JUNGLE WORKSHOPS

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1944, Page 7

JUNGLE WORKSHOPS

AIR FORCE ESTABLISHMENT ASSEMBLING SFEEDY FIGHTERS R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service PACIFIC BASE, October 5. Elaborate workshops, capable of catering for the bulk of the engineering needs of all the New Zealand Royal Air Force squadrons in the forward area, have now been established at a Pacific base. Manned by picked teams of technicians who are expert in scores of specialised trades, the workshops are operating in close association with assembly and testing units, which are responsible for handing over in operational condition to the fighter squadrons, the new Corsair aircraft being delivered from American factories. Liberally covered with anti-corro-sive dressing, the Corsairs, United States Navy fighters, are carried across the Pacific to this island base as deck cargo. On arrival they are put ashore, and towed along newlywidened roads to the New Zealand assemblyl flight, where specially trained teams go to work to fit them for operational duty. Although the aircraft have been test-flown before leaving the United States, they are partly tafien down again by the New Zealanders, units are examined, reassembled and tested before being installed, the anti-corrosive paint is removed, New Zealand roundels painted on to replace the American Star, and a number of modifications completed Lean and savage-looking in their shark grey paint, the Corsairs pass from bay to bay, and finally are towed into a parking area to await the test Pilot. A youthful veteran, of the Malayan campaign, with a personal score to settle with the Japanese, he'takes the big monoplanesone by one, gets some height under him and puts them through their paces. When he is finished with one Corsair, it is ready for delivery to a Squadron, tuned and tested and found faultless, a speedy platform for six machineguns to be turned against the Japanese

In the workshops proper, the Air Force has a major installation of prime importance. Jungle was cleared from an extensive site, coral carted and rolled in. and suitable buildings erected. Elaborate equipment, some of it superior to t'hat available on New Zealand Air Force stations, has been installed, and the Base Workshops, as the entire unit is known, undertake engineering work- of almost any nature, apart from that directly concerned with the maintenance and repair of aircraft. Some of the delicate equipment in the instrument section was designed and made on the spot, and the workshops are now equipped to deal with any of the thousand and one requests made by, both New Zealand and United States units. Savings in time and transport have resulted from the establishment of the workshops, which have grown from extremely modest beginnings to one of the largest units of the Royal New Zealand Air Force overseas. Work which had previously had to be sent all the way back to New Zealand, involving substantial loss of time, is now undertaken on the spot, and major overhauls are greatly facilitated.

The work is unspectacular, well behind the front line, and at times tedious but Base Workshops has become a vital factor to the Roval New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific. Two Corsairs a day go to the test pilot from the assembly lines, and the men who fly all types of Roval New Zealand Air Force aircraft in the forward area have the utmost confidence in the skilled workmanship of the many airmen at Base Workshops, who are anonymous contributors to the war against Janan. and who have been classified by British and American observers as second to none in the world.