WONZ 260 – Dave Cohu

Guest: David Stanley Cohu (8 June 1924 – 17 July 2018)

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 29th of October 2015

Released:  17th of July 2022

Duration: 2 hour 14 minutes 18 seconds

In this episode of the WONZ Show, Dave Homewood pulled an older interview from his archive that he recorded in 2015 with former pilot, the now late Dave Cohu.

Dave Cohu became a fighter pilot during WWII, training on Tiger Moths, Harvards, P-40’s and eventually posted to No. 17 Squadron on Corsairs in 1944. He served in the Pacific, based at Torokina in Bougainville on his first tour, and then Green Island on his second tour, and his last wartime tour was at Los Negros.

After the war he took a break from the Air Force and grew strawberries, but he returned in 1947, and he was posted to Japan to fly Corsairs on No. 14 (Occupational) Squadron’s last tour there.

On returning to New Zealand he flew Airspeed Oxfords with No 14 Squadron, and one job he got was aerial photography work all round the country, with navigator Colin Hanson.

He was then posted to No. 75 Squadron, where he flew de Havilland Mosquitoes, including to Fiji.

With his time up in the RNZAF, Dave then took a job as a topdressing pilot. He would go onto to become one of New Zealand’s most notable topdressing pilots with a career that spanned four decades. He flew Tiger Moths, Cessna 180’s, Fletchers, Beavers, Airtruks, Agwagons and Snows over his career, and had a few accidents and incidents along the way.

Dave passed away on the 17th of July 2018.

Above: Dave Cohu as a trainee pilot in the RNZAF during 1943, a crop from the photo below.

Group. Pilots course 46B, No. 2 Service Flying Training School, RNZAF Station Woodbourne. L-R: Back; Allan, Bennett, Boddy, Burns, Carnachan, Codlin, Cohu, Coleman, Dodgahun, Ferrick. Middle; Harper, Heslop, Hughes, Hulme, Long, Looker, Mair, O’Donovan, Reid, Robertson. Front; Robinson, Roderick, Sargent, Shaw, Stougie, Symons, Tirikatene, Urwin, Walker, Walsh.Air Force Museum of New Zealand Photo – WbG1713-43

Above: A photo from the 2016 No. 75 Squadron Reunion. Left at the table in the foreground is Dave Cohu, centre is his good mate Rod Dahlberg, and right is fellow Mosquito pilot Dave Phillips. (Photo Dave Homewood)

Above: Dave Cohu, right, and Rod Dahlberg at the 2016 No. 75 Squadron Reunion. (Photo Dave Homewood)