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This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

HMNZ Gambia   18th June 1941 Aircraft arrive in Gambia 24th June 1941 Airmen arrive in Gambia 26th June 1941 Embarkation 30th June 1941 Operations commence 4th July 1941 French destroyer fires on RAF 16th July 1941 Survivors reach Freetown 31st July 1941 Monthly Report 12th August 1941 Survivors rejoin squadron 6th September 1941 Observations 10th September 1941 Aircraft missing 11th September 1941 Missing aircrew rescued 17th September 1941 Missing crew return to base 20th September 1941 U-Boat attacked 30th September 1941 Monthly report 13th October 1941 Top brass visit 30th November 1941 Monthly report 31st December 1941 Monthly Report 12th January 1942 Reconnaissance 29th January 1942 Reinforcements 31st January 1942 Monthly Report 31st March 1942 Monthly report 18th May 1942 Aircrew interned by the French 31st May 1942 Monthly Report 7th June 1942 French attack 18th June 1942 Reconnaissance 30th June 1942 Sunderland crew found 30th August 1942 Transit aircraft crash Sep 1942 Preparations 16th September 1942 Two Canadian crews lost 24th September 1942 General de Gaulle 30th September 1942 Monthly report 7th November 1942 New airfield operational 13th November 1942 French pilot arrives at RAF base 22nd November 1942 Crash on take-off 18th December 1942 Detachments 6th January 1943 Canadian crew killed 7th January 1943 Crash in Ghana 9th January 1943 Ferry crew killed 16th January 1943 Move to French airbase 16th February 1943 French aircraft collected 18th February 1943 French arrival March 1943 Expansion of air cover 13th March 1943 Move in Gambia 3rd April 1943 French aircraft escort convoy 10th April 1943 Lifeboat sighted 18th April 1943 Merchant ship torpedoed 26th April 1943 USAAC Liberator attached 25th May 1943 French visitors 16th July 1943 Merchantman damaged by U-Boat 31st July 1943 Liberators delivered 11th August 1943 Liberator and U-Boat destroyed 13th August 1943 U-Boat attacked? 17th August 1943 U-Boat attacked? 27th August 1943 Communications flight missing 3rd September 1943 Detachment withdrawn 24th September 1943 Conversion to Liberators complete 31st October 1943 Squadron expanded 7th November 1943 Flying restricted 17th November 1943 Yellow Fever 27th December 1943 Blockade Interception Policy 18th January 1944 Blockade patrols ended 26th January 1944 Blockade 30th January 1944  12th February 1944 U-Boat attack 7th March 1944 Notice of move 14th March 1944 New command arrangements 21st March 1944 Transport assistance 31st March 1944 Departure from West Africa 6th Jul 1945 On the Move 17th Jul 1945 Air Attacks 3rd Aug 1945 Bad Weather 5th Aug 1945 Air Attacks 12th Aug 1945 Fuel If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Those known to have sailed in HMNZ Gambia during the Second World War 1939-1945. Burns Douglas Campbell. Able Seaman Catchpole Horace Frank. AB. Fletcher Cyril. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of HMNZ Gambia from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time. The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 18th Dec 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 265120 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQs The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. Want to know more about HMNZ Gambia? There are:73 items tagged HMNZ Gambia available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. AB. Horace Frank Catchpole HMS Enterprise My Uncle Horace Catchpole served on HMS Enterprise from 1939 to 1946. He was, at some point, transferred to the HMNZ Gambia and was at the Tokyo Bay Japanese surrender signing. This ship was being used by the New Zealand Navy. Add to this record. Cyril Fletcher .MS Diomede Cyril Fletcher served on the cruiser HMS Diomede from 1939 to 1941. He later served in the Royal New Zealand Navy on HMSNZ Gambia, a light cruiser, which was at the surrender of Japan in August 1945. Glenys Knox Add to this record. Able Seaman Douglas Campbell Burns HMS Havock My father was the only New Zealand seaman on the HMS Havock when it was wrecked off the Coast of Northern Africa and he was taken to Laghouat POW. He was reported missing presumed dead to his parents in New Zealand. They did not know of his fate for 7 months. After being freed from Laghouat he joined the HMNZ Achilles and HMNZ Gambia and fought for New Zealand for the rest of WWII. He is still alive and lives in Foxton Beach New Zealand and is 88 years of age and in good health physically and mentally. I am in the process of typing the story of his life and most of it is taken up with serving on board English Merchant ships during the early part of WWII. Yvonne Baylis Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices. Links

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.