No.1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron

[sqwark2k]

G'day all,

Was wondering if anyone had any info re: No. 1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron. My grandfather was a unit member as a driver and one of the last to leave Singapore before the Japanese overran it.

I've only ever seen 1 thing to confirm the unit's existence and that was a Sqaudron penant on display in the Ohakea Mueseum, years ago. haven't been there for donkey's years so don't know if it's still there and there's nothing at Wigram that I've seen.

Recently was sceptical about the unit title as it seemed awfully close to No.1 transport Squadron, haven't looked into it very deep, but maybe 1 transport Sqn is a post-war unit.

Any info would be appreciated.

Cheers


Craig

[Dave Homewood]

Wigram did actually have a little bit on display about the construction squadrons in one of their cases, including from memory a penant as you saw at Ohakea, and some photos.

There were at least two Construction Squadrons in the RNZAF. No. 2 Squadron went to Fiji and possibly other Pacific Islands to build runways and airfields.

No. 1 was formed at Rongotai from skilled men of the Public Works Department who were all drafted into the squadron and shipped off to Malaya with No. 488 Squadron. These men were some of the very few members of the RNZAF who did not volunteer to join that service, Most who joined the RNZAF were volunteers, not draftees.

There is a very rare but very interesting book on their activities in Singapore and Malaya by squadron member Frank McCarthy called 'Singapore Harriers'. See if your library can get a copy in from the National Library. Frank took loads of photos snd they're in the book, but sadly the book was a limited run home made photocopied job and so the photos are not very clear. Still well worth the look though.

When they returned to NZ they then were posted to Rukuhia as that airfield had just been commandeered, and they built the first runway tehre (which had previously been just a grass strip for the Waikato Aero Club).

You can see a little more about No. 1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron in the Official History books. Most of them are online here: www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-corpus-WH2.html

I did a search and these are the results pages - lots there to browse through
www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/search/search.html?page-length=10&text=no.+1+aerodrome+construction

[Deleted]

Dave is right - see if you can find a copy of Singapore Harriers - it has a green cover. While it is quite rare its not htat hard to find. I know of a couple of RSA's which have copies and the National library has copies one of which can be borrowed using the Internloan system.

[Dave Homewood]

Also I noticed the other day during an urelated Archway search that the National Archives have several files relating to No. 1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron, No. 2 Aerodrome Construction Squadron and another I'd not heard of before called the Southern Construction Squadron. The latter may be unrelated, perhaps army?

[sqwark2k]

many thanks guys

S2K