General Engineering Section

[Dave Homewood]

An article from the Evening Post dated the 18th of July 1944 - any idea which station this was? Rukuhia? Hamilton?

VERSATILE UNIT

AIRMEN AS ENGINEERS

G.E.S. TACKLES ANYTHING

A busy and hardworking branch of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the General Engineering Section is a versatile organisation. The last few years have seen it undertake some trying tasks — tasks which before the war would have been declared impossible for New Zealand equipment and craftsmen. Now the section may well claim that it has yet to find a task beyond its capabilities. This little-known unit at an R.N.Z.A.F. station in the North Island has not as yet been called on to manufacture either needles or anchors, but it could without a doubt handle either assignment if necessary. It does, for instance, manufacture delicate tools for Sperry instruments calling for accuracy up to a quarter of a thousandth of an inch, and it does also, by way of contrast, sharpen the cutters for the sausage machine in Air Force butcher shops.

Nothing comes amiss to the General Engineering Section—or G.E.S. as it is better known to its staff. Recently a shipment of medium bombers were found to require a modification to the landing gear, after delivery had been taken by the R.N.Z.A.F. Until the modification was installed all these aircraft had to be grounded. There was no time to arrange for the workers to do the job. The aircraft were required urgently. That was where G.E.S. came into the picture. The defect was examined, a new part designed, and manufacture began.

TWELVE PROCESSES.
The job required 12 different processes and involved machining a ten-pound block of steel into the finished article, which weighed only three pounds. Working on a mass-production principle, with each man completing only a small section of the work, G.E.S. toiled night and day for three weeks, working three shifts throughout the full 24 hours. At the end of the three weeks each aircraft of the shipment was airworthy.

The section, which today is still working a night shift, is divided roughly into three departments — the machine shop, the grinding shop, and the metal shop. These three shops can, if necessary, manufacture or repair almost anything mechanical required by the. R.N.Z.A.F.

During a recent visit, radio parts, sandblasting guns, a special type of screwdriver, castors, castor bolts, aero engine filters, and hooks for engine slings were among a few of the articles being manufactured in the machine shop, which is fitted out with the most modern machining equipment.

HIGH DEGREE OF ACCURACY.
In the grinding shop airscrew domes were being ground out and crankshafts of Allison engines were being reground on a huge precision machine which operates to such a degree of accuracy that it is left running during spells, so that measurements will not vary because of the bearings cooling off.

Sheet metal and "stressed, skin" work was being carried out in the metal shop, as well as wire splicing, the manufacture of wing jigs for Harvard aircraft, and the fitting of perspex panels for windshields, turrets, and windows. Taking pride of place in this department was a profile oxygen cutting, machine, constructed on the spot by the section, which automatically cuts round any template desired. Heat treatment in salt baths for the case hardening and tempering of alloys was also provided for, while other locally-made apparatus included a huge drop-hammer for intricate work which could be stamped out from dies made on the spot. That this busy organisation has yet to find an impossible job tells something of the story of the G.E.S.—a story that is often overlooked beside those more romantic chapters of the R.N.Z.A.F. which tell of operational flying.

[rone]

Could be any number of Precision Engineering workshops that carried out jobs for the Airforce at that time. Jas J Niven (long gone now) springs to mind. While the article sounds dramatic, it is just a normal everyday experience in a well equipped engineering workshop. Working around the clock was not unusual at the time of the article.

[pjw4118]

It would be interesting to see or locate some photos of the major workshops. Although Hobsonville assembled dozens ( hundreds ?) and Rukuhia did major servicing I have never come across any illustrations . Does anyone have a stash?

[camtech]

Hamilton had a number of "overhaul" level workshops around the city. One in particular was the Show Buildings right in the centre of town.

[shorty]

I have a photo of the interior of the show buildings set up for engine servicing

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, I have several inside Bledisloe Hall (aka the Winter Show Building). It was the engine overhaul line. I have talked with several airmen who worked there.

Also in Hamilton they had a large instrument repair shop in the Innes Tartan drink factory (now the Meteor Theatre), and various garages including Ebbett Motors, and several office blocks and hotels, were seconded as part of No. 1 Repair Depot.

[rone]

Engine and instrument overhauls are quite different activities to that carried out by an Engineering workshop. Crankshaft grinders are left running because of the large diameter grinding wheel takes a moment or two to get up to speed and the need to maintain its balance. This applies today in a workshop that does grinding, not necessary just crankshafts. The original article by Dave H was referring to a General Engineering Workshop that 'manufactured' bits and pieces, from raw material to the finished product.
I will probably get shot down here, but I have never heard of a General Engineering Section, in Hamilton at all. My thoughts are that these would be some of the better equipped engineering workshops, of which there were several in Hamilton, able to do this precision work at short notice, being loosely contracted to undertake specialised jobs. I know that from my own time working at the CAC in Auckland P&W crankshafts were ground undersize by Eric Paton ltd, hardchromed by CAC, then reground to size again by Eric Paton. While most were from National Airways, Airforce crankshafts were also among them.

[davidd]

The "General Engineering Section" was not a single, multi-faceted unit, although it was entirely manned by RNZAF personnel (so NOT an outside civilian contractor). However the RNZAF did commission certain outside firms to undertake work beyond their capacity or technical knowhow at times, including manufacture of new aeronautical spares for British and American aircraft and engine types. All major RNZAF stations during WW2 with fairly major workshops had a General Engineering Section, which despite the details in the above article, were NOT entirely devoted to undertaking aeronautical engineering, which is why they were named as they were. However it is likely that the GES alluded to in the article is most likely to be the one located in Hamilton, as part of No. 1 ARU by this date, as Dave H suspects. The one at Hobsonville, for instance, undertook work on MT, Marine Craft and engines, and overhaul of generators for off-line radar stations both in NZ and the Pacific. The "medium bombers" referred to in para 2 of the original article), were almost certainly the early shipments of PV-1 Venturas for Nos. 1 and 2 Squadrons, which did have faulty main undercarriage legs, and did in fact have their forward deployment delayed by a month, and this rather upset the local American theatre commander who commanded all units, etc of the RNZAF in the forward area. I am pretty certain he would have been informed that this delay was NOT caused by the RNZAF, but by hard-pressed American workers trying to roll out new aircraft in an attempt to keep up delivery schedules which seemed somewhat optimistic to them. Such issues were hardly rare in the hurly burly of large scale aircraft production in WW2 when the front-line commanders were always screaming for newer and better aircraft at the front. One of the volunteers at the RNZAF Museum, the late Alex Sutherland, was at Whenuapai at this time, and remembered the major rush job to get the Venturas serviceable after the defect was discovered when NZ4502 had an undercarriage collapse for no apparently good reason. From memory, I think that a new type of technology was utilised to reveal the cracks developing in the legs (coloured dye, or some type of electro analysing?) - certainly a rather embarrassing manufacturing defect by the manufacturer of these items. In fact I think that the RNZAF had General Engineering Sections up until the 1960s - can anyone confirm or deny this?
David D

[Dave Homewood]

There was still a General Engineering Flight based at Hobsonville when I was there in 1989-1990, which had machinists, metal workers, and one Safety and Surface Worker based on it. They operated out of the smaller hangar workshops on the Wet Apron. There may have been other trades involved too, and also the Base Auckland Fabric Bay was upstairs in the same area but I am not sure if tyhey came under the jurisdiction of GEF.

I assume the GES's and GEF's came under the umbrella of the station/base Technical Wing or Technical Squadron?

It's good to confirm it was likely the Venturas referred to, I thought that would be the case.

[rone]

I am pleased to see I have stirred the pot a bit, just to get the memories working.