Lancaster Memorial
On a mid-summer's night in August 1944, Flying Officer Whelan Hazard and his crew from Royal New Zealand Air Force 75 Squadron flew into the darkening skies of England, headed on another night bombing raid on Germany.
On the way, they took enemy fire and crashed into a field near the small village of Weiswampach in Luxembourg. All seven crew lost their lives.
That same night, another bomber from 61 Squadron was shot down in the same area and a further seven Commonwealth fliers lost their lives.
These 14 deaths had a profound effect on the village of Weiswampach. Its residents never forgot the price those men paid and 60 years later, in 2005, a memorial was built on farmland there to honour these heroes.
That same year, Flight Officer Hazard's niece, Lynn Ashton, travelled to Luxembourg to visit the memorial. Honouring her uncle and the other members became a priority for her. On return to New Zealand she approached the then-Henderson Community Board requesting a memorial, replicating that in Weiswampach, be built at the Harbourview / Oringahina reserve alongside a memorial stone for her uncle that had been laid in 2006.
Over time, the push to erect a memorial and honor those two crews, and others who have lost their lives overseas, drew support from the Te Atatu Residents and Ratepayers Association, the Te Atatu RSA and the Waitakere City Council's Projects Special Committee. Funding was eventually sourced from the Harbourview Park Special Fund (created from a ratepayers' levy.)
Local authorities in Weiswampach and the architect of the memorial there (Mr Pol Holweck) were contacted for permission to replicate the memorial in New Zealand.
Led by the community board, a large number of stakeholders began the work necessary to build the memorial here. Regular stakeholder meetings were held to identify the best site, consultation was undertaken with the crew members' families, and detailed drawings and engineering calculations were completed along with building consent applications.
In just six weeks, the striking $90,000 memorial, featuring three 6.2-metre-high plinths (representing New Zealand, Canada and Britain) and a stainless steel wing was erected. It was dedicated on 17 September 2010 to coincide with Battle of Britain Week celebrations. The memorial has been well-received by the community. Letters from surviving members of 75 Squadron showed they were touched by the project, which also resulted in a lot of positive media coverage for the community board, even in Weiswampach.
For Lynn Ashton, standing alongside the surviving members of the 75 Squadron and the families of other men who died along with her uncle, as well as the Prime Minister and Governor-General at the memorial's unveiling made her years of campaigning worthwhile.
"I'm pleased with the memorial because it remembers not only the airmen who died in August 1944, but all the men and women who died fighting for their country."
Download the Henderson-Massey Community Board's Best Practice Award entry here. (pdf)
Pictured above: Dignitaries and community leaders at the dedication of the Lancaster Memorial on the 17 September 2010.
