WONZ 282 – David Barnston

Guest: Flt Lt David Barnston, RAF/RNZAF retired

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 1st of September 2023

Published: 10th of September 2023

Duration: 1 hour 17 minutes, 47 seconds

In this episode Dave Homewood talks with 99-year old fighter pilot veteran David Barnston, who was born in London, and went to school next to RAF Hendon as a lad. He joined the Royal Air Force when he was 17-years-old, and trained as a pilot on Tiger Moths in Guinea Fowl, near Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia, and advanced to Harvards at No. 22 SFTS at Thornhill at Gwelo (now called Gweru). After a spell in Durban he was sent to India destined to be posted onto the Vultee Vengeance bombers, but discovered on arrival these aircraft had already departed.

After going from pillar to post around India he was sent back to Africa and ended up doing a fighter Operation Training Unit course on Hawker Hurricanes at Ishmailia, in Egypt.

Once he was qualified on fighters he returned to India and eventually joined No. 123 (East India) Squadron at Yelahanka, where he began flying Republic P-47D Thunderbolts. The squadron moved up to the Arakan in Burma and he flew operationally in Thunderbolts from September 1944 till March 1945. He was then sent home to Britain for a furlough leave. When he returned in July 1945 his squadron had been renumbered as No. 81 Squadron.

In October 1945 No. 81 Squadron and another Thunderbolt squadron, plus a Mosquito squadron, moved to Java in the Dutch East Indies to get involved in the war called the  Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence. There they were involved in keeping ‘safe roads’ clear from rebels who were attempting an uprising so the refugees trying to get to the coast to escape could do so in safety.

He then led a small Army Co-operation Flight in the North of England, with two Spitfires, two Vultee Vengeance and a Martinet. On demob from the RAF, David moved to New Zealand and in 1950 he joined No. 1 (Auckland) Squadron of the Territorial Air Force, flying Mustangs for five years at RNZAF Station Whenuapai. He also joined National Airways Corporation for his day job and flew DC-3s and Friendships.

David flying Spitfire XVI SM750

David and his mother and brother in a modified Avro 504K going for a joyride in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

David Barnston with the photo of his granddaughter he refers to.

A close up of the photo.

The map diagram, from a magazine, that David used to explain the Mandalay raid.