Talk:No. 486 Squadron RNZAF

A note on New Zealand Squadrons in the RAF

To be honest this paragraph is confusing, nor does it mention Article XV of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the foundation document under which all Commonwealth squadrons were set up. A description of Article XV can be found here: http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.awm.gov.au%2Funits%2Fevent_210.asp Perhaps this paragraph could be rewritten with this information in mind? Minorhistorian (talk) 09:19, 27 November 2007 (UTC) Original paragraph has been copied onto 485 Squadron talk page. Minorhistorian (talk) 11:38, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

The RAF Heraldry Trust has a reproduction of 486's crest which says "Royal New Zealand Air Force" on it see here. This suggest sthat at some level it was a RNZAF squadron albeit under RAF operational control. GraemeLeggett 13:26, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I raise these issues because I want to get this right. Real humans lived, fought and (sometimes) died in these squadrons; they deserve to have their history told, and they deserve to have it given correctly. Minorhistorian 23:28, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Photos at Volkel?

I put a photo on this page which had been in my father's ('Joe' Kendall) possession and was labelled as being taken at Volkel. I notice that the label has been taken off as being 'dubious'. Just wanted to note here that he had said that it was taken at Volkel. Not sure how we confirm this or otherwise. Johnkendall1 (talk) 20:37, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Hi John. Nobody is trying to cast aspersions on your father's memory - sorry about the wording, I had intended to say "More Likely Kestrup". It may well be that a similar photo was taken at Volkel. The photo appears in Paul Sortehaug's The Wild Winds p.288 and is labelled as being taken at Kestrup in June 1945; the personnel are identified as "Prop, L to R; Jeff Leach, Colin Kennedy, Dave Thomson. Wings, L to R; Paddy Finucane, Derek Butcher, Bernie Griffiths, Joe Kendal (sic! spelling since corrected), Colin McDonald, Neill Howard, Jock Hamilton, Pop Melles, Alex Farqarson, Jim Duncan, Ian Stewart, Ron Bird. Front, L to R; Len Roderick, "Pony" Atkinson, Rocky Maddaford."

486 Sqn had moved from Volkel to Hopsten, Germany, by 12 April 1945 another move was made to Celle on 26 April; Griffith's, Leach, Bird and Hamilton, who are in the photo, didn't join the unit until May. The move to Kestrup was made on the 9th of that month. Several other photos taken at the same time and place are also in Paul's book, including one with "'Joe' Kendall, Dave Thomson, 'Tubby' Ross and Colin Kennedy at Kastrup (sic!)" standing in front of the Tempest's propeller, p.284 Minorhistorian (talk) 21:28, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Hi 'minorhistorian', thanks for the clarification. It seems as if the join date date of the members in the photo is conclusive. BTW it was my intention to setup a 486(NZ) Sqn web site (www.486nzsquadron.org), but just got a placeholder at present. Hopefully will have time to more content up at some time in the future. Johnkendall1 (talk) 09:14, 28 August 2008 (UTC)