A former RAF pilot who protected the Bay of Bengal from Japanese invasion during the Second World War has said world leaders need their heads “knocking together” as he reflected on the 79th anniversary of V-J Day.
Jack Hemmings, 103, was stationed in India for four years during the war with the 353 Squadron, carrying out reconnaissance missions of the Burma (now Myanmar) coast, scouting out Japanese submarines and attacking occupied ports.
He volunteered for duty with the air force, flying to Calcutta in a Lockheed Hudson at the age of 19, after a few weeks’ training in how to pilot one.
For the anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, when Imperial Japan surrendered in the Second World War on August 15 1945, Mr Hemmings sent a message to world leaders.
The veteran, who lives in Horam, East Sussex, said: “We ought not to be trying to kill another bunch of people, we ought to bringing our arms round them, and say look, there are world problems, climate change and that sort of thing that we all have got to apply our energies towards, then we’re all happier.
“The population of the world should be interested in the welfare of all the rest of the world.”
The former squadron leader added: “I think the world’s a bit of an undesirable place at present.”
Recalling his wartime experiences, Mr Hemmings remembers it as “surprisingly unemotional”, even at times flying into enemy fire, tasked with destroying well-defended ports occupied by the Japanese.
“We used to fly into a hail of anti-aircraft fire but again it was totally emotionless,” he said.
“It must have been very light air anti-aircraft fire because we were hit several times and didn’t feel it.
“On one occasion, as we turned away, the guy at the back who had a good view of all that was going on called me up and said ‘lots of little holes in the wing, Jack’.
“When we landed, we had a burst tyre. It’d come so far as inches off the engine, so I might have been a resident in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. But it didn’t hit the engine, so we just flew back home.”
On keeping calm, the grandfather-of-three added: “I think it’s because your mind is totally devoted to doing what you’re supposed to do.
“You can’t step back from it and say ‘gosh, this is scary’, you’re concentrating on the target or keeping a lookout in case they send any fighters up.”
From late 1943, the squadron was then tasked with transporting passengers, mainly soldiers, around India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, which Mr Hemmings enjoyed because of his love of flying.
“One of the nice things about it is that you’re away from you lot, humans, and all the ways of the world are all down there, I’m away from it all. That’s one of the nice things,” he said.
The veteran was awarded an Air Force Cross (AFC) for exemplary gallantry while posted in India, and has a “clear memory” of his flying commander driving up to the house and shouting from the car that he had received a gong, to which Mr Hemmings replied “oh, that’s very nice”.
When he returned to London he went to the air ministry to ask about when he was meeting the King for his AFC, to instead receive it from an officer worker who got it out of a filing cabinet.
“She did say something about ‘well, you will understand, so many people got gongs at this stage of the war, the King can’t do them all’.
“So I don’t know what I got it for, I think general good flying.”
In the aftermath of the war, Mr Hemmings went on to pioneer a humanitarian air service, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), alongside D-Day veteran Stuart King.
The two took on the first British mission to survey the humanitarian needs of isolated communities across central Africa in 1948, visiting more than 100 aid and mission outposts.
MAF grew into a Christian organisation that uses planes to deliver relief, medicine and emergency cargo to more than 25 low-income countries.
Mr King, a former RAF engineer, died in 2020 and for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Mr Hemmings went to Normandy to pay tribute to his best friend.
“It was poignant. I went there because of Stuart who had endured this,” he said.
“Once or twice when people started to thank me for liberating them, I had to explain I was there on behalf of somebody else. I took it as thanks on behalf of Stuart.”
Following the war, Mr Hemmings became an accountant but never left flying behind him.
He performed aerobatics on his 100th birthday and in February this year, he flew a Spitfire to raise money for MAF, making him reportedly the oldest pilot to fly a Second World War aircraft.
To mark his 103rd birthday, he will be a special guest at international air show Eastbourne Airbourne where he will meet Red Arrows squadron leader Graeme Muscat and watch displays from the pilot lounge.
