Class: RNZAF Ground Training Station with a Landing Ground
Administered by: Royal New Zealand Air Force
Closest Major Town or City: Levin
History under RNZAF usage: An ex-municipal aerodrome which had officially gained authorisation to operate as an airfield on the 11th of July 1935, Levin became an RNZAF Station just after the immediate outbreak of war in 1939. The Government Training Farm at Weraroa had been taken over by the RNZAF for the purpose of training new recruits, and the Initial Training School was transferred into Levin from RNZAF Station Rongotai in October 1939. This later became known as the Initial Training Wing.

Most airmen and many WAAFs who joined the RNZAF during the first half of the war passed through RNZAF Levin, because this was the home of the Initial Training Wing from 1939 till 1942. Airmen knew the place by both names of Levin and Wereroa, which can be confusing for some. This was where raw recruits learned the basics of service life and were turned into airmen and airwomen before moving onto more specific trade training. The station also had the airfield which saw some activity during the war. When ITW moved on, the Bomber Operational Training Unit that had previously been at Ohakea moved in.

Opened as RNZAF Station: October 1939
Closed as RNZAF Station: 1944
Wartime Station Commanders:
Wing Commander Ronald James Sinclair - ? till approx Jan 1942 (posted to command RNZAF Station Taieri)
Air Commodore Trevor Watts White CBE, ED - must have been CO from January 1942 till March 1942
Wing Commander FR Dix March 1942 - ? 1943
Wing Commander Arthur Colwell Upham DFC - Dates unknown

Wartime Units Permanently Stationed Here:

Initial Training Wing
Originally entitled Initial Training School, this was the main entry point that most airmen were sent to where basic military training and Air Force life was instilled into new recruits. It was based at Levin from 1939 through till February 1942, when it was shifted up to Rotorua. The first course of airmen pilots, observers, and air-gunners to pass through Levin started training there on the 20th of October 1939

No. 1 (Bomber) Operational Training Unit
This unit had previously been stationed at RNZAF Ohakea, and it trained pilots to fly the RNZAF reconnaissance bombers on Hudsons

No. 10 (Bomber) Operational Training Unit
This unit had previously been stationed at RNZAF Ohakea, and it trained pilots to fly the RNZAF reconnaissance bombers on Hudsons

Officers' School of Instruction
This moved back from Omaka to Levin when the South Island base had closed down in April 1944 when sufficient accommodation had become available

Contact
From the magazine's inception in 1941 till January/February 1942 when the office moved to RNZAF Rotorua. See here