THE EVENTFUL YEARS

A plaque presented by the Canterbury Branch of the NZ Air League reads:
“This Is One Of The Two Original RNZAF Hangers Erected At Wigram In 1920”.
Wigram has been a flying station since the 1st World War and was known as Sockburn. It then became a privately owned Flying School, training pilots for overseas service.
In 1923 the Government established permanent and territorial Air Forces and with the generous help of Sir Henry Wigram, acquired Sockburn as an air station and named it Wigram.
Twenty-one years ago the Royal New Zealand Air Force became an independent unit of defence.
This film marks the 21st anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and records its activities, past and present. It includes sequences of aerial warfare over Europe in World War II and of the RNZAF operating against the Japanese in the Pacific. A wide range of present-day activities are shown, from preliminary training in New Zealand and Fiji to supply dropping and combat sorties over the Malayan jungle.