First Use Of C-47's, etc For Civilian Air Transport In NZ?

[Dave Homewood]

I am wondering if this is the first ever use of the Douglas C-47 Dakotas, and for that matter the Lockheed C-60 Lodestars and C-63 Hudsons, as air transport for paying civilian passengers in New Zealand? They were brought in when the railways workers went on strike, and the RNZAF and Army created both an airline and an airport overnight!!

AIR TRANSPORT

HIGH-SPEED WORK

PRIORITY PASSENGERS ONLY

Two hundred and fifty-three priority passengers, a large proportion being airmen under instruction to report at their stations, were carried between Wellington and Auckland yesterday in five R.N.Z.A.F. transport planes put on at short notice to find a way for people whose reasons for travel are urgent, and to carry first-class mail, the whole of which was cleared up to departure time.

Here and at Auckland, railway and Air Force officers sat as priority boards. At Auckland their task was difficult, for notice was extremely short and the morning planes left Whenuapai, some distance from Auckland City, early, at 7.15: Wellington had a few more hours to arrange things, and so loading yesterday was rather light from Auckland, but return loading was pretty well towards capacity. Thirty-one Auckland - Wellington passengers came in the morning, and 46 in the afternoon, but 86 left for Auckland by the morning return planes and 90 in the afternoon. However, considering the very short notice, the service got under way extraordinarily well.

Whenuapai, as a main Air Force station, was ready to send planes anywhere at any time, but Paraparaumu is purely an emergency landing field, without permanent facilities. The Air Force and Army set to together. Overnight a control tower was fitted out, ten Army huts were brought from somewhere and lined up to give shelter if shelter was needed, aviation spirit supplies were taken out, with a fire tender as a standard safeguard; the Army had a field telephone hooked up for communication, through Rongotai, with Auckland and Whenuapai and the planes in flight. By midday a loud-speaker unit was operating, and late in the afternoon field radio was brought in ready for any communication problem in the event of overcast weather.

Rongotai was not used for the same old reason that bars Rongotai from most unusual aviation occasions—the landing field is inadequate and unsafe for large machines. Two twin-engined Douglases, seating about 30 in Air Force transport fashion, two Hudsons, and a Lodestar were used.

Quite a few of the passengers had not travelled by air previously, but no one was excited over the trip of an hour and a half—no one ever is after the flight, for flying is a very matter-of-fact business, just a convenient and much quicker way of getting to places, with a new view and conception of what is down below.

The first plane in to Paraparaumu arrived soon after nine and the others came in at short intervals, and after rapid refuelling took off on the return flight. Leaving Whenuapai about two, the first trip of the afternoon was completed at twenty minutes to four and
 refuelling and reloading of passengers and mail was over in half an hour.

FLIGHTS AT RAIL FARES.
What tickled the first flighters quite as much as the trip was that they were making it at railway fares, first or second, with everything made smooth and easy, once the priority boards had been satisfied. In the morning Wellington-Auckland passengers were taken to Paraparaumu in Army trucks, but the afternoon road transport was given in railway buses—a long trip which satisfied those passengers, at any rate, that Paraparaumu is too far out to be a suitable airport for Wellington for road travel between Wellington and the landing ground took almost half as long as the air trip from the other end of the island.

THE BASIS OF PRIORITY.
Those who wish to travel by the emergency air service, and believe that their cases warrant special consideration should apply at the former permit window at the Railway Station, just inside the main entrance, and from there will be directed on to the examining officers, and, if they get through, to the luggage check room--35 pounds may be carried by each passenger, and the remainder will be held until rail services are operating. First, second, and third priorities are fixed as follows:—
1. Passengers requiring to travel on national business.
2. Passengers requiring to travel on private business directly associated with the prosecution of the war or on account of a death in the family.
3. Passengers requiring to travel on urgent private business, involving bereavement, sickness, or hardship

Special consideration is given to holders of return positions of rail tickets, particularly to those who might otherwise be left stranded without money.

This afternoon a plane is to leave Gisborne, bringing ten passengers, and will leave on the return trip tomorrow morning, the procedure for hopeful
 Gisborne passengers is the same as for Auckland passengers, and, with the system of selection and ground organisation in full running order after the first day's rather hectic going, the emergency air service will be able to carry full loadings of passengers and mail.

Union Airways machines ran to full capacity yesterday, but would have done so in any event, as bookings are full for some time forward.

DEMAND FOR PERMITS
Today there was again a steady stream of applications at the Wellington railway station for priority permits to travel by air between Wellington and Auckland. Applications from the South Island are numerous. All the seating accommodation in planes leaving for Auckland today and tomorrow has been allocated.

"Generally speaking, the service is working very well, and the Air Force organisation is giving every satisfaction," said a station official. "There has been very little delay in getting people to and from the airfields at both ends, and things have been speeded up by the experience gained yesterday when the emergency service was inaugurated." Only persons establishing their right to priority permits are being carried. It is anticipated that for some days to come at least the allocation of seats in the planes to persons who have booked rail seats from the South Island and who obtain permits for air travel will be a recurring problem, but the official view is that things are going very well in the circumstances.

It is expected that the inter-city air service will continue in operation on Sunday.






Solving the Wellington-Auckland passenger transport problems caused by the railway strike. Several of the big Douglas and Hudson aircraft of the R.N.Z.A.F. were yesterday brought into service to carry passengers and mails between the two cities, these pictures being taken yesterday at the inauguration of the service from the aerodrome at Paraparaumu.' Top left, passengers inside a Douglas ready for departure. Bottom left, packing mail bags into a Hudson. The pictures on the right show passengers coming and going, with some of the aircraft and the railway buses used to transport them between Wellington and Paraparaumu.



EVENING POST, 25 JANUARY 1945

[tbf25o4]

Have a look in the book "DC3 Southern Skies Pioneer" by myself and Brian Lockstone. These flight brought about by the 1945 rail strike are well documented.

[Dave Homewood]

I knew you were going to say that. I still do not have a copy of the book.

[tbf25o4]

Cheers Dave, you will need to get one from somewhere!. The commerical flights charged passengers as indicated in the story above. As can be seen from the photos, air travel was a highly dressed affair
with ladies and their hats, gents in suits and hats. A far cry from the T shirt shorts and jandals approach of modern passengers! the flights were extensively used to repatriate returning servicemen to
the closest airport to their home town.

[Damon]

Hard to Find book store ( now located Central city Auckland) had a copy yesterday. Well worth getting Dave.

[Dave Homewood]

Peter Layne had found a copy for me and was going to bring it to Wigram last year to the forum meet but I think he forgot it.

[davidd]

One of the first photos I have seen of the inside of a C-47 full of civilian passengers, and also seems that this aircraft must be carrying close to the 30 passengers mentioned in the article. Note that to get that many aboard and seated, special arrangements have to be made. The "normal" seats used are the so-called "bucket seats" standard in C-47s - these were lightweight, low bench seats arranged along both sides of cabin, which could be folded away when freight was carried. To cram in those 30 passengers, looks as though they have done what they often did on service flights to and from the Pacific - when the low bench seats along each side are all taken, just pile up mail bags and the like along the centre of the aircraft, and call them seats! The passengers have to figure it out, and they didn't pay much anyway by the sound of things. I was also tickled to see the C-47 in the ground shot (second from top) has tapered propeller blades - which would mean that this almost certainly NZ3501, the sole C-47 in RNZAF inventory. This was same aircraft which had a mid-air collision near Whenuapai about 2 months later. Also first good view I have seen of how baggage was loaded into the bomb-bay of a Hudson, looks as though they simply hang ropes across the bomb-bay, balance the soft mail bags on these, then presume they pull the ropes tight and finish the lashing. If one falls off in flight it would not matter much, as the doors could (I presume) be latched together, or could they? I always wondered how this was done. Perhaps Denys can assist at this point?
David D

[Dave Homewood]

I'm glad I posted this now.

[Dave Homewood]

VALUABLE SERVICE

RECENT RAILWAY STRIKE

One hundred and eight flights were made, and a total of 30,638 miles was flown, by the machines of the Royal New Zealand Air Force used for the transport of passengers and mail during the recent railway strike. The passengers carried totalled 1415, and the mail carried amounted to 24,933lb. The passenger miles totalled 398,358, and 2771 mail-ton miles were flown.

These figures were given last night by the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser), when he expressed the thanks of the Government and the country to the officers and men of the Air Force who organised and operated passenger and mail services between Auckland and Wellington, and on the Auckland-Gisborne-Wellington route, as well as mail services throughout the Auckland area. Mr. Fraser said they did fine work for the passengers directly affected by the various railway stoppages and for people living in many localities whose mail would otherwise have been held up. It was a fine job in both organisation and operation. Indeed, it was a model of enterprise and efficiency and all officers and ranks concerned were entitled to the highest appreciation.

"I would also like to thank the Army for its very complete organisation to meet any emergency in regard to the transportation of essential commodities required for both war and civilian purposes which might have arisen through a prolongation or extension of the trouble," said Mr. Fraser. "Fortunately the general cooperation of transport organisations, both workers and employers, and the general loyalty of the railwaymen as a whole to their unions and to their country made assistance from the Army unnecessary during the railway crisis. Both the Railways Department and the Transport Department did splendid work in thoroughly organising the available transport in the dislocated districts. So also in many ways did the Post and Telegraph Department."

EVENING POST, 30 JANUARY 1945

[Dave Homewood]

I honestly cannot understand how a government allowed essential war services to go on strike in WWII, but through the war there were several coal miner strikes, wharf worker strikes, dairy factory strikes and this railway strike all affecting vital war production. It's pretty crazy when men and women were voluntarily risking their lives on the front lines all around the world, and all the other workers in the nation were dong their jobs plus the jobs of others who were overseas plus other Home Front duties like Home Guard or EPS, etc. And the ruddy wharfies and miners wanted more money. They should have locked them up.

[tbf25o4]

An interesting story of the wharfies strike in 1942 at the time when the Japanese were knocking on the front door. My father was in the Army awaiting to go overseas with the 10th reinforcements. He was at Trentham and most of the contingent were sent to work the wharves during the strike. They had been there for some weeks when the ship for their deployment arrived and they were hurriedly packed and embarked. On the 2nd day at sea the RSM ordered a kit inspection, and Dad having thrown away the overalls that he had been living in for two weeks on the wharves was fined 10/- for loss of kit