James Henry "Jimmy" Whalen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 23rd, 1920. He graduated from Kitsilano High School in June, 1938. As a teenager he showed a keen interest in aerial warfare, reading any books about WW I aces and modern fighter planes that he could. He joined the Seaforth Highlanders Army Cadets in 1937 in an effort to gain military experience, however, his dream was to be a fighter pilot in the air force. World War II started in 1939 and in 1940 the Royal Canadian Air Force realized a need for future aircrew and formed the Air Force Cadets. The first squadron was started in Vancouver (known today as the 111 Pegasus Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Cadets) . Jimmy quickly transferred to this new squadron and was named its first Wing Commander. At the time he was a first year student at the University of British Columbia. In 1940 the RCAF waived its' requirement for pilots to be University graduates, leading to Jimmy's enlistment on June 26th, 1940.
He
became one of the first candidates for the new Commonwealth Air
Training Plan and trained in Ottawa, receiving his wings on January
25th, 1941. Rated highly, he had received a commission as a Pilot
Officer, only to have it rescinded after he was caught displaying his
flying prowess by scooting under a local bridge. (Jimmy flew under
the Ottawa/Hull bridge, pulled up hard on the stick then looped the
bridge, coming out of the loop to go under the bridge a second time.
This was observed by someone who took the plane's numbers down and
reported him) In March of 1941 he was posted to the #2 A.A.C.U. in
Gosport, England. From there, in June of 1941, he was posted to # 57
O.T.U in Wrexham, Wales. Here his dream came to fruition when he
began operational training on the Supermarine Spitfire MK I. He
quickly showed his potential as a fighter pilot and was rated "Above
average" by his instructors.
While the Operational Training Units were not in the combat area,
they were a dangerous place to be. Jimmy had lost three classmates
killed while training in Canada. On June 26th, his first anniversary
in the RCAF, two friends, Pilot Officer Milmine and Sgt. Womack were
killed while practicing dogfighting. On July the 7th another friend,
Sgt Goldberg was killed in a mid-air collision. Finally, on the 20th
of July, just two days before graduating to an operational unit Pilot
Officer (his rank now restored), Jimmy Whalen was practicing
formation flying with Sgt. Kempling and Sgt. Beaton when the latter
two collided and were killed. The entry in his log book reads:
"Beaton and Kempling killed in formation with me. Mid-air collision.
It was a god damn shame." Without seeing a minute in combat, he had
lost 8 fellow pilots.
On August 1st, 1941 Jimmy was posted to 129 (Mysore) Squadron, an RAF unit based at Leconfield. He would fly as a Canadian in the RAF for the rest of his service. It was not a leisurely transition from the OTU. The next day he was sent up on his first combat sortie, flying one of the squadron's Spitfire Mk Is. On that mission Pilot Officer Cunliffe downed the squadron's first enemy aircraft, a Junkers Ju-88. On the 28th of August the squadron transferred to West Hampnett, Sussex (part of the Tangmere Wing) and took delivery of their brand new Spitfire Mk Vs. Jimmy was learning fast from his squadron mates and his opportunity to prove it would come quickly.
On
September 17th, 1941 129 Squadron was on a fighter sweep to Fruges,
France when they ran into a bunch of Luftwaffe Me-109s. In the
ensuing dogfight Jimmy downed an Me-190E and an Me-109F.
Unfortunately the dogfight consumed much of his fuel and he crashed
landed, on the English coast. He had to hitch a ride back to the base
before he could be congratulated. Four days later, on a sweep over
Gosnay, France, near the Pas de Calais, Jimmy downed another Me-109E
and damaged a second. His actions put him in good stead with his
Commanding Officer, and made him famous back in Vancouver. He flew to
Tangmere in his newly customized Spitfire where he was
congratulated.
Jimmy described the engagements in a letter to his family:
"I was on a sweep leading green section when I saw a ME 109F about to attack my number two. I turned after him and shot him down and then lost our squadron. I was going to head for England when I saw a squadron above about ten to twenty miles inside France. I didn't know who they were so I headed towards them. When I was close enough I saw that they were ME 109E's. About 12-15 flying in formation . I attacked shooting down the first Gerry. I missed the next then damaged a third, who might have crashed, and was going to shoot at a fourth when my ammunition was finished. I could see nothing but Gerrys around me and I beat it for England as fast as I could go doing all kinds of queer maneuvers to keep the ME 109's away from me. That was my first fight and yesterday I had my second. We were on a sweep just crossing the coast when 90 + ME 109's attacked us. I had a couple of unsuccessful brushes and being separated from the rest my number two and I started to fight our way home. We were attacked by four ME 109's out over the Channel, we took on two apiece but mine headed for France. I lost my number two then and was headed for home when I saw two of three ME 109's that were attacking a damaged Spitfire. I attacked them shooting the first down and damaging the other and was then attacked by the third ME 109. He hit out for France after a slight scrap and I returned to base. The pilot of the damaged Spitfire said he thought I was an angel from heaven when he saw me coming to help him."
On October 20th he was aloft again when the squadron made a strike on Le Havre and Dieppe. Once there they ran into heavy anti-aircraft fire from a German Flak ship. Jimmy dove straight for it. Although he took a number of hits he continued to pepper the ship with cannon and machine gun fire until it was put out of action, listing badly to the starboard. He continued with 129 squadron, until December, when history changed his fate. On December 7th, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, Hawaii and other Southeast Asian targets. Suddenly British interests in Asia were threatened, and there was a desperate need to send experienced fighter pilots to defend India and Burma. Jimmy volunteered to be one of them.
Three weeks later on January 3rd, 1942 Jimmy found himself as a co-pilot on a DC-3 flying across Africa on its way to India. He arrived in Port Sudan on February 6th, where he started familiarization flying a Hawker Hurricane 2b and a Kittyhawk. These were a considerable step down in performance from the Spitfire Vb. On February 22nd, he was assigned to 30 Squadron RAF, who had just finished efforts in the desert war. On the day he arrived he was quickly shown to the cockpit of a Kittyhawk (after only 3 hours flying them) and sent off on an anti-submarine patrol over the Red Sea. On February 27th the squadron was placed, aircraft and all, onto the H.M.S. Indomitable and shipped to their new base, at Colombo, Ceylon.
On March 6th the squadron disembarked the aircraft carrier and set up just outside of Colombo at Ratmalana. There was a large Royal Navy fleet stationed at Colombo, and it was the squadron's duty to defend it. Also posted to Colombo with them was the only Canadian squadron in the Far east at the time, 413 Squadron RCAF, who were operating Catalina flying boats. Squadron leader was Len Birchall and his men were tasked with patrolling the ocean watching for a Japanese attack. On March 4th Birchall and his crew were nearing the end of an extended patrol when they spotted a Japanese carrier task force steaming for Ceylon. They barely had time to radio back to Colombo before they were swarmed by Zeros and shot down. At the time it was assumed that Squadron Leader Birchall had died, sacrificing himself for Ceylon. He became an instant hero, known as " The Saviour of Ceylon". Only at the end of the war was it realized that he had survived, been captured, and spent the war in a Japanese prison camp.
On April 5th, 1942 a Japanese strike force under the command of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo attacked Ceylon with 120 Carrier based air planes. The RAF could field only 40 defending aircraft. These were Fulmars and Hurricanes, which were no match for the swift and manouverable Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Jimmy and a number of other Canadians serving with 30 Squadron, including Flight Lieutenant Bob Davidson who was also from Vancouver, were tasked to wade into the onslaught of Japanese planes.
Jimmy flew up over Colombo and started to patrol at 15000 feet. It only took a few minutes to sight a formation of Val (Navy type 99) bombers at about 18000 feet. Jimmy climbed into a position just above them then dove headlong into the enemy planes. In his first pass he downed two of the bombers, passing right through them. In a minute he reassessed the situation finding himself once again underneath the bombers but also observing that they were continuing on. So, he decided to give it another go. He climbed again, set up above the Vals, then dove in again, guns blazing. Another went down in flames. Unfortunately by then a flight of Zeros had observed the action and quickly had Jimmy twisting and turning trying to shake his pursuers. Just when it seemed he was going to fall victim to the Japanese fighters, out of nowhere came Flight Lieutenant Davidson, who fired a burst into the first Zero sending it down. The others panicked and broke off. Jimmy and his C.O., low on fuel, returned to base. By the end of the action 17 Japanese aircraft would be destroyed, however, 30 of the 40 RAF planes had been lost.
Jimmy's
tally was now six confirmed enemy aircraft and that made him an Ace.
At a low point in the war, the actions of the pilots were seen as
heroic, and a golden opportunity to boost the morale of the
homefront. The RCAF dispatched a photographer and reporter from its
newspaper. A number of publicity
photos
were taken at the squadron including some of the new Ace, and a
recruitment comic
strip
was published.
Things settled down after the attack and Jimmy and his squadron mates took time to enjoy the life at Colombo. Sgt. Grant "Bish" Bishop from Kelowna, B.C. would turn out to be Jimmy's greatest friend of the war. Bish became "Black Two" Jimmy's wingman and together they were inseparable. They became such close friends that they even signed letters home to Jimmy's sister Joan and his brother Bob (who was an air gunner in North Africa) "from Jimmy and Bish".
Jimmy enjoyed his time at 30 Squadron, but the months rolled on and eventually in December 1942 he was transferred to 17 Squadron under the command of Squadron Leader "Bush Cotton" an Australian (see his recently published memoirs "Hurricanes over Burma") By now there were few Japanese planes in the area and this made improving ones score difficult. For the rest of the war Jimmy would fly as a fighter-bomber pilot, providing ground support to the infantry. He made many of these sweeps with 17 Squadron. In June of 1943 17 Squadron was moved from Calcutta to Agartala. From there they made a number of sorties against the Japanese in Burma, strafing targets of opportunity, particularly Sampans transporting troops and supplies along the rivers.
In
August he was transferred again, this time to 34 Squadron based at
Madras. 34 Squadron was flying the Hawker Hurricane 2c, which had
been converted to hold two 250 pound bombs. These planes were
referred to as Hurri-Bombers.
34 Squadron's speciality was bombing and strafing enemy troop
concentrations, and they did lots of this. In November of 1943 the
squadron was moved to a jungle airstrip at Palel, Manipur very close
to the Burmese border. From here they flew innumerable sorties
against the Japanese. Although there were few Japanese planes, danger
from ground fire was extreme (as Typhoon fighter-bomber pilots in
Normandy would find out after D-Day).
The largest land battle in the Asian theater, The Battle of the Imphal Plain occurred in March/April of 1944. The Japanese attacked from Burma directly toward Imphal. In between Imphal and Burma was the 34 Squadron airfield at Palel. The infantry battles raged only kilometers from the airstrip. The squadron flew bombing and strafing missions every day, sometimes twice a day. To the north, the small mountain village of Kohima was attacked by the Japanese 31st division, numbering 15 000 men. The village was defended by approximately 3000 men including the 4th battalion of the Royal West Kents. For 2 weeks battles raged in and around the residence of the British Deputy Commissioner. The defenders were hammered mercilessly.
34 Squadron flew numerous sorties attacking the Japanese positions around Kohima throughout the two week battle. The village was nestled between two mountain ridges, which meant the pilots would have to run a gauntlet of small arms and light anti-aircraft fire while making their strafing and bombing runs. On the 18th of April, 1944 Jimmy was leading 12 of the squadrons Hurri-Bombers on a sortie to relieve the defenders of Kohima. As he entered the area of the Rifle range he ran into very heavy light arms fire. He dropped his bombs at very low level then started to pull up. Suddenly he was hit by ground fire. The plane pitched into a roll, Jimmy corrected and just made it over the ridge. When the rest of the flight came over the ridge Jimmy was gone, having crashed into the jungle. His plane was found months later in the heavy bush near the Kohima Imphal road.
For
his actions Jimmy was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying
Cross. He is buried, with the other defenders of Kohima, at the
Kohima Commonwealth Military Cemetery.
e-mail
me at blwhalen@axionet.com