page_title: Jimmy Whalen
section_title: Battles of Kohima and Imphal
hierarchical_section_title: Jimmy Whalen / India and Burma / Battles of Kohima and Imphal
caption_attribution_description: PZ865 was the last of the 14,533 Hurricanes built, and was initially retained by Hawkers. She is now operated by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) and wears the markings of a 34sqn aeroplane (HW840) flown by Canadian pilot Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Whalen DFC, as part of the South East Asia Command in 1944. She is seen during a practice display at her home base, RAF Coningsby, Lincs, UK. 20-4-2016
context_page_description: Flight Lieutenant James Henry Whalen DFC was a Canadian Second World War fighter pilot ace.
context_section_description: The Battle of Imphal  - in March and April 1944 - saw the Japanese attack directly toward Imphal from Burma. To the north, Kohima was attacked by the Japanese 31st Division, defended by a mere 3000 strong Allied force. No. 34 squadron was moved to Assam to provide ground support for these troops. The squadron flew intensive multiple bombing and strafing missions daily throughout the two-week battle, running a gauntlet of small arms and light anti-aircraft fire in the process. On 18 April 1944 Whalen was leading a flight of the squadron's Hurricanes against Japanese troops at the rifle range at Kohima. The incident was related by his wingman Flight Sgt. Jack Morton:
  We were flying from Dergaon when Jimmy was killed. He led six Hurricanes on an attack on the Rifle Range and I was his No. 2. We bombed in sections of two and Jimmy and I were first in bombing with two 250 lb. Bombs with 11 second delays fitted. I was slightly behind Jimmy and we dropped our bombs at about 50 feet and as we left the target area Jimmy's plane did a barrel roll and crashed. It was a very sad day on the Squadron because he was by far the most popular officer and pilot in both the Officers and Sergeants Mess. We carried out two more attacks that day and on both occasions we looked for his plane but there was nothing to be seen in the dense jungle.
  Flight Lieutenant Whalen was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross backdated to April 17, 1944. He is buried, with the other defenders of Kohima, at the War Cemetery in Kohima.
caption: Hawker Hurricane PZ865, in the livery of HW840, code letters EG-S, flown by Whalen
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "6016", "Image ImageLength": "4000", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "4761667/10000", "Image YResolution": "4761667/10000", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2016:04:21 09:26:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "316", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1024", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1138", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6539", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:04:20 11:18:36", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:04:20 11:18:36", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1040241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "126797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "270", "EXIF SubSecTime": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2857", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1905", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "992", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "405", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}