-boats) 28, 164
June: (Nil)
July : (Nil)
August: (I-boats) 123; (RO-boats) 33, 61
September:(I-boats) 33
October: (I-boats) 22, 30
November: (I-boats) 15, 172; (RO-boats) 65
December: (I-boats) 3, 4

Total of boats lost, Jan - Dec 42: 17 (14 I-boats, 3 RO-boats).

Total of new boats commissioned over same period: 20 (14 I-boats, 6 RO-boats), so Navy was just three RO-boats better off after first full year of the war.

[Dave Homewood]

I am not sure and have not looked any further, I am only going by what I was told be a couple of veterans. And no it wasn't me that put the info on Wikipedia. I find it hard to believe but then a lot of things in WWII that seem far fetched are true. Maybe it was a real sub but they did not sink it?

[davidd]

Couldn't rule out an attack but no sinking, and do not know how quickly that a Japanese sub captain would pass on a signal that they had been attacked, but survived. Having just finished a jolly good read of a paperback by a British submarine commander ("One of our Submarines" Edward Young, 1952), its seems that the British made brief reports as appropriate during their operational cruises in Japanese waters, so suppose their enemy could have done the some. However if damage was only slight, they may not mention it unless it was serious enough to abandon their patrol.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Perhaps it was a Japanese whale.

[Mustang51]

That Singapore looks like a block of flats with wings. Must have been magnificent to see one in the air.

[Dave Homewood]

Yeah, a wonderful aeroplane.

[davidd]

I too was mightily impressed by that snippet of movie taken on "the bridge" of the mighty Singapore III. Little known fact is that the RNZAF originally hoped to get five of these aircraft from 205 Squadron, but one was in such poor condition (or they did not have enough spare parts?) to get the last one up to a standard of airworthiness, so it was abandoned as a dead loss. In fact all five aircraft had been all but written off by the RAF as not worth repairing due to serious deterioration, the area of concern being in the forward fuselage between the lower wing attachment points, which apparently suffered from serious corrosion of probably the most critical part of the entire structure.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Yes the RAF had already started to break up the Singapores, but when they were gifted to the RNZAF our team used the worst one as a Christmas tree to repair the other four.

Sadly only a very short time after arrival in Fiji, one was written off when its hull hit a submerged reef and so only three went on to do patrols.