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John Pattison (RNZAF Officer)
Squadron Leader John Gordon Pattison, DSO, DFC (27 January 1917 – 11 September 2009) was a New Zealand fighter pilot and squadron commander of the Second World War. Born in Waipawa, New Zealand, Pattison joined the RNZAF on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. After completing flight training he was sent to the United Kingdom to serve with the Royal Air Force. He flew Supermarine Spitfires with Nos. 266 and 92 Squadrons during the Battle of Britain and later flew with No. 485 (NZ) Squadron. After a period of service on instructing duties from mid-1943 to mid-1944, he flew with No. 66 Squadron before being appointed commander of No. 485 (NZ) Squadron. He led the unit, part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, on operations in France, Belgium and Holland from September 1944 to February 1945 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his service during this time. After the war, he returned to New Zealand and took up farming. In 2004, he was awarded the Légion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waipawa
Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census. The town is located northeast of Waipukurau and southwest of Hastings, on the northern bank of the Waipawa River, a tributary of the Tukituki River. Waipawa was settled in the early 1860s, and the Settler's Museum exhibits many of these historical collections. It holds the main office of the Central Hawke's Bay District Council, and is New Zealand's oldest inland European settlement. Frederick Abbot was one of the early settlers and Waipawa was originally called Abbotsford, when the township was being sold in 1859, and there is still a children's home in Waipawa named Abbotsford. However, it was often shown as Abbotsford, Waipawa and Waipawa was more commonly used alone after the opening of the Waipawa railway station and Waipawa Mail in the late 1870s. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Uxbridge was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Uxbridge, within the London Borough of Hillingdon, occupying a site that originally belonged to the Hillingdon House estate. The British Government purchased the estate in 1915, three years before the founding of the RAF. Until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the station was open to the public. The station is best known as the headquarters of No. 11 Group RAF, which was responsible for the aerial defence of London and the south-east of England during the Battle of Britain. Hillingdon House served as the group's headquarters. A bunker, subsequently known as the Battle of Britain Bunker, was built nearby to house the Operations Room, which controlled fighter squadrons operating within the group. The Operations Room was also responsible for providing air support during the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940 ( Operation Dynamo) and the D-Day landings (Operation Overlord). It was here that Winston Churchill fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Wells (pilot)
Group Captain Edward Preston Wells (26 July 1916 – 4 November 2005) was a New Zealand flying ace of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War. He was credited with the destruction of twelve enemy aircraft. Born in Cambridge, Wells joined the RNZAF in 1939. After completing flight training he was sent to the United Kingdom to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF). He flew Supermarine Spitfires with No. 41 Squadron during the later stages of the Battle of Britain and later flew with No. 485 (NZ) Squadron, becoming its commander in November 1941. For much of 1943 to 1944, he commanded fighter wings over England and France. By the end of the war he was commander of the Day Fighter Leaders' School. He transferred to the RAF in 1947, holding a series of senior posts until his retirement in 1960 at which time he took up farming. In his later years, he moved to Spain and took up fruit growing and research. He died in 2005 at the age of 89. Early life E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Spurdle
Robert Lawrence "Peter" Spurdle (3 March 1918 – 5 March 1994) was a New Zealand flying ace of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was credited with the destruction of ten enemy aircraft. Born in Wanganui, New Zealand, Spurdle joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in 1939. After completing flight training in 1940 he was sent to the United Kingdom and transferred to the RAF. He flew Supermarine Spitfires with No. 74 Squadron during the later stages of the Battle of Britain and later flew with No. 91 Squadron. From late 1942 and into the following year, he was temporarily attached to the RNZAF, firstly in a training capacity in New Zealand, and then in the Solomon Islands campaign with No. 16 Squadron. He returned to Europe in 1944, flying with No. 80 Squadron as its commander. After the end of the war in Europe, Spurdle returned to service with the RNZAF and was discharged in 1946. In civilian life he worked as an engineer before taking up yach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer. It has a NATO ranking code of OF-1 and is equivalent to a second lieutenant in the British Army or the Royal Marines. The Royal Navy has no exact equivalent rank, and a pilot officer is senior to a Royal Navy midshipman and junior to a Royal Navy sub-lieutenant. In the Australian Armed Forces, the rank of pilot officer is equivalent to acting sub lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy. The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was "assistant section officer". Origins In the Royal Flying Corps, officers were designated pilot officers at the end of pilot training. As they retained their commissions in their customary ranks (usually second lieutenant or lieutenant), and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aircrew Brevet
Aircrew, also called flight crew, are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose. Commercial aviation Flight deck positions In commercial aviation, the aircrew are called ''flight crew''. Some flight crew position names are derived from nautical terms and indicate a rank or command structure similar to that on ocean-going vessels, allowing for quick executive decision making during normal operations or emergency situations. Historical flightdeck positions include: * Captain, the pilot highest-ranking member or members of a flight crew. * First officer (FO, also called a co-pilot), another pilot who is normally seated to the right of the captain. (On helicopters, an FO is normally seated to the left of the captain, who occupies the right-hand seat).Smith, PatrickPatrick Smith's Ask The Pilot: When a Pilot Dies in Flight AskThePilot.com website, 2013, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RNZAF Base Woodbourne
RNZAF Base Woodbourne is a base of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, located 8 km west of Blenheim. Woodbourne was established in 1939 as the base for No. 2 Service Flying Training School (No.2 SFTS). Also located nearby during World War II were the ground training camps of the Delta. In 1942–43, No. 16 Squadron RNZAF and No. 18 Squadron RNZAF Squadrons flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawks used the satellite Fairhall field.Cambidgeairforce.orgThe Marlborough Region/ref> In 1945 No.2 SFTS was closed and the Royal New Zealand Air Force Central Flying School and some ground training units, including the Officers' School of Instruction were relocated to Woodbourne. In 1949, The Aircraft Repair Depot RNZAF was relocated from Ohakea, and in 1951 the Boy Entrant School was established at Woodbourne. Today, Woodbourne is the Air Force's only support base and has no operational squadrons based there. It shares its runways with the Blenheim civil airport, Woodbourne Airport. The Ground Tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairey Gordon
The Fairey Gordon was a British light bomber (2-seat day bomber) and utility aircraft of the 1930s. The Gordon was a conventional two-bay fabric-covered metal biplane. It was powered by variants of the Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIa engine. Armament was one fixed, forward-firing Vickers machine gun and a Lewis Gun in the rear cockpit, plus of bombs. The aircraft was somewhat basic; instruments were airspeed indicator, altimeter, oil pressure gauge, tachometer, turn and bank indicator and compass. Development The Gordon was developed from the IIIF, primarily by use of the new Armstrong Siddeley Panther engine. The prototype was first flown on 3 March 1931, and around 80 earlier IIIFs were converted to a similar standard, 178 new-built aircraft were made for the RAF, a handful of IIIFs being converted on the production line. 154 Mark Is were produced, before production switched to the Mark II with larger fin and rudder; only 24 of these were completed before production swi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vickers Vildebeest
The Vickers Vildebeest and the similar Vickers Vincent were two very large two- to three-seat single-engined British biplanes designed and built by Vickers and used as light bombers, torpedo bombers and in army cooperation roles. First flown in 1928, it remained in service at the start of the Second World War, with the last Vildebeests flying against Japanese forces over Singapore and Java in 1942. Design and development Vildebeest Designed against Air Ministry Specification 24/25 for the Royal Air Force (RAF), for a land-based torpedo bomber to replace the Hawker Horsley, the prototype Vildebeest, an all-metal fuselage aircraft with single-bay unstaggered fabric-covered wings and tail, was first flown in April 1928 as the Vickers Type 132, powered by a Bristol Jupiter VIII radial engine.Mason 1994, p. 200. After initial evaluation, the Vildebeest was shortlisted for comparison with the Blackburn Beagle and Handley Page Hare. As the Jupiter VIII was prone to vibration, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Plymouth Airport
New Plymouth Airport serves the city of New Plymouth, and the surrounding region of Taranaki. It is located on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island and is 11 km from the city centre, on State Highway 3 north to Auckland, and 4 km from the outer suburb/satellite town of Bell Block. New Plymouth Airport is serviced by Air New Zealand with daily flights to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Jetstar Airways commenced daily services between New Plymouth and Auckland on 1 February 2016. Jetstar Airways had originally planned to conduct 27 weekly return flights between New Plymouth and Auckland, however only 20 return flights weekly were offered. The Jetstar flights were operated by Qantas Link's Eastern Australia Airlines. Jetstar cancelled those services at the end of November 2019. From 29 September 2017, Originair began direct flights between New Plymouth and Nelson, New Zealand. On 30 September 2018, Originair launched direct flights between New Plymouth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RNZAF Station Weraroa
RNZAF Station Weraroa was a Royal New Zealand Air Force station located southeast of Levin, 44 km southwest of Palmerston North, New Zealand. Originally established on Kimberley Rd in 1935 as a small local airstrip, it was commandeered as an air force base by the RNZAF at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Weraroa was made up of two distinct sections, namely the airfield on the northern end of the site, along with a ground training station located on the former site of a Government Research Farm. Airmen knew the place by both names of Levin and Weraroa. Ground radar operators, pilots, and crew were trained there and although uniformed as RNZAF or WAAFs they did not come under Air Force control. World War II Stationed Units * Initial Training Wing – conducted basic military training for recruits. This unit was based in Levin from 1939 to February 1942. * No. 1 (Bomber) Operational Training Unit trained pilots for the Lockheed Hudson reconnaissance and bom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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