Nor'West News: August 12, 2021

NOR’WEST NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Thursday August 12 2021 11
Wartime relic close connection to guide
• By Fiona Ellis
HIS spitfIRe shot down by
enemy fire, World War 2 fighter
pilot Johnny Checketts managed
to escape the burning aircraft,
parachuting into a field in
German-occupied France.
The New Zealander was picked
up by the French resistance, who
treated his burns before helping
him escape back to England
across the channel in a fishing
boat.
However, the engine of his
Mark IXB Spitfire lay buried in a
field for more than 70 years.
It is now on display at the Air
Force Museum of New Zealand,
where the story behind it makes
it a favourite exhibit for volunteer
Chris Checketts.
The engine from his father’s
aircraft was recovered by a
French farmer who unexpectedly
offered it to him.
“I spoke to the guys here and
said: ‘It’s absolutely no use to me,
but do you want it?”, and they
said: ‘We’d love it’,” Chris said.
“Dad shot down 13 German
aircraft in it, which makes that
the second highest-scoring Spitfire
ever built.”
Sharing stories with museumgoers
was an important part of
his role, he said
“We’ve got over a million items
in the collection, so there are a
million stories,” he said.
“I really enjoy telling the stories
. . . given my father’s service
history, there’s lots of stories of
his that I tend to tell.”
He especially enjoyed seeing
how children reacted to those
wartime tales.
Bucking the stereotype of boys
and their toys, it tended to be
girls who asked the best questions,
he said.
He hoped they in turn would
remember the stories and pass
them on so the history stayed
alive in future generations.
Other stories he told were also
based on his items of his fathers,
such as papers, paintings and his
service medals.
A Distinguished Service
Order, the highest-ranked commonwealth
medal was among
these, as was the American Silver
Star medal.
“He’s the only New Zealander
to have been awarded the American
Silver Star, which is the
highest decoration the American
government can give to a foreigner.”
“His squadron escorted
American bombers on 60 different
occasions and they never lost
one bomber.”
In Chris’ childhood, his father
was close-mouthed about his
wartime experiences but opened
up as he grew older.
“Initially, he was very quiet
about what he had done. He was
a very humble man, very quietly
spoken.”
The museum is on the site of
the former Wigram air base,
which had been a part of his life
from the beginning, 73 years
ago.
“I was born basically here.
We lived in a house just around
the corner, right by the officer’s
mess.”
Planes seemed a standard part
of life when he was young, he
said.
“Most people had a car in the
garage, we seemed to have an
plane in the shed out back.”
Wanting to follow his own
career path, he shunned the Air
Force in favour of commerce
TEAM: The
‘Moth Doctors’
at RNZAF
Base Wigram
in 1988. Vic
Braggins, Bob
Swadel, Ian
Tilson, Spencer
Barnard, Jim
Williams,
Jim Grant
and Johnny
Checketts.
(Right) – Chris
Checketts with
the Tiger Moth.
RECOVERED: Chris Checketts with the Rolls-
Royce Merlin engine from his father’s Spitfire
that was shot down over Northern France
during World War 2. Photo: Geoff Sloan
(Above) – Johnny Checketts after returning
from a mission in 1942.
after leaving school.
“Dad, and mum, said that one
member of the family in service
was enough. No one else in the
family has been involved in aviation
at all.”
Wigram stayed a significant
part of his life, he said.
The museum opened in 1997,
and he liked it from the get-go.
It was a favourite haunt of his
father’s, who worked on repairing
the Tiger Moth in its collection,
and was himself a volunteer
until his death in 2006, aged 94.
Chris also looked forward
to becoming a tour guide, and
began volunteering immediately
after retiring three years ago.
Living within 1500m of the
house he grew up in, he spent
all day at the museum every
Wednesday.
The collection has grown in
the 24 years since the museum
opened, due to the contributions
of both the air force, which
owned the museum, and ordinary
people who donated items
of interest.
The museum was a place to remember
the history of the Royal
New Zealand Air Force, he said.
“This is a place of not only
aeroplanes and exhibits, it’s a
place of remembrance where we
acknowledge those who have
sacrificed.”
He made a point of showing
visitors the wall of names of
those who had lost their lives.
Volunteering was a great way
to meet people, and learn from
them even as they learned from
him.
“You meet people from all ages
and walks of life, and until Covid,
all countries of the world.”
While the pandemic had
impacted visitor numbers, plenty
of New Zealanders remained
interested in the museum.
Simply put, volunteering was
fun, he said.
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