Secret WWII bunker revealed
A small ceremony took place on the steps of acarpark overlooking Cambridge’s Lake Te Koutu recently to acknowledge a secret held since World War II.
Special guests and community leaders gathered near a building which has exchanged its graffiti scars to a more fitting camouflage look, featuring iron gates and a plaque revealing its history.
Simply known as AR9, the small building served as the entranceway to a 40-metre tunnel which housed the RNZAF secret depot containing 600,000 gallons of fuel.
The code AR9 stood for Aviation Reserve No.9.
Its existence remained a secret to the Cambridge community and more so, the Japanese forces making their way south across the Pacific Ocean.
The fuel was stored as reserve fuel, and tankers would take it to be used in aircraft at RNZAF Station Rukuhia (Hamilton Airport) which served as the RNZAF’s main repair depot for aircraft.
Most large overhauls, conversions and repairs were facilitated at Rukuhia, so fuel was needed for test flying the completed aircraft.
Tragedy struck AR9 in the early hours of the morning of October 14, 1943.
A fire broke out, thought to be caused by a cigarette in the barrack hut where two guards normally slept.
Members of the Cambridge Police in their search of the ruins found the charred body of 20-year-old LAC Richard Edward Isaacs, NZ423975.
Issacs’s death was acknowledged as being the only serviceman killed while on active duty in Cambridge.
At the ceremony Isaacs’ niece Kate Johnson said the circumstances of her uncle’s death was a mystery to the family as his death was recorded as Wellington.
‘‘Little did we know our uncle was tied up with a secret installation, so they couldn’t reveal his true whereabouts,’’ she said.