RNZAF operations in South West Pacific Area (Overview text)
Module name: Campaign history (New Zealand perspective)
This page was contributed by Mr Damien Fenton (Australian War Memorial)


For most of the Second World War New Zealand forces in the Pacific had little direct contact with their Australian counterparts in New Guinea. While the Australians fought in the SWPA under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, the New Zealanders fought in the adjacent South Pacific Area (SPA) under the command of another American, Admiral William F. Halsey. From 1943 to 1944 soldiers of the 3rd New Zealand Division, sailors of the Royal New Zealand Navy and airmen of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) supported the American operations in the Solomon Islands. SPA-based squadrons of the RNZAF and the American Thirteenth Air Force also joined the RAAF and American Fifth Air Force in their ongoing aerial bombardment of Rabaul.

When the Australians replaced the Americans on Bougainville and New Britain in late 1944 RNZAF squadrons remained behind to patrol the Bismarck Sea and to provide air support for the troops on the ground. Flying F4U-1D Corsair fighters and PV-1 Ventura bombers the RNZAF airmen and their ground crews worked closely with RAAF squadrons in these roles until the end of the war. The RNZAF suffered a total of 403 casualties in the Pacific, nearly all aircrew, of whom 345 were killed, including three who died while prisoners of war of the Japanese.

RNZAF:
Overview text
Click images to enlarge. A New Zealand airman (left) and an Australian soldier (right) share a cigarette in a rear area on Bougainville, February 1945. The presence of the New Zealand Air Task Force (ZEAIRTAF) in the northern Solomons and the Bismarck Archipelago in 1944-45 represented the only occasion of significant close co-operation between Australian and New Zealand forces during the entire Pacific War. The necessities of complying with the American Pacific command structure in 1942 had effectively forced the governments of both nations to abandon any plans for a formal ANZAC-type approach to military operations against the Japanese.
AWM P00001.063
Six Corsairs of No. 23 (Fighter) Squadron RNZAF in formation off the coast of Bougainville, as seen from the cockpit of an accompanying Wirraway of No. 5 (Army Cooperation) Squadron RAAF, January 1945. In all 12 RNZAF fighter squadrons saw active service on Bougainville in support of the 3rd Australian Division’s advance across the island from September 1944 to August 1945. Between January and August 1945 alone a total of 10,592 sorties were made and 4,256 tons of bombs were dropped by the New Zealand Corsairs in their ground-attack role.
AWM OG2067


This page was last updated on 23 June 2003.
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