A SBD-4 Dauntless operated by 25 Squadron was for a time preserved in the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum at Wigram, displayed in the condition which it was recovered after being lost with its crew while on a training mission at Espiritu Santo.

[1] For the next few months the crews trained while the maintenance personnel struggled to keep the aircraft flying, requesting and receiving several more SBD-3 (and later SBD-4) machines from the Americans to maintain operational numbers.

On completion of initial training, the squadron celebrated by flying eighteen aeroplanes over Auckland just before luncheon on 6 January 1944, to the great interest of the civilian population.

Stalled while low flying near Waiuku, New Zealand on 13 September 1943 and crashed and burned with the loss of PLTOFF William McJannet and SGT Douglas Cairns.

NZ5037 with its crew of FGOFF Alexander Moore and FSGT John Munro went missing on 11 February at Espiritu Santo on a radio range familiarisation flight.

McLellan-Symonds was later captured and shot in the left thigh by the Japanese and transported to Rabaul, where he was interned at Tunnel Hill Road.

On 17 April the squadron supplied twelve SBDs to take part in a strike of 86 aircraft against the Japanese airfield at Lakunai, near Rabaul.

NZ5050 was last seen over the target and is presumed to have been hit by AAA and crashed into a ravine with the loss of PLTOFF Geoffrey Cray and FSGT Frank Bell.

All SBD-5s operated by 25 Squadron were painted in the USN "three-colour scheme" of sea-blue upper surfaces, intermediate blue sides and white undersurfaces.

At 0700 the seventeen SBDs took off from Piva and landed at Renard Field in the Russell Islands where the aircraft were returned to American ownership, reportedly in "as new" condition.

Several pilots transferred to the new squadron, including Graham Howie who was killed on take-off when his engine failed and he crashed into the jungle on 13 June 1945.