Operation: Ferry flight

Date: 22nd July 1940 (Monday)

Unit: No. 1 Service Flying Training School

Type: Oxford I

Serial: NZ262

Code: Not known

Base: RNZAF Wigram

Location: Kaituna, Ataahua, New Zealand

Pilot: P/O. William Oscar George Krogh NZ/2521 RNZAF Age 28. Killed

Pilot U/T: LAC Archibald John Hull A40232 RNZAF Age 24. Killed

Pilot U/T: LAC Herbert John von Tunzelman A40247 RNZAF Age 22. Killed

Fl/Mech: AC1. Albert Bartholomew Duffell A39849 RNZAF Age 25. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

With the great research carried out by Errol Martyn on the Royal New Zealand Airforce losses we have been able to compile this page. If you have further information and or photographs we would welcome contact from you.

Taking off at about 09:00 hrs on a ferry flight from Harewood (North of Christchurch to Birdlings Flat for air firing practice.

After 15 minutes the aircraft hit the side of a 300 ft. hill near Kaituna, Ataahua - opposite Lake Ellesmere killing all the crew. As the fog bank increased 3 others were recalled to Harewood, others managed to land at Wigram and at the Flat. LAC Tunzelman and LAC Hull were due to graduate at the end of this week.

Evening Post 23rd July 1940:

The machine was heard flying low by Mr. Ivor C. Gray and Alan Nutt, who were on Mr. Gray's farm adjoining the Akaroa main highway and facing Lake Ellesmere. Heavy fog hid the machine from sight, but it was believed from the sound to have turned back towards Wigram. Within a few seconds both men heard a loud crash, which was followed by silence, only a short distance away.

An immediate search was started by the two men, but the fog was so thick that it was half an hour, involving some three miles of tramping, before the wrecked machine was located. It had crashed into the side of a 300 foot high hill on the property of Mr. Gray, striking a clay projection and ending in a shallow gully. It was apparent immediately that all the occupants had been killed outright.

After a brief examination, while Mr. Gray remained beside the machine, Mr. Nutt hurried to the nearest telephone, about a mile and a half distant on the main road, and summoned Wing Commander G.S. Hodson, of Wigram, who, with Squadron Leader R.A. Calder, immediately left for the scene with an Air Force ambulance.

The bodies of the men were carried part of the distance to the road and brought the remainder of the way, about one mile, by sledge. The route, followed by the machine before the crash was within a mile of the flats on the hill-ward side of the lake, and it was officially stated today that the aeroplane must have flown low to try to penetrate the fog.

Above Course No 9 Pilot training course New Zealand. Tragically all seven pilots were to lose their lives, 5 of them within months of this photo being taken! Rear L-R: P/O. Eric Orgias 36272 RAAF - killed 25th September 1940, P/O. William David Finlayson 36268 RAF - killed 24th May 1940, P/O. Herbert Gregory Ballantyne 36265 RAF - killed 14th August 1940, Front: P/O. Peter Knox Sigley 36276 RAF - killed 24th May 1940, Sq/Ldr. Peter Bettley Robinson 36274 RAF - killed 10th September 1942, F/O. Noel Carrol Pettit 36273 RAF - killed 28th August 1941, P/O. William Oscar George Krogh NZ/2521 RNZAF - killed 22nd July 1940.

Burial details:

P/O. William Oscar George Krogh. Havelock North Cemetery. Grave 31.0. Son of Oscar and Alice Krogh, of Hastings, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. A total of 243 solo flying hours 41 of these on the Oxford.

LAC Archibald John Hull. Christchurch Cemetery (Sydenham) Grave 41.46C. Son of Henry John and Mary Woods Hull, of Napier, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

LAC Herbert John von Tunzelman. Invercargill Cemetery. Grave 115.25. Son of John Hubert Julius von Tunzelman, and of Jean Hamilton von Tunzelman (née McKechnie), of Invercargill, Southland, New Zealand.

AC1. Albert Bartholomew Duffell. Christchurch Cemetery (Sydenham) Grave 40.46C. Son of Lily Duffell, of Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand and husband of Alma May Duffell.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot with thanks to the research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Weekly News of New Zealand, Papers Past of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below:

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