Introduction

Farmboys Go To War

On the evening of the 3rd of September 1939, local time, he New Zealand Government declared war on Germany. The declaration was simultaneous with that of Britain, France and Australia. The next day New Zealand Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage broadcast a short message over the wireless from his sickbed where he was dying from cancer. He said:

"It was with gratitude to the past, and with confidence in the future, we arrange ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand."

Upon hearing New Zealand's declaration of war, Adolf Hitler apparently scoffed indignantly that they were only a bunch of farmboys, as if this country's inclusion in the war would be of no consequence.

Well, over the next six years, New Zealand did send hundreds of thousands of its 'farmboys' to take on Hitler and his allies, Mussolini and Hirohito. One particular district renowned for its farming produce was Cambridge, in the heart of the lush county of Waikato.

Cambridge sent its young farmers, along with its young shop assistants, mechanics, teachers, herd testers, factory workers, accountants, doctors, and people from all walks of life. Many of Cambridge's servivepeople who went to war were women - serving as WAAF's, WRENS, WAAC's, nurses and Tuis.

At home, Cambridge - a town founded by the military in 1864 - once again became focused on defence. It raised a very strong Home Guard (the first to reach Company strength in New Zealand and eventually expanding to Battalion size). The Home Guard was a nationally organised civilian army, with a strength over 100,000 - which then was 10% of the country's population.

Also on the home front Cambridge had its Emergency Precautions Scheme (E.P.S.) unit, which was like Britain's Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) organisation. They ensured that if invasion came, the gas supply, water, electricty and other vitals would be managed correctly. They also trained and educated the public in air raid precautions.

Cambridge also had an army of women joining up for volunteer positions such as in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) of the Red Cross who trained as battlefield nurses. Many V.A.D.'s from Cambridge went on to serve with the 2nd NZEF in Africa and Italy. There was the W.W.S.A., or the Women's War Service Auxiliary, who were virtually the female equivalent to the Home Guard. In Cambridge they had a transport section, driving trucks and ambulances.

There were the more passive organisations too, like the W.V.S. (Women's Volunteer Service) who raised funds and sent care packages to the troops. And the Air Force Relations group, who were primarily mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of Cambridge airmen. They knitted woolen clothing for RNZAF aircrews to Government order, using Government supplied wool.

Many hundreds of Cambridge's boys, those 'farmboys', set off to do their bit too. A lot of them never left New Zealand but their contribution to the war effort, no matter how trivial they may have thought their job was, they all contributed towards the final victory.

First into action from Cambridge were six Navy boys - Walace Care, Arthur Speight, Stanley Keeley, Stanley Lorimer, Max Wallace and Archie Shaw. All six were among the crew on the New Zealand cruiser HMS Achilles, when along with two other cruisers they took part in the famous Battle of the River Plate. Germany's pocket battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee, lost the battle and was scuttled off Rio Diginero. However Archie Shaw was among four New Zealanders killed on Achilles in the battle. He was Cambridge's first casualty.

From then on, Cambridge's young 'farmboys' continued to bring glory to this town, and Cambridge developed a great reputation for its war effort.

During the Second World War, Cambridge was a much smaller town than it is now in population, but it made a huge and very significant contribution to New Zealand's war effort. Today the population of Cambridge district is around 15,000 and climbing steadily, but in 1939 there were around just 5000 people living in the town and country districts here. Despite that small number, by September 1940, it was reported that 550 men and women from the Cambridge district had already joined the Armed Forces! That was just the first year of the war, and many more joined up over the next five years of the war.

Cambridge boys were fighting in the 2nd NZEF in North Africa, Greece, Crete, and Italy. Many more followed the first six into naval battles around the world. And in the air, Cambridge was very well represented by a number of outstanding pilots and aircrew members, not to mention across the whole range of ground crews, in the RNZAF, RAF, Fleet Air Arm and the WAAF.

It is to that group, the airmen and airwomen of Cambridge, that this website is dedicated. They formed one of the many vital contributions that Cambridge made towards the winning of the Second World War. Also on the site you will find related material about Cambridge's World War One airmen connections, aviation in Cambridge itself between the wars, and a large section dedicated to the wartime RNZAF on a national scale which will add depth to the case studies of Cambridge individuals.

The Website

Welcome to my Wings Over Cambridge website. I'm Dave Homewood, and I live in the lovely town of Cambridge, New Zealand.

Cambridge airmen were to take part in every conceivable air battle front in the war, from the Pacific to Europe to the Middle East to Asia. Many sadly were never to return.

And many within the ranks of Cambridge airmen would become highly distinguished, from Spitfire ace Bill Wells to bomber pilot Roy Calvert; from ex-fighter ace and high ranking commander Keith Caldwell to bomber pilot Ken Law; from top flying training officer Teddie Harvie to air gunner Trevor Ganley who's tale of survival after being shot down in the Pacific is one of the most incredible of the war.

This has been and remains constantly a huge research project that I and others involved have found fascinating and hugely rewarding. It was decided to make it into a website for several reasons.

The first is because the quest for knowledge continues and therefore each new snippet of data can easily be added, which is impossible if this was a published book. Also, local history projects usually get little coverage in book form, and are often limited run amateur publications. But this site has the potential of being read by people right across the globe - which definately happens judging by emails with congratulations and questions that have come in from all across New Zealand, Australia, Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere. Also the photos look better on screen than in an amateur book published on a limited budget.

Thanks to my good friend Alan Howard, who was also from Cambridge and in the RNZAF (1989-97), we were able to put this all online for you to enjoy. He has generously donated the webspace for this site.

More will be added as time goes by because it is a continuing project, so if you like what you see now, please keep checking back. All I can say is enjoy, learn, and share the knowledge you find here. Get children involved too, and teach them what our ancestors did for our freedom. We must never forget the contribution and sacrifices of any of the men and women that this site details.

One more thing I want to say about the site is, Cambridge did do an awesome job during the war, but I expect that it was not too different from many other towns, villages and city districts right across New Zealand at that time. All our local organisations that propelled the war effort were branches of national bodies. So yes, if you're a Kiwi, your own place probably has a very similar story to tell. I urge you all to have a think about trying to record some of your own local RNZAF history in the same way that I am doing - it really isn't too difficult, it just requires a bit of time and some good contacts among the elderly who can point you in the right directions of where such-and-such is these days. If you want to try to create a similar project, I am more than willing to provide advice and guidance, and maybe we can even help with technical website matters, etc. So contact me if you're keen to save the stories of your local RNZAF heroes before it is too late. My email is at the bottom of the page.

About Myself

Some site readers have been interested to find out a little about me, the principle researcher and webmaster of this site. Well,I was born here in Cambridge in 1970 as a fourth generation Cambridge person.

I've spent most of my life in the town, apart from a few stints abroad, and a four-and-a-half year period serving as a Safety and Surface Worker in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (between 1989 and 1993).

Although I always had an interest in old aircraft as a kidl, thanks to my late father's passion for aviation, being a member of the RNZAF really instilled in me a deep passion for the history of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Over the years I have read many accounts by and about the brave people who served in the RNZAF during the Second World War. I have a huge amount of respect for them, and my interest in that period of time, which was really our Air Force's finest hour, has grown significantly over the years.

One of the major factors that have contributed to my interest includes the influence gained when I lived for two and a half years the home of military aviation, former RNZAF Base Wigram. While I was based there between 1991 and 1993, I spent many, many Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the RNZAF Museum. It was a fantastic facility to have on the base, so fascinating and educational. I could not get enough of it. As well as the beautifully restored aircraft and the many thousands of other service items on display, the people there were so interesting to chat with – especially the actual wartime RNZAF veterans who worked as guides. That place has an amazing spirit, as if the days of the 1940's, when the RNZAF was at its best, were somehow trapped within its walls in a wonderful time capsule.

Not only was the museum itself a great influence on me, but down the other end of base were the workshops of the RNZAF Museum. This always intrigued me too, and I'd often take a wander along there during my lunch break to check out the latest developments on the then-being-restored Lockheed Hudson, my favourite aircraft. That hangar, No. 7, was another little time capsule – with the Hudson bomber was another Hudson fuselage, a Catalina fuselage and on the floor was usually the wing of a Mosquito, which was being faithfully rebuilt by dedicated volunteer craftsmen for Motat in Auckland.

Of course there too in No 7 hangar were oodles of old wartime RNZAF engineers, who were now volunteers that gave up most of their weekdays to recreate ‘their' Air Force. Every one of them were fascinating chaps. Many were members of the famous 'Geriatric Air Force', others belonged to the 'Moth Doctors', and others still were in the 'Black Hand Gang'. Each of these groups, for those who are unaware, were sections of the museum that sprang up in the 1980's to prepare it for its opening on the 1st of April 1987.

The groups have now all but faded away with time marching on, but the spirit of the museum remains and now visitors can view the restoration workshops publically since they moved to No. 2 Hangar.

Actual serving RNZAF engineers were also attached to this hangar – which must have been a dream posting. Together, all of these men and women, under the guidance of regular RNZAF Squadron Leader W.A.K. 'Sandy' Currie, with Warrant Officer Dave Mitchell and Flight Sgt Alan Woodley, those wonderful old kites were brought back to life for the museum.

In February 2004 I visited Wigram for the first time since 1993. Today the base has been destroyed by a ridiculous Government decision to close the country's most important military airfield in 1995, and most of the old station, which was as authentic in 1993 as it had been in 1943, has now been bulldozed and hundreds of awful, tiny dog-box houses have been built on my former home - the former home of many thousands of RNZAF personnel over many decades. It is very sad indeed.

But happily the Museum still stands, and is a last bastion of all that was wonderful about Wigram. And to my utter joy I finally got to see that Lockheed Hudson, now complete and looking for all the world like it just rolled off the production line. It looks stunning and is undoubtedly the best preserved non-flying example in the world. Not bad considering it spent many years as a chicken coop, and the wings formed the roof of a farm shed.

Another great influence on my love of old aircraft and the history behind them came from the endeavours of one great man, Sir Tim Wallis. The famous deer farmer who helped to pioneer the deer industry was an avid collector of wartime aircraft, and in those great days of the early 1990's his collection was at its peak.

He would regularly use Wigram as both a staging post and a hangarage for his various fighters. Often we would be treated to an impromptu airshow as his planes flew in and out – his Spitfire Mk XVIe, his P40K Kittyhawk, his F4U1 Corsair, his TBM Avenger (which I had the privilege to both help to paint and then fly in!), and his Zero replica were all regular visitors while I was living there.

I left those days behind me in 1993 when I left the RNZAF.

It wasn't until ten years later, in August 2003, that I had the idea to look into the local Cambridge connections with the wartime RNZAF. It was really a combination of various interests - my love of RNZAF history and my interest in local Cambridge history. It has proven to be a winning combination for me I think.

So I went along to the Cambridge Museum to go back through the old newspapers and records there. That lead onto making contact with many veterans and widows and family members, and it has built up steadily from there.

This was the beginning of what has turned out to be a huge and exciting project, one that I have to say is extremely interesting and rewarding. I have discovered a huge amount about the scores of people from Cambridge who joined the Air Force in World War Two, many of whom sadly laid down their lives in the defence of New Zealand and her allies.

So with the results of the research so far I have decided to present a website, so others can access the information and gain a sense of how much sacrifice and effort was put in by these people from our small town.

Anyway, please feel free to browse this website using the menu below, and if you have any feedback, comments, new information or possible leads, don't hesitate to contact me by emailing me at dave_daasnz@hotmail.com

I want to thank all the wonderful people who have helped me in this project, especially the airmen and airwomen themselves. It has been a great pleasure meeting you all, and having the opportunity to gain a little knowledge about what it was really like. And a huge thank you must go to Eris Parker and Susan Hague at the Cambridge Museum. Check out the museum's website here

All the best

Dave Homewood