Geoff Fisken, 1916–2011
The sheep farmer who became a flying ace
When the Japanese shot down Geoff Fisken’s fighter over Singapore in February 1942, the hardy New Zealander managed to crash-land his ruined plane. It was only once he’d clambered from the wreckage that he noticed a 4-inch piece of shrapnel protruding from his hip. Unfazed, he grabbed a pair of pliers and attempted to yank it out himself. The task was eventually done in the hospital. “[They] strapped it up,” he later recalled, “and I was able to fly again in three or four days.”
Fisken’s physical toughness befitted a man seemingly “hewn from the rugged Wairarapa coastline” of New Zealand, said the Rotorua Review. Born to a family of sheep farmers, Fisken began flying Gypsy Moths at the age of 14 and volunteered for the Royal New Zealand Air Force soon after war broke out. In 1940 he was assigned to a military base in Singapore to fly American-made Brewster Buffaloes alongside the British air forces.
In December 1941, the Japanese invaded Malaya, said The New York Times, and Fisken joined the “vastly outnumbered” British forces to take them on. By February 1942, he had shot down six Japanese fighters in highly dangerous conditions. At times there were 16 enemy aircraft for every Allied airplane, so Allied pilots had to dive from on high to attack rather than carry out risky short-range maneuvers. “Anybody in Malaya who tried to dogfight was just a bloody fool,” he said. “You were dead in five minutes.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Fisken later flew a P-40 Kittyhawk nicknamed the Wairarapa Wildcat alongside American pilots at Guadalcanal, said the London Telegraph. On July 4, 1943, he shot down three Japanese planes, prompting Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz to reward him personally with five cases of Canadian Club whiskey. He retired at the end of 1943 with 11 confirmed kills, making him the war’s “most successful British Commonwealth fighter pilot.”
After the war, Fisken returned to New Zealand and was a sheep farmer until his retirement, in 1976. His son, Michael, said that his father rarely spoke about the war. But when he did, Michael said, it was to “tell us how good he was.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Nasa's 'strangest find': pure sulphur on Mars
Under the Radar Curiosity rover discovers elemental sulphur rocks, adding to 'growing evidence' of life-sustaining elements on Red Planet
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Bodycam shows deputy killing Black woman
Speed Read An Illinois deputy fatally shot Sonya Massey, who had called 911 about suspected trespassers
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Spare us the charade'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
Michael Mosley obituary: television doctor whose work changed thousands of lives
In the Spotlight TV doctor was known for his popularisation of the 5:2 diet and his cheerful willingness to use himself as a guinea pig
By The Week UK Published
-
Morgan Spurlock: the filmmaker who shone a spotlight on McDonald's
In the Spotlight Spurlock rose to fame for his controversial documentary Super Size Me
By The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published