| The search for national identity
ZF and ZS. No doubt the adoption of national emblems in the roundels of the Canadian, South African, and Australian air forces had not escaped the notice of New Zealand serviceman. It was a letter to the Editor of the Wellington “Dominion” newspaper, published on 17 February 1956, however, that actually spurred action that was to result in the RNZAF adopting a national roundel in peacetime. The Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall W.H.Merton, referred the letter to his staff the same day it was published, and asked that a drawing be prepared showing “a fern leaf placed in the red centre portion of the roundel.”
The problems which ensued were concerned mainly with the actual design of the fern leaf and whether or not it would be applied by stencil or decal. During this period of trial, however, several alternative designs and alternative emblems were proposed by various staff officers. Pilot Officer R.M.Conly (the RNZAF’s official artist) was tasked with producing colour drawings of a silver fern leaf on a red circle, a red fern leaf, a red kiwi and silver fern combination.
The CAS’s fern leaf design held out. The actual design took some deliberation, however, and the assistance of the Drawing Office of the Tourist and Publicity Department (a government department) was sought. The Tourist and Publicity drawing was modified by giving more curve to the rachis (the leaf axis) and simplified so as to be able to be applied by stencil. This design was approved by the Air Board on 16 January 1957. The notation for this first fern leaf roundel is ZF.
During the gestation period there were further murmurings outside the RNZAF. The RSA (Returned Services Assosciation) Review of December 1956 pushed for a distinctive national marking, obviously unaware that matters were in hand. Following the public announcement of the new roundel on 26 January, further murmurings were seen in the RSA Review and some daily papers, criticising the choice of emblem. Amongst the points made were the3 fact that No 14 Squadron Venoms in Singapore had been sporting kiwi emblems for the past year.
The decision had been made, however, and implementing instructions were issued in June 1957. Stencils were produced (the Wigram ones were in aluminium) to apply the the white fern leaf over the existing red centres, a process that required careful preparation if leaching of the red was not to produce a pink fern leaf. A reverse stencil was also produced for the construction of new roundels, this being used to apply red to the white area, while masking out both the white ring and the fern leaf. The fern leaf was specified as being “wholly within the red disc and at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizontal axis thereof, with the butt of the fern leaf in the lower left hand portion of the red disc, as viewed by an observer.” Where the observer would stand to observe was not specified, and this led to a little confusion. I suspect that on some of the fuselage roundels the 45 degrees was taken from the horizontal when the aircraft was sitting on the ground, rather than at 45 degrees to the fuselage reference plane which was probably what was intended. On the wings the fern was at 45 degrees to the aircraft’s longitudunal axis with the butts towards the trailing edge – usually! I have found this to be case with the upper wing roundels, but underneath the port wing the butt was sometimes leading. This in fact did meet the crriteria for an observer who was positioned to read the serial number under the wing. (I call this overall arrangement the ‘3+1’, i.e three butts trailing and one leading.)
The paint was still drying on the ZFs when moves were made to adopt a better representation of the fern leave. Legend has it that one of the driving reasons was that the white stencilled fern leave could be mistaken for a white feather- the symbol of cowardice!Whatever the reasons, the search for an alternative was underway within nine months of the approval of the white fern leaf. During this period actual fern samples were viewed, and it became quite obvious that anything approaching a true likeness of a fern leaf would be too intricate for anything but a decal.
The two photos show RAF Venoms leased by the RNZAF and operated by 14 Sqdn at Tengah (Singapore) from May 1955 to May 1958, with their distinctive black rudders with white "Kiwi" marking, as mentioned and the balck and white diamond markings.
Second is Sunderland NZ 4120 wearing the white fern leaf of the ZF roundel, taken in the South China Sea during a SEATO exercise |