Military display set up in time for Anzac Day
Ka¯piti Coast Museum, at 9 Elizabeth St in Waikanae, has a new display in the Greenaway Room, at the rear of the building. Just in time for Anzac Day, it is a display of military items that have been in the museum’s collection for some time, but only now brought to light.
There is a mock-up of the radio operator’s position in an Avro Lancaster Bomber. These planes were used in the famous 617 (Dambusters) squadron.
There is also a display of communications equipment that was used during two key operations in the Pacific Islands. This includes a field telephone exchange that would have been used by New Zealand signallers in Operation Squarepeg, which was in February 1944, during the Solomon Islands campaign.
Other interesting items include a field transmitter/receiver which was used during a number of operations called Cartwheel, involving US, Australian
and New Zealand forces in the islands who successfully neutralised Japanese efforts to move further into the South Pacific.
The public is encouraged to visit the museum to see this display, as well as a wide array of other displays of local and more wide-spread interest, for example have you ever seen or heard of a Non-Dead-Centre engine?
Normal opening hours are currently 1pm to 4pm, Saturday and
Sunday, but the museum will be open on Anzac Day 1pm to 4pm.
Footnote — the museum’s Greenaway Room is named after the local benefactor who funded its build some 40 years ago. Flight Lieutenant Frank Greenaway, MBE, was a navigator in the RAF. One of his flights into Europe in 1944 ended with the Mosquito light bomber coming down near the coast, with the crew being captured. The story of Frank’s escape is included in the Greenaway Room.