Interesting Paint-Stripped P-40N in Pacific

[Dave Homewood]

I was talking with Brian Wigley this week and he said that he remembers his late father Harry Wigley telling him that when he was the Commanding Officer of No. 19 (Fighter) Squadron RNZAF up in the Pacific, he decided to get the groundcrew to take the armoured plate and guns an any unnecessary weight out f a specific P-40N, and the he had them strip the paint right off it and polish the bare metal with flour and rags till it was shiny and slick. He the did some test flying and dives with it and found in a dive the aircraft would start to buffet as it was nearing compressibility (approaching the speed of sound). And from what I gathered he took this aircraft on bombing strikes. Brian said Harry was asked if he was worried in the combat zone with no guns, and he replied it was fine because his aircraft was so fast no-one could catch it. Apparently the aircraft was later crashed.

Has anyone else heard of this aircraft?

[davidd]

Nope Dave, not that one. He mentioned nothing about such an aircraft in his auto bio either, although he does mention his first (and last) flight in a P-38. He also did at least one flight in a Corsair at Piva North when he was CO FHQ Piva, and had his u/c collapse on landing, about December 1944. Of course by the time 19 Squadron was at Torokina (March 1944), the Japanese air force was not in contention, being down to about half a dozen Zekes.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Exactly. They were bombers at that time.

[camtech]

David,
any idea which Corsair Wigley had his mishap in?

[davidd]

Camtech, that would be NZ5469, actual date was 2/1/45, time 0920, location Piva North, Bougainville. By this time Wigley was OC, Field Headquarters, Bougainville. This aircraft was ferried from Guadalcanal to Bougainville on 30/12/44, and was given an acceptance check flight on following day. It was given a DI (Daily Inspection) prior to the flight on 2/1/45, at which time its total flying hours came to 21. It was fitted with P&W R-2800-8W s/n P.18455, total hours 35.20. (This seems to be typical of Corsair engines; they always had about 12 hours more than the airframe they were attached to - did the engine factory partially run the engines in separately in a test cell?) S/L Wigley suffered total engine failure (without any prior spluttering) at about 50 - 100 feet, at 120 knots, and decided to land straight ahead, alighting on his belly on the coral strip extension, with u/c and flaps up. Damage was minor (superficial, only in region of undercarriage and centre section), and prop "bent". Incidentally S/L Wigley had been appointed OC Field Headquarters at Piva on 17/10/44 (previously it had been known as RNZAF Station Bougainville), and on 23/11/44, he succeeded W/C S G Quill as OC, Fighter Wing. In this capacity, Wigley was in charge of just one squadron, but by April 1945 this had quadrupled to four squadrons, giving him the greatest number of strike aircraft under a single commander in RNZAF history - 72 aircraft. He was finally promoted to rank of Acting Wing Commander on 9/2/45, w.e.f. 15/1/45. However his immediate commander was AOC, NZ Air Task Force (COMZEAIRTAF), also based at Piva, Group Captain G N Roberts. He also came under the AOC, No. 1 (Islands) Group at Guadalcanal (Air Commodore Sir Robert Clark-Hall) for administrative purposes - you can read all about this in Harry Wigley's autobiography, also covered by J M S Ross in the Official History of RNZAF in WW2 (pages 263 - 278).
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Actually John Arkwright had more squadrons under his control when he became deputy to the US commanding general in the Solomons. He had jurisdiction over the New Zealand Fighter Wing plus a USMC Corsair squadron, a US Navy Avenger squadron, a USAAF P-38 Squadron, and a USAAF P-40 squadron, and he flew with all of them on at least one op in their aircraft.

[Dave Homewood]

I wonder if Harry Wigley did not note the polished, lightened aircraft in his books because it was done unofficially without consent perhaps? Or maybe he just forgot to mention it when he was writing his books. I know he was a bit of a maverick who did things others wouldn't, so this story would not surprise me in the least.

[mit]

Hi Dave,

I think it was "NZ3283" Kittyhawk returned to No. 4 OTU Ohakea later, I am reading Brian Cox's book at the moment and there are a few things I wanted to share on here but not sure where to, one of this is this:

"On the flight line, but only flown by instructors and senior staff pilots, was a beautiful-looking Kittyhawk NZ 3283, with no paint and a shiny metal finish. It was commonly called 'the silver barge' and was constructed in the Islands from surplus parts from crashed aircraft. Not on the official register, it was a 'ghost' aircraft, and it was constructed as light as possible without any armament, armour plate, blind flying instruments or the main fuel tank which reduced its empty weight by about 1500 lb, to approximately 5000 lb. The standard P-40 had three internal self-sealing fuel tanks, containing 35, 50.5 and 62.5 US gallons respectively. 'The silver barge' was constructed without the latter. According to Doug Greig it was a delight to fly: 'as light as a feather on the controls, [it] side-slipped like a Tiger Moth.' I was flying a standard model on fours formation practice one day with our leader 'Zoot' Stanley flying the barge' .After some weaving, scissoring, and cross-over turns he instructed the formation to break off so that he could have a play with his 'toy'. The other two pilots peeled off and flew clear but I decided to sit on his tail and see how our two vastly different aircraft compared. He proceeded to perform a series of non-stop manoeuvres and I had my work cut out keeping behind him — during the many loops I found that whilst zooming upwards he tended to leave me behind as my speed fell off, but after passing over the top I rapidly caught up again on the downward journey, due to my aircraft's considerably greater weight.
'The silver barge' eventually buried itself fifty feet deep near Ohakea when an experienced pilot, F/L 'Butch' Boucher, was seen to dive it vertically into the ground after spinning out of cloud. With the aircraft's lack of instrumentation, the pilot apparently became disorientated after inadvertently entering the cloud; which was six- to seven-eighths coverage, during his descent from higher altitudes where he had been doing aerobatics."

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, that has to be it. It's been yeas since I have read Bryan's book, so I had forgotten all about that story. Thanks Mit! Great to have it confirmed. And indeed it did later crash as Brian said, which is sad. RIP Hilliard Boucher.

There were two other OTU P-40's that were stripped and polished aluminium, NZ3110 and NZ3210. NZ3110 was polished up at Ardmore for the CO of No. 4 OTU and it moved to Ohakea, where it later crashed and it seems NZ3210 was polished up to replace it.

[baz62]

May 8, 2020 13:01:56 GMT 12 mit said:

Hi Dave,

Not on the official register, it was a 'ghost' aircraft,

Reminds me of RAF pilot Tom Neil who while serving as a Liasion Officer with a US fighter unit acquired a MKIX Spitfire which he got paint stripped and flew with bare skin with RAF markings. It too wasn't on the books and later he found out a Group Captain in Malta got court-martialed for having his own private Gladiator! He realised he would be for it as he had a front line aircraft!! Fascinating book by him "The Silver Spitfire" tells the story of his time with the unit and the Silver Spitfire. Interestingly he managed to find out what happened to it after he managed to get it off his hands!
Be neat if someone did a model of the Silver P40.

[Dave Homewood]

I have been giving this some thought and have realised that the aircraft Boucher died in, NZ3283, was not the aircraft in question, because NZ3283 was not even assembled in NZ till May 1944, so it did not go to the Pacific as they were bringing the last ones home at that point.. No new ones went north to the battle zone after about February 1944.

I actually now think that the Wigley polished aircraft must have bee NZ3110.
- It did actually serve in the Pacific
- It did get brought home and joined No. 4 OTU, at Ardmore
- We know it was polished already at Ardmore because Trevor Pearce flew it at Ardmore in that state and wrote about it being polished and special while at Ardmore.


Also NZ3110 crashed at Ohakea with No. 4 OTU too, only a few weeks after NZ3283. Both dived into fields. Both accidents were long after Bryan had left Ohakea so he was not there to see it. However NZ3110 crashed near Ohakea (as Bryan states in his paragraph) whereas NZ3283 actually crashed near Hunterville which is 31 kms from the base). So I think he's looked it up for his book and got the wrong crash.
And that means the "C.O.'s silver barge" was in fact NZ3110.

Bryan's assertion that it was not on the register makes zero sense. Wigley apparently flew this poished P-40 on operations but the P-40 in question surely could not be flown on operations when not on the official register, because the squadron clerks had to record the flights made in their ORB, and and possibly in monthly reports that went back to headquarters, and a record of its engineering status would need to be kept on file, and it would have to go to other units for servicing, etc. And if there was an accident then everyone involved would be found out and there would be hell to pay. 

And it's almost certain that a ring in aircraft would not have been brought home to NZ and then gone to the OTU and continued flying. Every piece of equipment in the RNZAF from the smallest tool to the biggest aeroplane was and is on an inventory that someone has signed for and has responsibility for. If an aeroplane showed up and was not on any of the inventory registers there would have been hell to pay. It would have had a questionable maintenance record, and someone or several people would be Court Martialled for stealing it.

So I think the mention by Bryan that is was a ghost is apocryphal. And he has got it wrong tat Boucher died in it, it was Sgt Frank Rout.

I feel that Wigley's polished, lightened P-40 will have been NZ3110. I will now look further.

[Damon]

NZ3283 was famous for the race it had at Ohakea with the PV-1. P-40 won of course. There are pictures of NZ3210 at Rukuhia at wars end.

[Damon]

Incredibly Bryan Cox ferried NZ5469 to Rukuhia early November 1945.

[Dave Homewood]

According to our thread on P-40 codes, NZ3110 had the code '38' which means it was most likely with No. 2 Servicing Unit at Torokina.

So I just went through my copy of the No. 19 (F) Squadron Operations Record Book and they were one of those weird tours that seemed to use P-40's drawn from both No's 2 and 4 Servicing Units for the first half of their tour, one day from one an the next from the other, with some days a mix from both. This was unusual and in this case it's unhelpful as it widens the field somewhat.

There is no sign of a 2SU aircraft coded '38'. Wigley seems to fly several different aircraft as you'd expect but late in the tour I noted several times he flew the P-40 coded 'A' from 4SU. That would have been NZ3177.

So I am perplexed. I don't know which aircraft it could have been.

I still think it's likely NZ3110 as I now it was in the Pacific, or perhaps less likely NZ3210 as it was in service early enough to go to the Pacific though I have seen no evidence yet that it ever did.

It definitely won't have been NZ3283 as it was not in the Pacific so we ca set that aside.

We need to look at Harry Wigley's logbook to find some more clues.

[davidd]

I think Harry Wigley's log books are all at the Wigram Museum (presently out of bounds of course, in fact locked down completely), including his RNZAF ones. I had a bit of a look through them about a year ago. And as an unexpected bonus, Rodolph Wigley's logbook is there too, including quite a lot of flying in the two BA Swallows. Something to look forward to after our present crisis is over.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Yes they are, I found that out from Brian.

Oh that's interesting about Rodoplh's, did he actually fly the DH9's and Avro 504K's from New Zealand Aero Travel Ltd, which he founded?

I was just thinking I nee to get back down to Wigram sometime in the future for an archive trip an maybe another Forum Meet.

[davidd]

No, Wigley Senior only qualified to legally (and safely!) fly aeroplanes with Canterbury Aero Club (then at Wigram) in mid-1930s, in fact he learned to fly at same time as Harry. From memory, he went to some pains to avoid his son at Wigram when learning to fly, as he wanted to surprise him later! This all covered in Harry's autobiop. I think the DH 9s/504Ks of Aero Transport Coy were flown by ex RFC/RNAS pilots (with licenses, that is, whatever type of license was in vague and force at that time).
David D