2 SFTS, Woodbourne, New Zealand - help needed to interpret service record
Reply With QuoteMikkel,
Not as hard as you think! But please delete all reference to "Osaka" - that is a huge city in enemy territory (Japan!) I think this is confusion with RNZAF Station Ohakea, in the Manawatu, not too far from town of Palmerston North, it is still there to this day (Google it!)
Ohakea (and Whenuapai) were both envisaged pre-war as Bomber stations, with each to house one squadron of Vickers Wellingtons (12 aircraft per squadron, plus reserves). They had large, allegedly bomb-proof concrete hangars, and grass runways. From about mid-1942 onwards both these fields were equipped with multiple concrete-block runways, taxiways, etc, for potential sustained all-weather operations.
Firstly in chronological order we have ITW, Levin (Initial Training Wing, NOT ITS), thence to 4 EFTS (Whenuapai), no problems there.
Next is Ohakea (3 FTS, or as it soon became renamed, 3 SFTS). As with the RAAF at this time, the RNZAF was also using the pre-war RAF training syllabus, divided into ITW, EFTS, FTS (Intermediate Training Squadron (ITS), then Advanced Training Squadron (ATS)). At about the outbreak of WW2, or possibly in 1940, the RAF (and also the Canadian schools then under construction under the EATS) introduced a revised syllabus which deleted the division of these schools into two squadrons, and this had the effect of removing all the more "operational" aspects of the syllabus, such as all armament training. Incidentally, Ohakea was NEVER a satellite of Woodbourne, which was much smaller than Ohakea and intended only for training purposes. Note that the RNZAF did not get around to changing the designation of it's FTS's to SFTS's till about January 1942 (the RAF undertook this change at about the outbreak of WW2).
When Japan came into the war, a considerable reshuffle of the RNZAF's training organisation was introduced, although this was in reality spread over a period of about six months. No. 4 EFTS was disbanded at Whenuapai in March 1942, leaving this station free for operational units. No. 3 SFTS at Ohakea was also disbanded to free up station for operational units at about the same time. The remaining two SFTS's and three remaining EFTS's were enlarged with regard to aircraft and staff establishments so as to continue producing approximately the same numbers of graduates, but the training was actually sped up to increase annual output. It was also decided to concentrate all M.E. (multi-engine) training at Wigram (1 SFTS) and similarly concentrate all S.E. (single-engine) training at Woodbourne (2 SFTS), although this took some time to carry out, with this process completed in June 1942. Incidentally the output of pilots was heavily biased in favour of M.E. pilots, on a basis of about 3:2 until near the end of the war (actually late 1944) when all M.E. training was halted in favour of S.E. pilots (result of wind-down in European war and change of Pacific air force to largely S.E pilots (F4U/FG Corsairs), and planned to change over to P-51 Mustangs, with PV-1s to be phased out completely. I think the initial bias in favour of M.E. pilots was insisted on by Air Ministry as the thirst for replacement pilots in early days of war was predominantly for M.E. pilots for Bomber and Coastal Commands, most of whose aircraft were multi-engined, and many of these also needed two pilots per aircraft.
As you may have gathered by now, Tambour was caught out by the closure of 3 SFTS, and his ending up with 2 SFTS at this time also indicates that he was almost certainly training on Harvards (as an S.E. pilot), in fact highly likely he had been on Harvards since starting at Ohakea. Please also note that Woodbourne was originally known as RNZAF Station Blenheim from the time of its opening, but this designation changed to Woodbourne at about the time of the big reorganisation, as there were several stations around Blenheim and the Air Department decided to attempt to reduce a certain amount of confusion which had arisen concerning identification of these three fields, and use the local, and recognized names in future rather than the nearest LARGE town as previously.
Incidentally, my notes, taken from official records state that Tambour (NZ416182) had almost identical dates of postings to the dates you have already noted. He was originally (at Ohakea) with Course No. 25C (34 course members, at this stage both S.E. and M.E.). When posted to Blenheim (2 FTS/SFTS) as from 8/3/42, the number of trainees transferred came to 13 from Woodbourne, with remainder (21) going to Wigram for M.E. training on Oxfords. Those at Wigram were now with Course 25A, with those at Woodbourne becoming part of Course 25B. Of course the receiving schools already had plenty of their own trainees at the same stage of training, but the number of trainees was the same overall.
Hope this is not too confusing, but course photographs were taken at each stage, which was helpful in compiling these notes.
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