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Post by aircraftclocks on Dec 14, 2021 0:16:54 GMT 12
Matthew questioned what MFC stood for, the answer is Maintenance Flight Commander
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 17, 2021 14:38:05 GMT 12
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Post by corsair5517 on Dec 17, 2021 23:10:35 GMT 12
Two legends in the making: MUS9410110a Group. Pilots course 3a, No. 1 Service Flying Training School, RNZAF Station Wigram. Original negative number WgF1003. L-R: Back; JG Grant, BDJ Kennedy, P Souter, JH Register, MJ Rowland, BRH Sharpe, GK Williams. Middle; JF Barron, AE Lyttle, KCM Miller, JB Starky, LT Weston, JE Wall, JA Ward, PL Stokes. Front; PP O'Brien, AKE MacEwan, WWW Burgess, WG McCullough, RF Watson, RW Taylor. James Fraser Barron, RNZAF NZ401749 (later pathfinder, Wing Commander, DSO & Bar, DFC, DFM) James Allen Ward, RNZAF NZ401793 (later Sgt-pilot and VC) Strike me pink!! That's my uncle - dad's brother, Pat - right end of the middle row! He was seconded to the RAF eventually flying Blenheims and was invalided out of Singapore just before the Japanese invaded... he wound up being ATC on Norfolk Island, and was ATC at Momona post-war. What a find! Thanks to the OP...
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Post by delticman on Dec 18, 2021 9:04:16 GMT 12
Can anyone identify the tram. It might be a trailer but it look likes one built by Boon and Company of Christchurch.
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Dec 18, 2021 20:52:19 GMT 12
NZ2031 Dave?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 19, 2021 7:27:02 GMT 12
It's NZ2013, as I said when I posted the photos. Now magnificently restored and on display at Wigram.
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Dec 19, 2021 20:57:24 GMT 12
So can you explain why the serial on the fuselage side says NZ2031?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 19, 2021 21:58:28 GMT 12
Oh! So it does. What the deuce?
That is a VERY good question John. Sorry, I missed that earlier.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 19, 2021 22:01:28 GMT 12
So is this actually NZ2031 being recovered in 1966 from Mr Carr's farm near Dunedin?
nzdf.serials describes NZ2031 as having its wings torched near the wing roots, so that matches.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 19, 2021 22:14:35 GMT 12
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Post by madmac on Dec 20, 2021 14:01:23 GMT 12
With out trying to induce to much thread drift, I was struck by the thought that those two hudsons had been out of service for about as long as the A4's are now.
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Post by denysjones on Dec 21, 2021 14:19:01 GMT 12
Glad you sorted that out chaps as I was getting puzzled when I looked that the photos first up as I didn't recognise the farm surroundings nor did I recall 2013 with the cockpit and nose glazing like that.
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Post by baz62 on Dec 22, 2021 7:16:18 GMT 12
Yeah I was peering at the serial number but being on my phone rather than my PC I wasn't sure if it was 13 or 31. Good work John.
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Post by oj on Dec 29, 2021 19:54:33 GMT 12
and the personnel in uniform are?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 29, 2021 20:02:03 GMT 12
Cadets maybe?
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Post by shorty on Dec 29, 2021 20:07:33 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 5, 2022 8:03:12 GMT 12
This photo posted in the past few days of Clarry Berryman in a Corsair, that Corsair is NZ5660 "Gremlin", I believe, in Japan. 2019-196.53 Image from the Clarence James Berryman personal collection. Unknown pilot sitting in the cockpit of a Corsair with nose art "Gre???". Unknown location. LINK
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 24, 2022 13:25:49 GMT 12
This is NZ1024, these days known as Harold and living in NSW with Doug Hamilton. But this photo that is thought to have been taken during or around WWII shows Harold in quite a state, partly stripped and partly in scruffy paint. The paint is one colour rather than camouflage, and it looks dark like a green or olive drab, bit it may well have been trainer yellow and the dark shade comes from the film stock? It's hard to tell of the wings are painted or stripped, or half and half like the fuselage. NZ1024 served with No. 22 (Army Co-op) Squadron at Norwood, March-May 1943, and then No. 21 (Army Co-op) Squadron at Milson, May-August 1943. I wonder if this was an Army Co-op colour scheme, maybe it arrived in New Zealand in bare metal as many of the Harvards did, and it had a rudimentary scheme painted on to make it harder to see? Most of the 22 Squadron Harvards had nice Dark Earth/Dark Green/Duck Egg Blue camouflage but this is not. And yellow seems unlikely for an Army Co-op aircraft. Also what really intrigues me is the Marsden matting on the ground. I don't recall ever seeing that used on any New Zealand RNZAF stations. Does anyone know of any stations that may have used it? Did Norwood or Milson have this matting?
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Post by Antonio on Jan 24, 2022 13:36:07 GMT 12
I'm sure that there was some matting between No.1 Hangar and the southern perimeter road at Ohakea that survived under the grass at least to the mid 1970"s
Also is that a patch below the windscreen with peeling paint or some kind of marking??
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Post by tbf2504 on Jan 24, 2022 14:15:58 GMT 12
There was also marsden matting at Seagrove when the Marines were based there
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