Below is the list of World War I flying aces from New Zealand. While New Zealand did not have its own military air service during World War I, many New Zealanders did join Australian or British military aviation to fight in the war. Some of New Zealand's first class of aces continued to serve post-war, whether in the Royal Air Force or the Royal New Zealand Air Force; some served in World War II. Several earned advanced rank in the process.
Name | Air service(s) | Victories | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Keith Caldwell | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force | 25 | Rose to Air Commodore in RNZAF. [1] |
Keith Park | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 20 | Rose to Chief Air Marshal; was a crucial commander in the Battle of Britain. [2] |
Ronald Bannerman | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 17 | Rose to Air Commodore. [3] |
Arthur Coningham | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 14 | Rose to Air Marshal in RAF; pioneered close air support. [4] |
Herbert Gilles Watson | Australian Flying Corps | 14 | Highest scoring New Zealander in the AFC. [5] |
Clive Franklyn Collett | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 12 | First military pilot in British service to parachute from an aircraft in January 1917. [6] |
Harold Beamish | Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Air Force | 11 | Highest scoring New Zealander in the RNAS. [7] |
Malcolm C. McGregor | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 11 [8] | |
Frederick Gordon | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 9 [9] | |
Herbert Drewitt | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 7 | Earned a DFC for trench strafing exploits. [10] |
Thomas Culling | Royal Naval Air Service | 6 | New Zealand's first ace; Stan Dallas's wingman. [11] |
Forster Maynard | Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Air Force | 6 | Rose to Air Vice Marshal in RAF; [12] commanded air defense of Malta during WWII. |
Carrick Paul | Australian Flying Corps | 5 [13] | |
Alan Scott | Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force | 5 | Rose to Group Captain before early death. [14] |
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a large-scale multinational military aircrew training programme created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the Second World War. The BCATP remains one of the single largest aviation training programs in history and was responsible for training nearly half the pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, air gunners, wireless operators and flight engineers who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the war.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed initially in 1923 as a branch of the New Zealand Army, being known as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, becoming an independent air force on 1 April 1937.
Air Vice Marshal Forster Herbert Martin "Sammy" Maynard, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force and a flying ace credited with six aerial victories during the First World War. He also served as the Air Officer Commanding Malta during the early part of the Second World War.
The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance. This work gradually led RFC pilots into aerial battles with German pilots and later in the war included the strafing of enemy infantry and emplacements, the bombing of German military airfields and later the strategic bombing of German industrial and transport facilities.
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 the United Kingdom in 1939, and expanded to the Pacific War when New Zealand declared war on Imperial Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm had included personnel from outside the United Kingdom from before the beginning of the Second World War, and many served in the Battle of Britain in summer 1940. Many of these volunteers were British subjects—thus, citizens—coming from territories that made up part of the British Empire. Additionally, a significant part was made up of refugees and exiles from German-occupied Europe and American emigrants.
Henry Winslow Woollett, was a British flying ace and the highest scoring British balloon busting ace credited with 35 aerial victories, including eleven balloons, during the First World War. He continued to serve in the Royal Air Force until the 1930s.
No. 87 Squadron RAF was an aircraft squadron of the Royal Air Force during the First World War and Second World War.
Captain William Otway Boger was a Canadian World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories.
Lieutenant Herbert Whiteley Sellars was a British World War I flying ace credited with eight aerial victories. On 21 March 1918, Sellars shot down and killed the German ace Ludwig Hanstein.
Leutnant Ludwig Hanstein HOH, Bavaria's MMO was a World War I flying ace credited with 16 aerial victories.
Squadron Leader Anthony Herbert William Wall was a British World War I flying ace credited with sixteen aerial victories. He returned to serve in the Royal Air Force in World War II.
Geoffrey Herbert Hooper was an Australian World War I flying ace credited with eleven aerial victories, all against German fighter planes.
Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 14 was a "hunting group" of the Luftstreitkräfte, the air arm of the Imperial German Army during World War I. As one of the original German fighter squadrons, the unit would score 57 aerial victories during the war. In turn, the Jasta paid a price of eight killed in action, five wounded in action, and three taken prisoner of war.
Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 36, commonly abbreviated to Jasta 36, was a "hunting group" of the Luftstreitkräfte, the air arm of the Imperial German Army during World War I. The unit would score 123 confirmed aerial victories during the war, including 11 enemy observation balloons. In turn, they would suffer 13 killed in action, 15 wounded in action, two injured in flying accidents, and two taken prisoner of war.
Second Lieutenant Thomas Elliott was a First World War British flying ace credited with eleven aerial victories, all while flying as an observer in the Bristol F.2 Fighter. The observer ace of Royal Air Force No. 62 Squadron scored the majority of his victories with George Everard Gibbons as pilot. Elliott later served as an instructor at an air gunnery school.
The history of aviation in New Zealand began in the late 19th century when balloon flights began. In the first decade of the 20th century, several New Zealanders began developing heavier-than-air craft. The first confirmed powered flight in New Zealand being made by Richard Pearse in 1902 though is considered uncontrolled.