An interesting Pacific tour

[Dave Homewood]

In my research into the General Reconnaissance squadrons I have discovered this interesting tour conducted in 1942, which i reckon would make a reallu interesting subject for an artwork.

No. 1 (GR) Squadron Lockheed Hudson NZ2022, piloted by Flt Lt Eddie Brooke-Taylor, with P/O Stevenson as navigator, Sgt Alex Baxter as wireless operator and Sgt C.N. O'Loughlin as air gunner, escorted Short Empire ZK-AMA carrying some official party on the tour thus:

25 May 1942 - Auckland to Nadi. The Hudson landed at Nadi and the crew stayed in Suva till the 28th when they went to the other RNZAF airstrip at Nausori for the day and flew back to nadi that afternoon.

29 May 1942 - Both aircraft flew to Tonga via Onelau. They stayed in Tonga till the 1st of June.

1st of June 1942 - Both aircraft flew via British Samoa to Tutuila

3rd of June 1942 - Both aircraft left Tutuila and returned to Nadi, where bad weather kept them there in Fiji till the 6th of June when they flew home to NZ.

I reckon it would make an interesting artwork having the graceful flying boat over tropical islands and escoted by its purposeful warrior escort. I wonder who was aboard the Empire and what the official business was.

[alanw]

Dave

That sounds like a cool picture even picturing in the minds eye.

Interesting time to take a trip.

Battle of Coral Sea had just been fought (7-8 May), and Battle of Midway was just ending as the party arrived back in NZ (assuming it was June 7/8, 1942)

I wonder if the trip was to meet with US Navy/Army reps to
discuss New Zealand's part in the Pacific war???

This is the fascinating part about this forum!!! Discussions like
this, about parts of the New Zealand Military history you would
never get in books (generally speaking) or TV doco's.

[Dave Homewood]

I hope it will be in my book, along with several other special trips made like this in the Pacific by all sorts of aeroplanes, including the Empires on other specialist trips.

The RNZAF had aerodromes in Fiji and Tonga, and the US also had interests there by then too. It may have been a high powered military conference or inspection, or maybe an inspection by politiicians who wanted to see if everything was ready in case of the worst.

I have no idea what was Tutuila. It sounds like a great trip for the aircrew members though.

[shorty]

Tutuila is the main or largest island of American Samoa, and the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Shorty, that helps a lot, now I know where they were.

[shorty]

Probably went via American Samoa so they could stock up on cheap goodies at the PX!

[FlyNavy]

"Samoa - officially the Independent State of Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa)..."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa