18-07-2025
Battle-damaged log books back together again
Sergeant Charlie Cronk's log book and other possessions were sent back to his family after he was killed during a landing when his plane crashed into a fuel tanker in India four months later.
Now his great-nephew, Gradon Conroy, who lives in Christchurch and has had the log book since 2005, has decided it is time to pass it on to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand in Wigram.
His grandmother Marjorie Prince, Kronk's sister, gave it to him when she moved into a rest home for safekeeping.
"Donating the log book is a great way to share his story and preserve his memory. The logbook was a prized possession in the family," he said.
Kronk, 23, was posted to No 243 Squadron RAF in Singapore in late 1941.
Made up mostly of New Zealand pilots, the squadron was equipped with obsolete Brewster Buffalo fighters.
Their airfield at Kallang came under heavy bombing and a strafing attack from the Japanese in January 1942, as they softened up the British stronghold in preparation for the invasion which would come less than a month later.
While on patrol, Kronk and New Plymouth pilot Bert Wipiti intercepted a lone Japanese Ki-46 Dinah reconnaissance aircraft at high altitude.
The pair split up and targeted an engine each, firing both firing bursts into the aircraft's twin-engines and sending it to the ground.
When he was later interviewed by American war correspondent George Weller, Kronk said: "I came up from underneath and saw the big body of the plane with its great red circles on the wing right over my head.
"Then I pressed the tit and emptied everything I had into her.
"I kept firing until all my ammunition was gone.
"She was burning all the way to the ground."
And in an uncanny coincidence, Kronk's log book has the same damage caused by shrapnel or a bullet as the log book of Kiwi airman and Nelson pilot from 243 squadron in Singapore, Flying Officer Maxwell Greenslade, which is also now in the possession of the Air Force Museum of NZ.
"When he stacked the two log books on top of each other, the damage lined up perfectly.
"It was quite exciting actually. Very rarely can you make a connection like this."
Conroy said it was thought the two log books were on top of each other in the adjutant's hut when Kallang airfield came under attack.
Conroy said news of Kronk's death would have been tough on his mother, Mary.
She had lost her husband two years earlier, and her eldest son, Wally Kronk, was overseas serving in the army.
"Wally came back and lived a life, so a lot of the family stories were more about him, but they were both family heroes."
Conroy said not a lot is known about his great-uncle.
"We only know him from his belongings, which were sent back, and from what grandma told us."
He was very proud of him, with a number of reports describing him as fearless in the face of the enemy.
