FLIGHT LIEUTENANT Cliff Emeny
Mosquito Fighter Bomber Pilot, WW2
Born 11 January, 1920, Taranaki pilot Cliff Emeny was a young man not afraid to take risks. At 19 he was off to England at the outbreak of War.
An astonishing achievement was receiving three airmen’s wings: Air Gunner, Radar Observer and finally Pilot. Author Tom Woods penned his subsequent biography The Three wings.
In 1943 Cliff Emeny was posted to Grantham, England, for conversion to Blenheim bombers. Soon after he converted to Mosquito fighter-bombers and was posted to Burma.
In 1944 Emeny led a flight of six Mosquitos in a dawn raid on Meiktila, where he was shot down. Captured by the Japanese and imprisoned in the infamous Rangoon prison, he was subjected to harsh, cruel treatment.
On April 28 1945, Allied prisoners took control of the prison as the Japanese pulled out of Rangoon.
Emeny then led a party north to take over Mingaladon Airfield. Soon after Cliff was flown to Calcutta, weighing just six stone 10 pounds.
After the War Cliff Emeny and wife Joan, herself a returned service woman, raised a family of six children, and spent their retirement years in Taranaki.
Cliff Emeny’s wonderful flying legacy lives on with his sons.
Brett owns his own de Havilland Vampire military jet, a T28 military Trojan, Yak 52 and several others, all of which he flies as a display pilot.
Craig Emeny owns and operates Air Chathams, with passenger aircraft servicing both the Chatham Islands, and several New Zealand commercial airports.
