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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 20, 2019 21:59:24 GMT 12
Oh right. So should he be on the list of New Zealanders in the Battle of France? Or is he actually an Australian who happened to live for a time in Wellington?
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Post by ErrolC on Dec 21, 2019 6:27:46 GMT 12
Oh right. So should he be on the list of New Zealanders in the Battle of France? Or is he actually an Australian who happened to live for a time in Wellington? He looks about as much of a New Zealander as Freyberg? Definitely a son of Empire. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 20, 2020 13:16:18 GMT 12
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Post by errolmartyn on Mar 20, 2020 15:57:20 GMT 12
See entry in Colin Hanson's By Such Deeds. Cheers, Errol |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 20, 2020 16:01:24 GMT 12
Hmm I looked him up in that but must have missed it?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 20, 2020 16:24:51 GMT 12
Nope, it's not in there (I guess because he was RAF, not RNZAF). There is William Edmund Hugh Bromley AFC, but not our man.
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Post by errolmartyn on Mar 20, 2020 18:19:06 GMT 12
Nope, it's not in there (I guess because he was RAF, not RNZAF). There is William Edmund Hugh Bromley AFC, but not our man. See page 561. Errol |
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 11, 2020 10:10:23 GMT 12
As it is currently the 10th of May 2020 in France, I thought I would post to note it is the 80th Anniversary today of the start of hostilities in the Battle of France. Remembering all the Allies who bravely attempted to defend France from the German invasion, and particularly all the New Zealanders involved in the skies over France during the weeks of the battle. RIP to those who lost their lives.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 27, 2020 0:09:10 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 26, 2020 15:26:55 GMT 12
I have just added Charles William Kelvin Nicholls to the list.
Group Captain Nicholls DSO served in France with No. 73 Squadron on Hurricanes. A very interesting pilot, born in Palmerston North and grew up in Auckland, he joined the RAF in 1934. He served in Kenya in the late 1930's, and became an instructor in Egypt. He returned to England when the war began, and fought in France and later became a test pilot. He was CO of the Empire Central Flying School in late 1942.
He was attached to the RAF in February 1943 and would serve as CO of Ohakea, and work in positions at Northern Group HQ and Central Group HQ, but he is perhaps best remembered as CO of the New Zealand Fighter Wing at Torokina in early 1944.
He returned to the RAF in late 1944, and postwar seems to have been CO of the RNZAF Transport Wing for a while, as well as CO of No. 24 (Commonwealth) Squadron RAF, and an Air Attache in Nanking, China. He was an ace with five kills to his credit. A jolly interesting chap.
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Post by davidd on Dec 27, 2020 12:38:00 GMT 12
He wrote almost certainly the first RNZAF report related to the new role of fighter bomber in the NORSOLS/Bismark area, probably dated about mid-1944 (have a copy stashed away somewhere in my shambolic what I call an office!)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 29, 2020 11:56:54 GMT 12
He led their very first bombing strike in the P-40's, David.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 10, 2021 17:30:18 GMT 12
No new info with this post, but I am just posting to mark the 81st Anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of France, in which all these young Kiwis fought, and many died. 10th of May 1940.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 19, 2021 23:29:53 GMT 12
I have just added another name to the list, that of Group Captain Russell Faulkner Aitken CBE, AFC. Wikipedia has him as flying Hurricanes in the Norwegian campaign, and then in July 1940 he was the pioneer of Air-Sea Rescue in the Channel using a Supermarine Walrus. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Aitken_(pilot)#Second_World_WarHowever this photo caption from the OTAGO DAILY TIMES, dated 13 May 1941, states he was involved also at Dunkirk. 
A SQUADRON LEADER FROM CLYDEVALE.— The Duke of Kent with Squadron Leader Russell F. Aitken, of Macfarlane Downs, Clydevale, who is explaining operations by planes of his command “somewhere in England.” Squadron Leader Aitken, who received his initial training in flying at the Taieri aerodrome, joined the Royal Air Force about five years ago. He took part in the air fighting at the evacuation of Dunkirk and in the seven days over which the operations extended obtained only six hours’ sleep. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 29, 2021 0:09:04 GMT 12
I just added another name to the list, Reginald Jack Hyde, who served in the Battle of France in Spitfires with No. 66 Squadron RAF. He later defended Malta in the Gladiators Faith, Hope and Charity. bbm.org.uk/airmen/HydeRJ.htm |
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Post by JollyGreenSlugg on Jun 29, 2021 0:17:11 GMT 12
A very useful and most impressive thread, Dave. Thanks folks.
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Post by baz62 on Jun 29, 2021 6:20:36 GMT 12
I'll show this to my wife as her family name was Hyde.
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Post by kiwichappers on Jul 31, 2021 0:05:43 GMT 12
From conversations with his daughter Ginny I believe Frank [Thomas Francis] Gill flew Battles in France and possibly Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain. I have no information of the squadrons he flew with during this period. He later transferred to 75 squadron and was awarded a DSO during his time with them.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 31, 2021 8:04:34 GMT 12
Thanks Kiwichappers. His Wikipedia page also states he flew Fairey Battles in the Battle of France. I will add him.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 2, 2022 23:41:15 GMT 12
A wee article on John Gibson from the GISBORNE HERALD, 15 March 1950
NOTED N.Z. FLYER RETURNS ON LEAVE AFTER SIX YEARS
(P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 15.
From flying Hurricanes over France in 1939 to piloting V.I.P.s in peacetime, Squadron-Leader J. A. A. Gibson, D.S.O., D.F.C., formerly of Auckland, has seen service in practically every part of the world. With a month's leave from the R.A.F., he arrived in Auckland by flying-boat yesterday after an absence of six years. His mother, Mrs. G. Williamson, met him at Mechanics Bay.
Until recently Squadron-Leader Gibson was pilot and personal aide to Marshal Lord Tedder. He had that job for two years. Before that he was Viscount Montgomery’s personal pilot. He joined the R.A.F. in 1937 on a short-service commission. After flying fighters over France and in the Battle of Britain he became a fighter-pilot instructor. In March, 1942, he came out on loan to the R.N.Z.A.F. and was in command of the 15th Fighter Squadron in the Pacific for two years. He has been shot down six times, but has escaped without injury.
Lately he has been one of several New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans and British flyers who comprise No. 24 (Commonwealth) Squadron, among them being Flight Lieutenant E. Taylor, of Feilding, who succeeded Squadron-Leader Gibson as General Montgomery’s pilot. Squadron-Leader Gibson is to return to Britain when his leave is up.
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