No. 485 Squadron RNZAF

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Manned by New Zealand pilots of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, but controlled by the Royal Air Force, 485 Squadron was formed on 1 March 1941 at Driffield, in Yorkshire. Equipped with various marks of Supermarine Spitfire throughout it's existence, No. 485 squadron was initially based on home defence duties with Fighter Command at various bases in Wales and England, but from March 1944 became a fighter bomber unit within the Second Tactical Air Force. In August 1944, 485 moved to France, then subsequently forward airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The unit returned to England and was disbanded in October 1945.

[edit] Achievements

485 Squadron flew over 10,000 sorties. The unit claimed 63 enemy aircraft destroyed. During the short period that the squadron was employed against ground targets pilots destroyed 70 motor vehicles and 5 railway engines. 24 DFCs or DFMs were won by members of the squadron.

[edit] Preserved Aircraft

A Spitfire MkXVI in the unit's colours is preserved at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum at Wigram, as operated from inside Germany shortly prior to VE day. Another ex 485 Spitfire, (OU-V, used by the squadron on D-Day), has been converted to a two seat trainer, and preserved in airworthy condition in Europe. 485 Squadron's motto is Ka whawhai tonu ('We will fight on').

[edit] A note on New Zealand Squadrons in the RAF

It is now largely accepted that World War II squadron of the Royal Air Force manned by pilots of the Royal New Zealand Air Force are recorded by the formulation 488(NZ) squadron RAF, however some authors (e.g. Bill Gunston), have used the formulation 488 squadron RNZAF. At the time, New Zealand still considered itself part of the British Empire, and it's citizens simultaneously New Zealanders and British. Contemporaneous documents therefore refer to the squadron as an RAF squadron, and as an RNZAF squadron sometimes within the same document, not only because no contradiction was perceived, but because there WAS no contradiction. Between 1939 and 1941 the RNZAF could be argued to have seen it's role as training pilots for the New Zealand squadrons of the RAF, just as New Zealanders prior to the onset of war served not with the Royal New Zealand Navy but the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. This of course changed when the RNZAF developed a large combat arm actively fighting in the southern Pacific, and controlled by the New Zealand Governmen and when Britain stopped creating 'bracket' squadrons and instead created Royal Air Force Squadrons only squadrons of airmen mixed from Commonwealth and other allied nations.

The crest from this Squadron was adopted in the late sixties as the official crest for the then formed RNZAF Strike Wing, based at Ohakea, North Island, New Zealand. This wing incorporated 75 Sqn (Vampires) and 14 Sqn (Canberras).