Memories of Service 2 - Howard Monk

Web (Full Length) – 2016

The flight I had at Woodbourne, they just gave everybody a flight and did aerobatics and really thrashed everybody around just to see if you could stand it, and you weren’t sick and that sort of thing. It was all a bit of a test to see if it was worth continuing with your training. And I enjoyed it so much. It was great.
– Howard Monk

Unfortunately there were no Japanese aircraft available to fly to try and shoot down. The RNZAF actually shot down 99 Japanese aircraft; they could never get the ton.
– Howard Monk

The first thing they did after V-J Day, we were all issued with a 38 revolver which we wore all the time in case we were shot down, and the first thing they did was, we had to hand them in. They were scared some of the guys might go wild with the damn thing and do some shooting up. So they took those off us straight away. Which we thought was a little embarrassing.
– Howard Monk