I posted the following yesterday on the Wings Over New Zealand Forum but I have a lot of good friends here on this forum in the UK and Europe who I’m sure will find this interesting, and I hope I can catch up with a lot of you (and maybe crash on a few of your couches along the way!). If you have any tips, ideas or offers to assist, please let me know.

For a long time now I have had a dream. It is now a plan. And next year I hope to make it a reality.

The Wings Over New Zealand Show has been recording and sharing New Zealand aviation stories for almost seven years now, with a large emphasis focusing on our history, telling the story of men and women who served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in wartime. Many of those stories, part of our national history, have not been told before, and some cannot be told again. Our WWII generation is fast disappearing, and along with them goes the direct contact with the history. Recording and telling their stories however keeps them alive for generations to come, and even long after the veterans are gone, listening to their recorded memories gives it an immediacy that books cannot provide.

In 2015 James Kightly and Grant McHerron came up with an idea for me to take the WONZ Show on the road, to Aussie, and this community made it happen. I toured a large chunk of Australia recording more than 20 shows with many very interesting people and at interesting places in NSW, ACT and Victoria. The sub-series that resulted was Wings Over Australia. This proved quite a hit and continues to be listened to people around the world three years later.

Well, ever since then I have wanted to do a similar tour in Britain and Europe. It has seemed like a pipe dream really, an impossibility… but I am now doing my best to make it a reality.

During the Second World War, 10,950 New Zealander airmen served with the Royal Air Force during WWII. Most of them served within Britain for at least part of their service, and a huge proportion of those men flew over occupied Europe on operations.

Kiwis served with the RAF all over the world but in particular they took part in large numbers in the Battle of France, they were absolutely pivotal in the Battle of Britain, they were among the Allies taking the fight back to the Nazis in occupied Europe in the bomber campaigns and fighter sweeps keeping the pressure on the enemy daily, and they were very heavily involved in the D-Day invasion, right through to the Victory over the Nazis in 1945.

There were seven New Zealand Squadrons formed within the Royal Air Force, which were largely manned by Kiwis who were coming through the Empire Air Training School system. However New Zealanders were also spread out and serving in virtually every other squadron of the Royal Air Force. There were also many hundreds of Kiwi airmen serving with the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm.

Of the 10,950 Kiwi airmen who were attached to the RAF, 3,285 were killed. At least 138 were seriously wounded, and 568 of them were captured and became Prisoners of War. Their contribution should never be forgotten and their stories need to be told again to younger generations.

D-Day
On the 6th of June 1944 the Allies landed on the Normandy coast in France, and began to take back Europe from the Nazis. There were around 10,000 New Zealanders involved, in the air and at sea, in the Normandy D-Day landings, known as Operation Overlord.

Most of those Kiwis were RNZAF aircrew members. They were in the bombers that were pounding the defences and the German supply lines. They were in the fighters that were patrolling the beachheads. They were in the fighter-bombers, dive-bombing targets to aid the Allied advance. They were in the transport aircraft dropping the paratroopers behind enemy lines, and flying the glider tugs that were towing gliders full of airborne soldiers and equipment to the battle front. They were in the photo reconnaissance aeroplanes that were keeping a constant watch on progress of the Allies and the enemy. They were in the artillery spotter planes watching the fall of shot from the battleships’ guns. They were in the coastal command aircraft attacking German vessels and ports to stop their Navy attacking the armada. There were also Kiwis involved in planning the strategies and other key roles.

Today, as the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, Operation Overlord, approaches, the contribution made by New Zealanders towards the success of this major turning point in the war, and in world history, has been all but forgotten. In recent decades the New Zealand media has only briefly mentioned D-Day on its larger anniversaries, usually just playing overseas reports with just British and US stories. There is virtually never any mention given nowadays of the thousands of New Zealanders who also took part in this historic event. I cannot help but think as the 75th Anniversary approaches it will be more of the same, or perhaps a bit less, from the mainstream media; television, radio and newspapers.

I want to do something about this. Through my Wings Over New Zealand Show aviation podcast, I plan to create a special series about the New Zealanders who flew and fought on D-Day, and also take a wider look at the New Zealand airmen who served with the Royal Air Force throughout WWII. The New Zealanders who went to fly and fight in defence of Britain and liberation of France were all volunteers, they travelled further from home than any other combatants in WWII, and they well and truly punched above their weight. Their stories are begging to be told in a much more detailed and longer format than the mainstream media will allow.

As well as presenting this amazing and largely forgotten history, the series will highlight the special links that New Zealand has with Britain and France, including some WWI stories too. And it will highlight many destinations around the two countries that people can find out about and perhaps later visit themselves. And the series will also try to look at aspects of the current aviation scenes there, especially with any Kiwi ties to those scenes that can be found.

What will be Covered
– Aviation museums around both countries
– War Memorials and War Cemeteries in both countries
– The D-Day Museum at Normandy and the D-Day Beaches
– Aircraft collections with interesting New Zealand aviation connections and stories, and the aeroplanes that Kiwis flew and fought in
– Airfields where Kiwis served during WWII (and WWI), and the stories of things that happened there, and of the people who flew from those places
– The Amiens Prison, bombed by No. 487 (NZ) Squadron in February 1944 to release French Resistance agents
– Associations and organisations keeping the history alive.

People I hope to Interview Include:
– Museum staff
– Historians
– Authors
– Veterans (Kiwis over there if possible, and local veterans if possible)
– Older locals who remember the Kiwi airmen in WWII
– Kiwis and others who are currently serving with the Royal Air Force, or in the UK or French aviation industries

– If time and budget allows, I’d also like to cover some other important stories such as the New Zealand-born spy Nancy Wake and other Kiwis involved with the French Resistance; the New Zealand contribution towards the liberation of France in World War One including the NZ Division’s final battle at Le Quesnoy; the military cemeteries in France where New Zealanders who never came home now lie; and perhaps a few other stories that link our nations through aviation and/or war.

As you can see this will involve travelling around, visiting a lot of sites and meeting and interviewing a lot of people. I will draw heavily upon my experience as a historian and interviewer, and as a podcaster. There will also be a huge amount of pre-planning involved, and I will try to set up a network of local helpers around the tour route if possible.

It is planned that recording this UK-France tour would begin in early June 2019, so coverage can be recorded at the Normandy D-Day commemorations in both countries. And touring and recording would then be done around France and Britain over the next several weeks. Ideally I’d love to be there through till Flying Legends, and then perhaps come home via Oshkosh, but that may be a Bridge Too Far…

I have a wide network of friends and contacts in the UK and a few in France and will be asking for a lot of favours to help make this tour work, to bring the series together. Also planned for at least some of the tour episodes I will hopefully have a co-host, my good friend Bevan Dewes, who is a WONZ Forum member, a WONZ Show fan and an aviation history buff. He is also an experienced pilot of both WWI and WWII aeroplanes, and I think his input will really enhance the series greatly. He’s a young Kiwi fighter pilot the same age as many of the airmen we’ll be covering from 75-80 years ago, so a great viewpoint.

This planned series would mostly consist of interviews with experts, veterans and anyone who has a genuine input into the stories being told. As well as interviews recorded during this tour, I have an archive of interviews conducted over many years with veterans, many of whom flew from Britain over France and Europe and some took part in the D-Day operations.

Audio And Video Episodes
This series will consist of both audio podcasts and videos recorded along the way. As WONZ Show listeners know, the audio podcasts tell the stories in a similar way to radio documentaries, and will be supported on each episode’s page with photographs and a write up to add context to the stories. The videos will also tell the stories in a different way. Both mediums will be available online for free to listen to and watch around the world. Some material will hopefully be released during the time while I am still touring but most would not be rolled out till after I return to New Zealand, at which time a regular stream of episodes would be edited and released over many months to come.

Benefits of this Series
I believe the many hours of stories that will be released through this Wings Over New Zealand Show series will be:
– Educational – highlighting a huge amount of history that is either overlooked or forgotten in New Zealand, and in many cases probably totally unknown, by presenting it to both Kiwis and to the rest of the world who listen to or watch the shows.

Enlightening – covering a large chunk of OUR own New Zealand history that never gets covered in this country in any depth by television, radio, newspapers or magazines these days, and surely will not be covered in the media on the anniversary

– Enriching – the series will highlight and hopefully strengthen the wonderful bonds of friendship and comradeship between New Zealand and Britain, and New Zealand and France

– Edifying – This series would promote many destinations for travellers to visit, featuring museums, historic places, events and other tourism sites that listeners can learn about and plan to visit themselves

– Perpetual – Once the series is online it will remain online, and be in the WONZ Show Archives forever, so people will continue to discover the series and thus the stories within for years to come.

– Significant – To my knowledge there has never been a multi-media series made like this, where the New Zealand stories of airmen and their air battles over France and Britain are the major theme, in any medium.

In order to make this series, there will be costs involved in getting flights from New Zealand to France and Britain, and back. Plus there will be internal travel costs, and costs for food and accommodation involved, plus other day to day considerations. The total costs for the tour and series will not be an enormous amount when compared with your average history series, but the Wings Over New Zealand Show is a non-profit organisation that is produced with no real budget other than whatever spare change can be found at the time. Whilst the production values are usually good there’s no budget behind the show. So for a venture like this, we’re definitely going to need to seek help to fund it.

So I am about to embark on a campaign to try to raise sponsorship from companies and funding to make this happen. I may also, closer to the event, run a Givealittle if sponsorship does not cover the full costs.

I have a rough list of places I’d like to get to on the tour, in no particular order, each likely to have a story in itself for the series. Some may be dropped from the list if time and money does not stretch, or others may be added as planning goes along. I think some places could be visited several in a day:

Feltwell 75 Sqn
Newmarket 75 Sqn
Mepal 75 Sqn
Mildenhall 75 Sqn, 485 Sqn
Biggin Hill 485 Sqn
Tangmere 485 Sqn, 486 Sqn
Hunsdon 487 Sqn
Scampton 617 Sqn, Red Arrows
Brooklands
Conningsby BBMF
The D-Day Story, Portsmouth
East Kirkby
Hawkinge Battle of Britain Museum
IWM Duxford
IWM Lambeth
RAF Hendon
RAF Cosford
IBCC
Battle of Britain Memorial, London
Bomber Command Memorial, London
Uxbridge Bunker
Sir Keith Park Statue
St Clement Danes Church and Sir Arthur Harris statue
Capel-Le-Ferne Memorial
Runnymede
Stow Maries WWI Airfield
Shoreham Battle of Britain Museum
Shuttleworth, Old Warden
Stirling Project, RAF Alconbury, Huntingdon
Tangmere Museum
Yorkshire Air Museum
RAF Wyton Pathfinder Museum
D Day Museum, Utah Beach, Normandy
Normandy Beaches
Amiens Prison
Le Quesnoy
La Ferte Alais
Memorial Flight at Ris-Orangis
Musée De L’air in Paris