Remembering an old graveyard of war planes

From 1942 onward, the Royal New Zealand Air Force operated from a base in Rukuhia, hundreds upon hundreds of iconic World War II planes ranging from Kittyhawks to Corsairs flew to and from that base for any repairs or overhauls needed to help keep them defending the Pacific from the Japanese.

On October 1, 1945 WingCommander Manhire who had been commanding the RNZAF Hamilton camp stated that it would be closing later that week and that by within two weeks all Air Force personnel, save for that necessary to man the storage unit at the Rukuhia station, would have been demobilised.

By the end of 1945, row upon row of out-of-service warplanes sat gathering dust on the Rukuhia airfield. At the time it was reported that painted on the nose of just one plane there were 83 little yellow bombs which denoted the number of bombing strikes it had made on enemy targets. Initially the planes had been left exactly as they were when they last took flight, complete with charts, flares and emergency kits, but later they were stripped down to virtually empty shells.

Although many were only provided to the RNZAF under lend-lease agreements only the newer aircraft were intended to return to service,

the rest were surplus to requirements in peacetime and despite having so long defended our skies, they either had to be returned to the US who had provided many of them or purchased by the New Zealand Government.

In the end, in order to help pay off the lend-lease debt they were offered for sale to the public. Many expectant buyers were excited at the prospect of owning a piece of history but the cost of relocating the planes proved too much and many were sold for scrap and were smelt down over the years, with some planes still sitting on the airfield in the early 1970s.

Today some of their remains can be found dumped in 6ha land surrounding

the airfield where they have been left to rust and rot.

The scrapped planes were worth an estimated £14,000,000 ($1 billion today) but sold for just a few thousand dollars, they included

Kittyhawks, Corsairs, Avengers, Hudsons, Harvards and Venturas.

Fortunately, some were saved from scrapdealers and fully restored and have subsequently returned to the skies.

Photo / Des White / Air Force Museum of New Zealand An aerial view of the surplus aircraft graveyard at Rukuhia aerodrome.

Photo / Des White / Air Force Museum of New Zealand A view along a row of surplus Venturas at Rukuhia aerodrome.

Photo / Air Force Museum of New Zealand Kittyhawks and Corsairs in a field at Rukuhia aerodrome, waiting to be scrapped.