No. 487 Squadron RNZAF

No. 487 (NZ) Squadron was a light bomber squadron established for service during the Second World War. It was a New Zealand squadron formed under Article XV of the Empire Air Training Plan. Although many of its flying personnel were largely drawn from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the squadron served in Europe under the operational and administrative command of the Royal Air Force as part of Bomber Command. Formed in mid-1942, it operated the Lockheed Ventura and then the de Havilland Mosquito and took part in over 3,000 operational sorties before being disbanded at the end of the war in late 1945.

Background

In the mid-1930s, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was in the process of expanding and required an increasing number of suitable flying personnel. A number of schemes were implemented for New Zealanders to obtain short-service commissions in the RAF with the intention of then transferring to the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in the future. This led to over 500 New Zealanders serving in the RAF by the time of the outbreak of the Second World War.

At around the same time there was discussion between the governments of Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to facilitate the co-ordination of training of air crew in the event of hostilities. This led to the implementation of the Empire Air Training Scheme (ETAS) in December 1939. Under this agreement, New Zealand committed to initially supply 880 full trained pilots for the RAF, with another 520 pilots being trained to an elementary standard annually. As each of the Dominion governments desired its personnel to serve together, the ETAS had a clause, Article XV, that allowed for the establishment of squadrons with personnel from the respective countries. In theory, the Dominions would supply the ground crew as well as flying personnel. However, in New Zealand's case, there was a reluctance to maintain RNZAF squadrons in Britain so the decision was made to allow for the formation of squadrons within the RAF designated as being New Zealand. These squadrons, known as Article XV squadrons, were formed around a cadre of New Zealand flying personnel already serving in the RAF but supplemented by newly trained pilots from the RNZAF, with administrative and ground crew being predominantly British.

Formation

No. 487 Squadron was formed as a light bomber unit in August 1942 as part of Bomber Command's No. 2 Group. Under the command of Wing Commander F. Seavill, most of its flying personnel were of the Royal New Zealand Air Force although there were some personnel from the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. It was based at Feltwell, a station in Norfolk that was commanded by Group Captain Kippenberger, a New Zealander.

The squadron was initially equipped with Lockheed Ventura light bombers which were nicknamed "Flying pigs" on account of the generous space in its airframe. The Ventura, an update of the Lockheed Hudson, acquired a poor reputation in Europe as its performance was not really in the same league as British and German aircraft of the period.

Operational history

No. 487 Squadron commenced operations in December, with its first sortie being as part of Operation Oyster. Mounted on 6 December, this was a sixteen-plane raid on the Phillips factory at Eindhoven

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