Corsair assembly and maintenance in Jungle Workshops

[Dave Homewood]

AIR FORCE USE

JUNGLE WORKSHOPS

ASSEMBLING FAST FIGHTERS

(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service;)

PACIFIC BASE, October 5. Elaborate workshops, capable of catering for the bulk of the engineering needs of all the Royal New Zealand Air Force squadrons in the forward area, have now been established at a Pacific base. Manned by picked teams of technicians who are expert in scores of specialised trades, the workshops are operating in close association with assembly and testing units, which are responsible for handing over in operational condition to the fighter squadrons, the new Corsair aircraft being delivered from American factories.

Liberally covered with anti-corrosive dressing, the Corsairs, United States Navy fighters, are carried across the Pacific to this island base as deck cargo. On arrival they are put ashore, and towed along newly-widened roads to the New Zealand assembly flight, where specially-trained teams go to work to fit them for operational duty. Although the aircraft have been test-flown before leaving, the United States they are partly taken down again by the New Zealanders, units are examined, reassembled, and tested before being installed, the anti-corrosive paint is removed, New Zealand roundels painted on to replace the American star, and a number of modifications completed.

Lean and savage looking in their shark grey paint, the Corsairs pass from bay to bay, and finally are towed into a parking area to await the test pilot. A youthful veteran of the Malayan campaign, with a personal score to settle with the Japanese, he takes the big monoplanes one by one, gets some height under him, and puts them through their paces. When he is finished with one Corsair, it is ready for delivery to a squadron, tuned, and tested and found faultless, a speedy platform for six machine-guns to be turned against the Japanese.

In the workshops proper, the Air force has a major installation of prime importance. Jungle was cleared from an extensive site, coral carted and rolled in, and suitable buildings erected. Elaborate equipment, some of it superior to that available on New Zealand Air Force stations, has been installed, and the base workshops, as the entire unit is known, undertake engineering work of almost any nature, apart from that directly concerned with the maintenance and repair of aircraft. Some of the delicate equipment in the instrument section was designed and made on the spot, and the workshops are now equipped to deal with any of the thousand and one requests made by both New/ Zealand and United States units.

Savings in time and transport have resulted from the establishment of the workshops, which have grown from extremely modest beginnings to one of the largest units of the Royal New Zealand Air Force overseas. Work which previously had to be sent all the way back to New Zealand, involving substantial loss of time, is now undertaken on the spot, and major overhauls are greatly facilitated. The work is unspectacular, well behind the front line, and at times tedious, but base workshops has become a vital factor to the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific.

Two Corsairs a day go to the test pilot from the assembly lines, and the men who fly all types of Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft in the forward area have the utmost confidence in the skilled workmanship of the many airmen at Base Workshops, who are anonymous contributors to the war against Japan, and who have been classified by British and American observers as second to none in the world.

EVENING POST, 9 OCTOBER 1944

[baz62]

I wonder how many Corsairs were carried at once? Were they aircraft carriers or at least ships modifies to take aircraft on a flat surface? Interesting to read that they ended up doing major overhauls there. I presume that didn't go as far as overhauling engines but overhauling the aircraft and replacing worn or time-expired parts (like engines and props,etc) with new/overhauled stock.

[tbf25o4]

Baz,
had a look through the AF380 for aircraft delivered to "Base Depot" NZ5201-NZ5487. In August NZ5398 - NZ5411 were delivered by the USS Kwajalien taken on charge 5/8/44
"After commissioning, Kwajalein underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to San Pedro. She then underwent a transport mission on 19 July to Espiritu Santo, ferrying military passengers and aircraft. She arrived on 3 August, and proceeded westwards on 7 August for Guam, transporting additional aircraft. There, she took on a load of salvaged Japanese equipment, which she carried back to the United States for analysis.
Other deliveries around that time were NZNZ5459 - NZ5468 USS Winebago 2/9/44 and 13 on USS Pinkey 14/09/44 However, so far I have not been able to find out what class of ship these two were.

[Dave Homewood]

USS Kwajalien


USS Winebago

[davidd]

Base Workshops, subject of the above article, had the full name of Base Depot Workshops, and was located at Pallikulo airfield (also known as Bomber 1) on the island of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides (now known as Vanuatu). The test pilot at this time ("youthful veteran of the Malayan campaign") was F/O Roderick William McMillan, who served in Singapore with 488 Squadron. There was a second test pilot with Base Depot Workshops at this time, one F/O H A ("Pop") Mullins. Although there is a certain degree of vagueness in the above article, there is also much useful detail which I have not seen published anywhere else. Incidentally detailed information on US Navy ships is fairly easy to locate on the Internet, thanks to some good websites. PINKNEY (note spelling) was a US Navy Evacuation Transport (APH-2), but WINEBAGO may have been a civilian ship. Actually wondering about the "good websites" just mentioned, cannot seem to find them now, have they all gone?
David D

[davidd]

Interesting to see OS2U Kingfishers carried on flight deck of Kwajalien above. Although they could be converted to landplanes, these ones must have been craned aboard from a wharf or another ship, as the floatplane version had no wheels.
David D

[Peter Lewis]

Apr 7, 2020 12:09:51 GMT 12 davidd said:

Base Workshops, subject of the above article, had the full name of Base Depot Workshops, and was located at Pallikulo airfield (also known as Bomber 1) on the island of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides (now known as Vanuatu).
(snip)
David D

'Bomber One' back in 1944



and again, from when I was there in 2011








I guess thats what happens when you dont mow the lawns!

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, interesting to see it in modern times, thanks Peter.

[tbf25o4]

Hi David, the AF380 entry has USS Pinkey as the entry, so thanks for the correction. Baz, I'm pretty sure based on photos of activity at Base Depot that some deep level maintenance on engines
was carried out, although some may have been returned to No1 ASU at Rukuhia for major overhauls. Probably not too many in the latter case as the overall engine hours for the Corsairs from late
1944 to end of the war wouldn't have been very high in individual aircraft

[Dave Homewood]

Engines were definitely returned to New Zealand and overhauled on the No. 1 Repair Depot line at RNZAF Station Hamilton (not Rukuhia) in Bledisloe Hall. I knew several chaps who worked on that line including the line Sergeant Eric Ford, plus Ray Hurst, Roy Paton, and Bob Peake, and several of them mentioned engines were coming back from the Pacific.

[davidd]

Paul,

The arrangements for engine overhauls in the "Forward Area" from about early 1943 till the end of the war was that the RNZAF would carry out all its own airframe inspections (from Dailies right through to Majors), but aero engines were the responsibility of the American war machine.

Time expired engines were handed over to the United States Navy overhaul and repair system, which generally sent the engines back to the mainland USA, where numerous facilities were available for this work. However, in 1943 and into early 1944, the US Army Air Forces also ran a major engine overhaul facility at Tontouta, New Caledonia, where our P-40 engines (Allison V-1710s) were overhauled, as well as the P&W Twin Wasps from our Catalinas, although in the latter case the Catalinas were ferried to Noumea powered by the almost-expired engines, and newly overhauled engines were installed by US Navy men, whereupon the Catalina tootled off back to Halavo Bay, Segond Channel or Lauthala Bay.

Our Hudsons, on the other hand, ferried themselves back to NZ, and were sent to Ohakea or Rukuhia, when their major inspections were due, and usually had NZ-overhauled engines installed before they were given some running in and shake down flying before proceeding back to the forward area.

So far as I know, our TBFs (and borrowed SBDs) never put up enough flying hours overseas to wear out their installed engines, although any seriously damaged or otherwise wrecked engines had to be replaced from available American stocks.

It has to be understood that any American aero engine handed over to the American engine overhaul and supply system (and I imagine this was also the fate of such accessories as propellers, magnetos, starters, etc.) were considered as part of a common Allied pool of expensive equipment, so there was no expectation that "our engines" (or anything else for that matter) would ever be seen again, and it usually wasn't.

Initially this situation was of much concern to the RNZAF equipment officers, as their RAF-style administrative network had great trouble accepting that "our" engines were gone for ever, but eventually they got over this, as replacement engines, etc, were always available from the American supply line, some new, others overhauled - Land-Lease took care of everything apparently.

All those P&W R-2800s for our Corsairs and Venturas as well as the R-1830s for our Catalinas operating in the forward area were always the responsibility of the theatre commander, while conversely all aircraft (and their engines) operating within New Zealand were the RNZAF's responsibility, whether of American or British origin.

Incidentally, according to an RNZAF document dated 29/3/45 (NZAP 130, Vol I, Section C, Chapter 2, Leaflet No. 6), the engine "life" for most types in use at this time were: Allison V-1710 (all versions, for training only at this stage of the war), 240 hours; Cheetah IX, X (Anson, Oxford, training or communications), 960 hrs; Cyclone 9 (R-1820, Hudson, C-60 Lodestar, all types flying), 640 hrs; Cyclone 14 (R-2600, for TBF, training only), 520 hrs; Pegasus VI (Walrus, training only), 540 hrs; Pegasus XVIII (Sunderland IIII, transport only), 400 hrs; R-985 Wasp Junior (communications only), 720 hrs; R-1340 Wasp (Harvard, training or comms), also 720 hrs; R-1830-67, -90 Twin Wasp (Hudson, C-47, training only), 720 hrs; R-1830-90C, -92 (C-47, for transport) 840 hrs, (Catalina, for bombing & reconnaissance, or training), 720 hrs; Packard Merlin, V-1650-7 (P-51D, for fighting), 240 hrs.

David D

[baz62]

Thanks David you're a mine of information.

[tbf25o4]

Hi David, many thanks for that, it is one area of history that has many tentacles to the plot!

[Dave Homewood]

I'm guessing the ones returning from the Pacific and going to 1RD at Hamilton must have been from the returning Hudsons? And probably Allisons from the P-40's that came home after their tour of duty.