Hard at work...
Unit 20, Fiji 1940 - 1941
In mid to late 1940 the New Zealand government decided to station a detachment of New Zealand Army and R.N.Z.A.F. personnel in Fiji, primarily to provide advanced warning of raiders heading for New Zealand waters and to also develop the facilities at Lautoka to a useable standard. The detachment was formed on 20 October 1940 and was designated Unit 20 (possibly after the date of formation). They were dispatched on board the tramp steamer 'Kaiwara' with the RNZAF detachment under the command of Squadron Leader Donald Baird. Though the unit only had basic equipment they were up and operational by about the 5th of November 1940, less than 3 weeks after being formed.
| The airbase
facilities in Fiji had been under development since September 1939, when
about 120 acres was purchased near Nadi for the purpose of building an
airstrip. The initial development of the air strip was done by Southern
Cross Construction Co. from September 1939 to March 1940. |
|
| Upon arriving in Fiji the R.N.Z.A.F. set up an airbase at Namaka airstrip, which intitially consisted of nothing but a grass strip and some tents - but was later destined to become Fiji International Airport. Until hangars could be built by a Public Works unit, the only protection the aircraft had from the elements was a simple roof of banana leaves. Though the unit had arrived in November 1940, the air base wasn't finished until March 1941. The nearest town to the airstrip was Lautoka, a little one horse town situated by Lautoka Bay, which became a popular place to swim. The one pub 'The Club Hotel' had no alcohol due to the war, but that wasn't a problem...due to the innovation of the Unit 20 personnel. | Hard at work... |
| Unit 20 was initially equipped with four De Havilland DH-89 aircraft. These aircraft were civilian airliners which had been commandeered from Cook Strait Airlines - as the New Zealand Government did not have any military planes available to send to Fiji. Upon arrival in Fiji the planes were lowered by ship crane onto waiting barges and were barged ashore. They then had to be manhandled across dirt roads to the airstrip where they were assembled (wings re-attached etc). | |
| The DH-89 were probably the worst armed planes ever owned by an air force, they carried no machine guns and were only armed with 8lb practice bombs. Nonetheless they were used to carry out anti-submarine and anti-shipping patrols around Fiji. These patrols consisted of daily flights at dawn and dusk to Tonga and the New Hebrides. | |
| While the New Zealand government was busy being at war with Germany, the majority of the time the unit had nothing to do apart from white-washing stones and square-bashing. To pass the time, the RNZAF's NCO's from Unit 20 formed an informal social club, 'The Mango Club', headquartered under a mango tree outside the NCO's huts. | |
| On 20 February 1941 the
worst hurricane that Fiji had experienced for 21 years struck, with rain fall of two
inches per hour (wars always seem to do that to nice places). Two of the DH-89s were inrepairably damaged and had to be replaced by DH-86s
commandeered from another New Zealand airline. By the time these replacements arrived in
March 1941, another DH-89 had been written off when its undercarriage hit a truck on a low
level pass over the airfield.
Because of the high attrition rate that Unit 20 was experiencing with its aircraft, the planners at R.N.Z.A.F. Headquarters in Wellington were forced to dispatch six Vickers Vincents to bolster the airpower available to Unit 20. Originally the Vincents had been thought unsafe for use on over ocean flights due to them having only one engine (compared to the two engines carried by the de Havillands). But the need for airpower overrode the safety concerns and the six Vincents arrived in August 1941. In November 1941 the United States Army Air Force requested the the R.N.Z.A.F. expand the Nadi airbase. The No. 2 Aerodrome Construction Squadron bolstered by civilian engineers was dispatched to begin the work. |
While Unit 20 continued to fly daily patrols out to Tonga and the New Hebrides, the Vickers and de Havillands had range limitations that limited their usefulness in doing long range patrols (i.e. they couldn't). After repeated requests from the Fijian and New Zealand governments, the garrison at Fiji received four 'well-loved' Short Singapore Mk III Flying Boats from the R.A.F. at Singapore towards the end of 1941. To accommodate the flying boats a base was constructed at Lauthala Bay in September 1941. At this stage the RNZAF attachment known as Unit 20 was given the official title of R.N.Z.A.F. No. 4 (General Reconnaissance) Squadron, while the Flying Boats were assigned to R.N.Z.A.F. No. 5 (General Reconnaissance) Squadron.
List
of RNZAF Images Part 1 Trentham and Fiji
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