NZ427205 | 681 Squadron, Burma, WW2
Jim Hickey - Spitfire Pilot
Jim Hickey was born in Opunake in 1923, the only one of ten children to go off to war. Hickey was posted to Woodbourne in 1943, to begin training as a fighter pilot on the
T6 Harvard, for him a quantum leap in technology.
Later that year Jim joined the war effort, sailing on the ‘Monarch of Bermuda’ to
San Francisco, a train across the USA to New York, onto the ‘Queen Mary’ across the Atlantic to Scotland, then another train ride through England to Brighton and Hove.
Now in England, Hickey converted to twin engine Ansons and Oxfords as a staff pilot.
In January 1945 Jim left for the Far East as a fighter pilot, converting to Mark 5 Spitfires at Petahtiqva, Israel.
Then on to RAF 681 Photograph Reconnaisance Squadron, Calcutta, India. Finally Mingaladon airfield, Rangoon, Burma where Cliff Emeny was also based.
His PR missions photographed the infamous Burma-Siam Railway, where many Allied Prisoners of War perished from starvation and cruelty.
Flying the Mark 19 high altitude Spitfire Jim Hickey was one of just a few Allied pilots to fly above 44,000 feet. In contrast, low level photographic sweeps were done at a mere 100 feet.
In September 1945 Hickey returned to Taranaki aboard a humble tea boat. The trip took 6 weeks.
Jim married Tilly O’Donnell and the couple raised five children: Jim jnr, Mary Jane, Marguerite, Catherine and Chris.
