page_title: Military history of New Zealand during World War II
section_title: New Zealand Squadrons of the RAF
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of New Zealand during World War II / Royal New Zealand Air Force in World War II / European theatre / New Zealand Squadrons of the RAF
caption_attribution_description: English: Operation Jericho - Amiens Prison during the raid - picture taken from the accompanying PRU Mosquito (the fuselage &amp; tailwheel of which appears in the top-right of the picture) and also showing one of the attacking Mosquitoes (with bomb-doors open) at the extreme top-left of the picture. The Prison itself is the large, dark building, at the centre-left. IMW description (object 205023419) reads "Operation JERICHO: the daylight raid by 18 De Havilland Mosquito FB Mark VIs of No. 140 Airfield, No. 2 Group, led by Group Captain P C Pickard, to free resistance members awaiting execution in Amiens Jail, France. Here, Mosquitos of No. 487 Squadron RNZAF clear the target at low level as the first 500-lb bombs to be dropped detonate near the south wall of the prison"
context_page_description: The military history of New Zealand during World War II began when New Zealand entered the Second World War by declaring war on Nazi Germany with Great Britain. The state of war with Germany was officially held to have existed since 9:30 pm on 3 September 1939, simultaneous with that of Britain, but in fact New Zealand's declaration of war was not made until confirmation had been received from Britain that their ultimatum to Germany had expired. When Neville Chamberlain broadcast Britain's declaration of war, a group of New Zealand politicians listened to the shortwave radio in Carl Berendsen's room in the Parliament Buildings. Because of static on the radio they were initially not certain what Chamberlain had said until a coded telegraph message was received from London. This message did not arrive until just before midnight as the messenger boy with the telegram in London took shelter because of a air-raid warning. The Cabinet acted after hearing the Admiralty's notification to the fleet that war had broken out.
context_section_description: Once trained, the majority of RNZAF aircrew served with ordinary units of the RAF or of the Fleet Air Arm. As in World War I, they served in all theatres. At least 78 became aces. New Zealanders in the RNZAF and RAF included pilots such as the first RAF ace of WW2, Flying Officer Cobber Kain, Alan Deere, whose Nine Lives was one of the first post war accounts of combat, and leaders such as World War I ace, Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, who commanded 11 Group, responsible for the defence of London in the Battle of Britain, the air defence of Malta and in the closing stages of the war, the RAF in South East Asia. Through accident or design, several RAF units came to be mostly manned by RNZAF pilots (for example No. 243 Squadron RAF in Singapore, No. 258 Squadron RAF in the UK and several Wildcat and Hellcat units of the FAA – leading some texts to claim these types of aircraft were used by the RNZAF).
  The Royal Air Force deliberately set aside certain squadrons for pilots from particular countries. The first of these, 75 Squadron, comprised the Wellingtons and pilots lent by New Zealand in August 1939, which later flew Short Stirlings, Avro Lancasters and Avro Lincolns. Other New Zealand squadrons within the RAF included 485, which flew Supermarine Spitfires throughout the war, 486 (Hawker Hurricanes, Hawker Typhoons and Hawker Tempests), 487 (Lockheed Venturas and De Havilland Mosquitoes), 488 (Brewster Buffaloes,  Hurricanes, Bristol Beaufighters and De Havilland Mosquitoes), 489 (Bristol Blenheims, Bristol Beauforts, Handley Page Hampdens,  Beaufighters, and  Mosquitoes), and 490 (Consolidated Catalinas and Short Sunderlands).
caption: NZ Mosquitoes over Amiens during Operation Jericho, the jailbreak raid.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1564", "Image ImageLength": "1812", "Image BitsPerSample": "8", "Image Compression": "LZW", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "1", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:09:18 20:48:30", "Image ExifOffset": "236", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "374", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7441", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "927"}