NZ2547 photographed at Luganville Field on Espiritu Santo in early 1944.  This was one of three replacement
aircraft for 30 Squadron. The aircraft had received damage at Santo, where it was repaired by 30 S.U. 
It was later to serve with 31 Squadron on Bougainville in June 1944.

After they had become established, 30 Squadron then began their forward area training.

They were fortunate in that they were to share this period of training  with VMTB232, an experienced Marine Squadron operating TBF's who were preparing for another tour in the forward area.  The skills learnt during this time were to help 30 Squadron immensely during the period ahead,  and the friendships formed were to carry on to the present day.
 

On the 7th of March the ground crew and equipment of 30 Servicing Unit, and many of the non flying personnel of 30 Squadron  (along with those of 25 Servicing Unit) embarked on a US Navy Transport ship, AK 127 (USS Alnida) for Bougainville.  The ship sailed via Guadalcanal, and arrived at Bougainville on March 15th where they were ferried ashore in amphibious 'Duck's' to the accompaniment of shellfire from the many allied warships gathered off Empress Augusta Bay. 

Their arrival was at the height of the major Japanese counter attack on the beachhead area, which at this time was only to a depth of three miles inland, and a width of four miles along the coast!  The 30 Servicing Unit camp area was only 1000 yards from the front line, so the men were armed at all times, and had to share guard duties with the US forces.

30 Squadron flew their aircraft (with extra passengers from the skeleton crew from 30 Servicing Unit left behind to look after the aircraft) to Guadalcanal on March 23rd, escorted by PV-1 Venturas which also carried some of the remaining 30 Servicing Unit personnel.
 

On the 24th, after a three hour flight, 30 Squadron's aircraft touched down at Piva on Bougainville,  just as the Japanese guns in the hills above were shelling the airstrip!  Fortunately all landed safely with no damage.
 

On the morning of the 25th, they went straight into action, along with the SBD's of 25 Squadron,  bombing and strafing the Japanese gun positions and troop concentrations around the perimeter.  They only had to take off, fly a circuit and bomb before coming in to reload.  This was to be the pattern for the next fortnight,  bombing during the day, and patrolling the perimeter during the night.

During this period, sporadic shelling of the camp areas by the Japanese, by day and night,  made sleep almost impossible, and 30 Squadron and 30 Servicing Unit crews were operating under great stress.
 

The first major action was on March 26th when a combined raid was carried out on Kavieng airstrip on New Ireland to support the American landings on Emirau Island.  Much accurate damage was caused to the strip, and the 30 Squadron crews were commended by the Commander Air Solomons, General H.R.Harmon.  During this action, NZ2510 received major damage to a wing, and had to make an emergency landing on Green Island.  The 'Joker' apparently received the replacement wing from a TBF-1,  and by all accounts was never the same aircraft again!
 

30, and later 31 Squadron,  were to concentrate their efforts on the prime Japanese target of Rabaul, particularly two of its airfields at Vunakanau and Tobera.

The first major operation against Vunakanau  came on 9th April when Flight Lieutenant N. H. James of 30 Squadron led a mixed group of 93 RNZAF and USMC TBF's and SBD's on a successful strike.  Much damage was caused to the runway, but two of 30 Squadrons aircraft, NZ2512 and NZ2518 received hits from AA fire.

The format of a typical mission was as follows, quoting a passage from 'The Avengers' by Wally Ingham:

Therefore each mission was usually shared by SBD's and TBF's, the majority being SBD's employed as dive bombers who's task it was to go in first and dive-bomb the anti-aircraft batteries, primarily to destroy the guns, and secondarily to put the gunners off their aim and force them to take cover. The TBF's would immediately follow and plant their bombs on the runways and personnel areas. The size of each force varied according to the specific target but the average mission usually contained 40-60 SBD's and at least 12-24 TBF's plus fighter escorts, and it was not uncommon to have over 100 aircraft coordinating on one mission.

F/0 L Hadlow recalls the tactics very vividly "From the time we left Piva we would climb steadily until we reached at least 14,000 feet altitude over the target area flying loosely in groups of 3 aircraft. Taking our cue from the SBD's who would dive bomb the defenses,  we would immediately follow our leader in a high speed shallow dive in the direction of the target, leveling out at 8,000 feet altitude, followed by a steep wing-over and dive (about 45 degrees) down to 2000' on to the target.

In each case the maximum speed (red line marking) was exceeded reaching 350 knots or more if one was to survive. On releasing our bombs we would fly even lower (it being instant suicide to pull-up in a climb, as the AA would have easily picked us off, and our one chance of survival was to keep as low as possible) until we reached the coast at sea level, and got out to sea and out of range of their AA defenses"

The first operational loss was  NZ2507 which crashed with the loss of her crew (Pilot F/O R.D. Gardner, Navigator P/O  C. Nichols  and Gunner P/O  P. Shearer) after being hit by AA fire over Vunakanau on 26th April, 1944.   This loss was to affect the members of 30 Squadron and 30 Servicing Unit deeply, as Gardner and his crew had been with 30 Squadron since its formation.