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42434 Sgt. F.H. MANZ.
PARENTS : Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Manz, Otaki Railway.

Frederick Manz was born in Wellington on July 17th, 1915 and after completing his education at the Palmerston North Technical School in 1930, he went to work with his father on his dairy farm at Otaki Railway, where he remained until joining the RNZAF in January 1942.

His favourite sports were rugby, tennis, swimming and rifle shooting. After leaving school, he was an enthusiastic member of the Hautere Defence Rifle Club and the Otaki Minature Rifle Club.

In November, 1940 Sgt. Manz applied for enlistment in the RNZAF as a pilot and on January 11th, 1942 was enlisted at Levin. Later in the month, he was transferred with the Initial Training Wing, to Rotorua, where he successfully completed his initial training.

He was then posted to No. 1 E.F.T.S., Taieri where he commenced flying training on March 9th and made his first solo flight on March 17th, after slightly more than nine hours flying. On May 3rd, 1942 he proceeded to No. 2 Service Flying Training School, Woodbourne where he was awarded the Flying Badge on July 27th, 1942 and promoted to the rank of Sergeant on October 17th, 1942.

From Woodbourne, Sgt. Manz was posted in October to No. 2 Operational Training School, Ohakea for operational training on Kittyhawk fighters and in December, 1942 was transferred to No. 15 Squadron, the first New Zealand fighter squadron to proceed to the South Pacific Area. In December, he went with the squadron to Tonga, where he remained until February 20th, 1943 when the squadron was transferred to Espiritu Santo. He was engaged on combat training routine patrol and escort duties for the next two months on April 26th moved to Guadalcanal, then the most forward allied base in the Pacific.