Post #739423 by Club Nouméa on Mon, Mar 16, 2015 3:04 AM

On 2005-05-29 05:48, bigbrotiki wrote:

On 2005-05-25 19:15, hewey wrote:
Thanks for the links - I have been to a few of these already. Having trouble finding tiki ones though.

That's because most fighter plane nose art is from the pre-Tiki era (BOT p.46).

The original tiki squadron was No. 75 Squadron of the RAF, which was equipped by the New Zealand Government and crewed by New Zealanders. In World War II, flying missions over Nazi-occupied Europe from 1940 to 1945, it flew more sorties and suffered more casualties than any other Allied squadron.

Its crest, which dates from February 1943:

"For ever and ever be strong"

The squadron's number, insignia and battle honours were transferred to the Royal New Zealand Air Force by the RAF in 1946.

Here is the post-war RNZAF version of the crest:

NZ bombers in WWII had nose art like this:

This is a tiki-emblazoned Stirling bomber that flew with No. 15 Squadron RAF, named "Te Kooti" after a famous 19th-century warrior chief. It was shot down during a raid on Dusseldorf on 16 May 1943. All the crew were killed. (source: Night After Night: New Zealanders in Bomber Command, by Max Lambert p.15)

RNZAF squadrons flying in the Pacific in WWII also had aircraft with tiki nose art on them. I have seen at least one photo of a fighter with tiki nose art. No photos at hand at the moment, but I will see if I can track some down...

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-04-06 20:38 ]

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-04-06 20:43 ]