Our Stories Go Live!
By Naias Mingo, Front of House Projects, Air Force Museum of New Zealand
The Air Force Museum of New Zealand has just launched a new online exhibition—A Kiwi at War: The Story of Warrant Officer Bill Smith. It’s the latest in a series of virtual exhibitions planned to increase access to the Museum’s extensive collections.
Wartime memories
Safely housed in the Museum’s Archives is a collection of papers, which once belonged to William ‘Bill’ Milner Smith, a navigator in the RNZAF during World War II. These papers vividly portray Bill’s wartime experiences, which took him far away from New Zealand to train in Canada and England, fly on operational bombing missions, and eventually become a prisoner of war in Germany.
Bill’s story represents the experiences shared by thousands of young New Zealanders who travelled to the other side of the world to serve in the Air Force during the Second World War.
Our Museum’s mission is to preserve and present the history of military aviation for commemoration, inspiration, learning and enjoyment. We aim to bring the stories of former service personnel like Bill to life through exhibitions onsite at the Museum, at other venues around New Zealand, and now on the internet.
The Kiwi at War
Like many museums around the world, the collections on display at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand are just a small proportion of the entire collection—the majority is safely stored and cared for by our professional staff.
Online exhibitions are another way we can ensure visitors, from all over New Zealand and the world can have access to some of the incredible stories held in these stored collections.
Our online exhibitions are just one of several web-based initiatives the Museum has embarked upon recently. You can now follow our activities on Facebook and Twitter, where you can keep up to date with the latest events, programmes and photos.
Visit our website
Virtual visitors can follow Bill’s story through his detailed diaries and letters, and discover through his own words what it was like to be a Kiwi at War at www.airforcemuseum.co.nz/Kiwi-at-War.