No. 486 Squadron RNZAF

486 (NZ) Squadron RAF

486 Squadron was manned by New Zealand pilots, trained by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, but controlled by the Royal Air Force.

486 (NZ) Squadron at Volkel, Holland in 1945

The squadron formed on 7 March 1942 in Lincolnshire, England, as part of Fighter Command and equipped with Hawker Hurricane IIs. It was re-equipped with Hawker Typhoons in September 1942. While flying patrols over the South coast against the FW-190 'nuisance' raids in early 1943, the squadron shot down 11 fighter-bombers in 2 months. From June 1943 it flew mainly as a fighter bomber unit until February 1944. Re-equipped with Hawker Tempests in January -April 1944, the unit was changed back to fighter defence after D-Day and claimed 223 V-1 flying bombs, the second highest number of any unit. From September 1944, 486 was attached to the Second Tactical Air Force and moved to Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Denmark. The squadron was disbanded on 12 October 1945 at Dunsfold, England. 486 squadron flew over 11,000 sorties claimed 81 enemy aircraft, (including several Messerschmitt 262 jets) and destroyed 323 motor vehicles, 14 railway engines and 16 ships. Pilots attached to the squadron won 22 DFCs and a DSO. The squadron was the equal top-scoring Tempest unit, with 59 aircraft claimed shot down.

Not all the pilots who flew with 486 (NZ) Squadron were New Zealanders, for example F. Philip "Joe" Kendall, a British national, served with the squadron from March to July 1945.

486's Squadron Motto is Hiwa hau Maka (Beware of the Wild Winds).

Surviving aircraft

A Hawker Tempest MkV used by the squadron, "SA-I", is being restored by Kermit Weeks in Florida [1].

Books about 486 Squadron

The Squadron History is Paul Sortehaug's The Wild Winds, The History of Number 486 RNZAF Fighter Squadron with the RAF. Two former pilots have published books about their experiences; Group Captain Desmond James Scott published Typhoon Pilot and One More Hour and Squadron Leader Cornelius James Sheddan, with ghost writer Norman Franks, wrote Tempest Pilot.

A note on New Zealand Squadrons in the RAF

It is now largely accepted that World War II squadron of the Royal Air Force manned by pilots of the Royal New Zealand Air Force are recorded by the formulation 488(NZ) squadron RAF, however some authors (e.g. Bill Gunston), have used the formulation 488 squadron RNZAF. At the time, New Zealand still considered itself part of the British Empire, and its citizens simultaneously New Zealanders and British. Contemporaneous documents therefore refer to the squadron as an RAF squadron, and as an RNZAF squadron sometimes within the same document, not only because no contradiction was perceived, but because there WAS no contradiction. The first "brackets' squadron - 75 - was formed in August 1939 when the New Zealand government loaned 30 RNZAF Vickers Wellingtons and their crews to the RAF. Once war broke out, it was found convenient to concentrate pilots from Hitler's victims into national squadrons in a smilar way. Similar Commonwealth squadrons were then also formed. Up to December 1941 the RNZAF could be argued to have seen its role as training pilots for the New Zealand squadrons of the RNZAF, just as New Zealanders prior to the onset of war served not with the Royal New Zealand Navy but the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. However at all periods the majority of New Zealanders within the RAF were not in (NZ) squadrons, (and several RAF squadrons were largely manned by the NZAF but not designated "NZ" squadrons). The practise of designating was abandoned after 1942 as the RNZAF developed a large combat arm actively fighting in the southern Pacific, and controlled by the New Zealand Government and Britain stopped creating 'bracket' squadrons and instead mixed within both new and existing squadrons airmen from Commonwealth and other allied nations. However the existing "brackets" squadrons of all allied nations within the RAF continued as quasi national units.