[1] André Louis Armand Hissink was born on 26 June 1919 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, moving with his family to the Netherlands at the age of eight.

[2] After high school, he studied law at Utrecht University, but dropped out after being drafted into the army because of the mobilization.

He became part of the 320 Dutch Squadron, which carried out war missions over the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.

Hissink was shot out of the sky in December 1944 after an attack on the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, but he managed to survive.

[4] After the war, Hissink returned to the Netherlands, where he applied for jobs as a pilot, but was told that there was no place for him in Dutch aviation.