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Post by corsair67 on May 2, 2007 16:49:11 GMT 12
Here are a few more: Some lucky bugger about to go for a spin in ZK-TAF.  The original pilots' barracks - if only the walls could talk!  P-40 rebuild.   Totara planted in memory of Garrick Beats.   |
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 16:56:26 GMT 12
Re the stamps, yes I believe so, I have some somewhere. Here's a shot of the original hangars from Paul Harrison's book  Something I find extraordinary is I lived at Wigram for two and a half years, but I have absolutely no recollection of ever seeing the No. 1 O's Mess, nor the Base Commander's house. I knew they must be on base somewhere but I never went near them. It was only in 1996 that I stumbled across Wigram Manor on my wander around and realised that there it was. I recognised it only as it was just like Ohakea's and Whenuapai's Mess's as Colin says. The No. 2 O's Mess is a different story. I passed it regularly, and often was snuck in for a drink in the bar by my mate Mike Sterritt when he was training as a chopper pilot. He and his fellow course mates always made me most welcome, but I was always shit scared the Duty NCO or Orderly Officer would catch me. A lowly LAC drinking with officers, it's just not done, old boy. I'd love to know where Mike is these days, he was a great bloke. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 17:04:01 GMT 12
Great to see some less depressing shots there Craig. The Mustang and P-40 both look great.
Nice to see Garrick's tree too. It's looking rather big these days.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 17:06:28 GMT 12
I wonder when those WWI barracks ceased to be used as barracks. They survived all the way up till the Museum began so they must have been in use as something. I'd not like to be kipping in there in a Wigram winter.
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Post by corsair67 on May 2, 2007 17:10:24 GMT 12
Yes, those barracks don't look very cold-proof at all, not that it gets very cold in Christchurch!  |
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Post by phil82 on May 3, 2007 9:38:56 GMT 12
I lived in the N0.2 Officers Mess when on my OTS in 1968, having entered as an LAC, but ACTING Pilot Officer. The PMC of the Mess was a P/O whose name I forget but he didn't last long in the air force after graduation, which is just as well. We OTS officers had none of the regular officer kit like Mess Dress because we were not yet commissioned, but this guy decided there was to be a Dining-in and , to exclude us, stated 'Mess Dress' was to be worn. Now, the guys on my OTS course were largely Direct Entry Officers, who knew very little of the ways of the air force, so I was nominated to speak to the PMC about the uniform issue. Being the arrogant little prick he was, he said he set the rules and if we weren't correctly dressed, we didn't attend. Well, one of the Directing Staff at the OTS was a Flt Lt Joe Simpson, who had been the Station Warrant Officer at Ohakea, and whom I knew well, so I had a quiet word with him. In short, he told me to get the PMC outside of the Mess and suggest that if he didn't become more flexible he would be thumped very hard! We all went to the dinner dressed in the only uniform we had, which was Working Blue! {Remember I had done almost ten years in two air forces and wasn't about to take any crap from a jumped-up P/o!]
Incidentally, I was in the No2 Mess the morning of that big 1968 earthquake on the West Coast, and I watched those huge timber frames swaying like you wouldn't believe.
Every subsequent visit to Wigram I lived in the No.1 Mess, which was vastly different in every way to No.2.
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Post by skyhawkdon on May 3, 2007 15:10:24 GMT 12
When I first went to Wigram as an ATC cadet in 1979 the original old hangar by the base pool was the base gymnasium. The new Gym over by the WAAF'ery wasn't built until the mid 80's and we did many a session of PT in the old hangar on my Mechs course in 1984/5. I agree that it was/is a tragedy that this historic building wasn't saved by the Museum. It was all of 50m from what is now the boundary of the NZDF owned (Museum) land - how hard would it have been to extend the boundary just a wee bit to include it??? Or alternatively move the building onto the Museum land.
Dave - thanks for those photos of Wigram - I can clearly see the land where my house is now!
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 3, 2007 15:27:23 GMT 12
Would the old Belfast Truss hangar be able to be easily dismantled and shifted? Was it designed for this like the lareger tin hangars were? It's just about two years ago I heard a rumour that someone here in Cambridge had bought a hangar from Wigram, dismantled it and had it stored ready to re-erect. There was talk at the time of the new meuseum site for Cambridge and this hangar was aparrently suggested to become part of it. So I wonder if maybe the historic hangar may still exist somewhere?
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