It has a history going back to World War II, when it operated flying boats, and has been disbanded and re-formed several times through changes in the country's military structure.

6 Squadron RNZAF was formed as an army co-operation unit at Milson in February 1942 flying Vickers Vildebeest and Hawker Hind aircraft.

Modern maritime patrol flying boats (and more Hudson light bombers) were requested under Lend Lease and after the first Consolidated Catalinas arrived in April 1943[2] a detachment of men from No.

[4] Fed by a constant trickle of recruits from New Zealand, and Catalinas from San Diego (a total of twenty-two PBY5's and seven PB2B-1's[2]), the squadron grew continuously during the war reaching a complement of 457 men in April 1944.

[4] The Catalinas' endurance (12-hour flights were routine; some, with extra fuel, exceeded 17 hours), load capacity (more than 6 t), and ability to land on, and take off from, the open sea made them ideal for a wide range of tasks.

Beauchamp) were awarded DFCs for their skill and courage in carrying out open-sea landings and takeoffs in dangerously rough seas during Dumbo missions.

[4] When the merchant freighter USS Cape San Juan was torpedoed and sunk 300 miles south-east of Suva on 11 November 1943 the sea was too rough for landing but the Catalinas were able to aid rescue ships by dropping smoke flares to guide them to survivors.

The squadron's Catalinas accompanied allied bombers and fighters taking part in air strikes on Rabaul and rescued a total of 29 airmen from planes that were either shot down or forced down by equipment failure.

[4] Two squadron members who later achieved prominence in other fields were Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb Mt Everest, and Eric Heath, who became an artist, illustrator and editorial cartoonist.

6 Squadron was re-equipped with Short Sunderland flying boats as a Territorial Air Force unit and also operated float equipped Auster light aircraft.