GR Squadron WOP/AG Log Book Laurie O'Sullivan

[pjw4118]

Among the many log books scanned for the NCBCA archives some contain a few nice surprises, entries with photographs. This was one of them.

Laurie O'Sullivan joined the RNZAF in 1941 qualifying at Wigram as a W/OP in Februray 42 joining 1GR Squadron in April 42. After a time at 10 (B) OTS Levin he qualified as a WOP/AG he rejoined 1 GR Squadron then 3 Squadron and moved to Santos then the Solomons and a hectic time on May 4 they engaged with two type O float planes.







At the end of his tour he returned to Ohakea as a gunnery instructor.
After the six months back in NZ he joined 2 Squadron Venturas and on 14 April 44 was engaged in a rescue that again was photographed.













At the finish of this tour he joined 40 Squadron on Solomon and Pacific Is duties flying with 40 Sq until it morphed into NAC in April 1947 when his log records ZK-ADH instead of NZ3535. However by AUgust his log was still signed off by the CO of 40 Squadron





He flew as a W/OP on DC3's mainly on the Pacific route sometimes  on Solents until becoming full time on them in January 1953



He converted onto DC6's in June 1954 and his last logged flight we have is with Aussie Malcolm on a Norfolk trip having flown 3988 hours



Any comments and extra details are welcome especially Lauries later life

[ErrolC]

Wow, thanks very much for sharing.
Wiki page on the Mitsubishi F1M (Allied reporting name "Pete") "Type Zero Observation Seaplane"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_F1M

[tbf25o4]

Interesting that for two of the C47 entries he used their callsigns instead of their registrations i.e ZMZAP and ZMZAJ

[planewriting]

Very interesting stuff.

A note on one of the captions "morphed into NAC in April 1947 when his log records ZK-ADH instead of NZ3535."

The aircraft involved is ZK-AOH not ZK-ADH. ZK-AOH was ex NZ3557 whereas NZ3535 became ZK-AQS.

What is interesting too is the switching between crewing on Solents and DC-6s.

[pjw4118]

Yes thats right , I really was trying to show that overnight RNZAF aircraft were registered as civil , even though they continued with 40 sq structure. But please more on Laurie.

[errolmartyn]

I've no record of a Laurie O'Sullivan. Could the log book's creator actually be NZ414930 Leo Patrick O'Sullivan? He enlisted as a wireless op.

Errol

[davidd]

Yes, Errol is correct as usual, his suggestion is definitely the man in question. Perhaps he liked the name "Laurie" better than the original (rather short) Leo.

And about those early DC-3s with RNZAF/NZNAC identities. Most of the ZK-AOx aircraft were actually registered to Air Department in February 1947, but their civil conversions was rather delayed due to difficulties in obtaining certain items of equipment such as passenger seats! Most of them obtained their civilian Certificates of Airworthiness in April/May/June 1947 period and at some point in June the ownership was transferred to the new Corporation. The three "passenger airliners" (AOH, AOI, AOJ) were officially introduced onto the main trunk route (HW - PP - WP and return) from about 2nd June 1947 if memory serves me well, hopefully with NAC uniforms rather than RNZAF, although this seems to be a contentious issue! The three "freighters" (AOD, AOE, AOF) were also put into service in about April/May I think, on the PP - WB emergency air freight service under contract to NZ Railways. Exactly why some of these crews seem to be still operating under some sort of RNZAF administration after the beginning of June 1947 is a bit of a mystery. Have no idea what is meant by the registration "ZM-ZAP" - perhaps a corruption of ZK-AQP mixed up with a call sign (so far as I know at this time the RNZAF C-47s followed the pattern, ZMZBx; the last RNZAF Lodestar (NZ3510) was ZMZCA.) All rather odd, made especially hard by there being little reliable information on these early military call-signs.

[pjw4118]

Thanks David,

Here's an example of mixed uniforms, Alan Alexander and Ron Watson off to Nelson on an inaugral

[tbf25o4]

Ron Walton was my "uncle" a great family friend of my father, having both grown up in Tauranga. Ron Joined Union Airways prior to WWII and carried on with the airline, then with NZNAC flying during
his career Lockheed 10A, Dominie, C47, Viscounts, and DC8s

[tbf25o4]

David, you are correct on the scarcity of information on end of war and immediate post-war callsigns for RNZAF aircraft. While is is generally accepted that under ICAO we as a nation
were allocated ZK,ZL,ZM prefixes, it would seem that for communication purposes the RNZAF adopted for aircraft ZM as the first two then a Z and the last two being the type and individual aircraft.
Probably the most identifiable example is C47 NZ3519 that had ZBO painted on the fuselage circa 1945. Its full callsign would have been ZMZBO.
post-war and up until 1970 when self-evident callsigns were adopted, some of the list was:
C130 ZMZV., B170 ZMZB., C47 ZMZD., Wasp ZMZUV (NZ3901), Devon ZMZK. (Nav and Sig devons) NZ1802 ZMZSA, NZ1819 ZMZTA, P3B ZMZEl - ZMZEP (The lower alphabetical start was to avoid confusion with
TEAL Electras ZK-TEA etc) Canberra ZMZ0. Iroquois ZMZU. Sious ZMZUL - ZMZUQ (NZ3701 - NZ3706)
The letters C,E,R were not used for the last letter as these had other meanings for voice and telegraphy communications