F/L J. Parrot, Crew 140 - Couvin Belgium

Individual airmen from crew 140 are involved in three separate flight tragedies involving six aircraft over a span of 8 months. The Duisberg Raid on 17/18 Dec. 1944 would be fateful for many, P/O "Bert" H. Brown would be one of two survivors out of 28 men.

P/O D. Thicke was killed flying 2nd Dickey with crew 56 but trained with crew 140 as their pilot. F/O H. Pearce survived a training flight crash while in HCU 1664. Crew 140 collided with 3 other Halifaxes on a raid to Duisberg.

Parrott Crew - 140

L to R (back row)

F/O H. Pearce (Nav.), F/Lt J. Parrott (Pilot), P/O H. Brown (W-Op), P/O A. Kurtzhals (B/A)

(front row)

P/O L. Janzen, (F/E), W/O2 A. Divitcoff, (MU-AG), W/O2 Gordon Olafsen, (R-AG)

The Parrott crew flying Halifax NR-118  “WL-U” was flying on a raid to Duisberg on 17/18 Dec. 1944 it is believed that they were on their fourth mission. An occupational hazard was the 100's of bombers that flew in formation at varying altitudes, along with aging mechanical condition of aircraft.

Mid-air collision of four bombers...

Unfortunately on this night four Halifaxes collided from different squadrons; 10, 51, 432 and 434. F/Lt. Parrott's Halifax came to rest two Kms southwest of Couvin Belgium.

F/O B.M. Twilley and crew from squadron 51.

Below is an excerpt from "PER ARDUA AD ASTRA" (see "Newspaper Archives" for a very well researched history)

"...Witnesses on the ground near the town of Couvin, Belgium saw a burning plane falling through the morning sky. Messieur Bodart , a teenager at the time, was sitting at the breakfast table in the family farm house. He heard the scream of a plane descending very close by and rushed outside to see what was happening. Despite the war going on it was seldom they ever got to see any planes at close range. He was in time to see the plane explode just before hitting the ground. The low angle of descent hurtled pieces of the plane for a great distance across the ground and into an adjacent stand of trees.

It was a violent and horrific scene that he would never forget. One wing landed several hundred meters from the main crash site and the engines of the plane were buried in the ground in separate locations. Most tragic of all, six bodies lay strewn across what had moments before been a peaceful, idyllic farm field..."

The crash scene is where yellow meet's green, sources indicate that one of the Halifax engines is still buried here, another below the road surface. Rue de liberation (Liberation Road) was only a single lane in 1944 and the 2nd engine was asphalted over.

A Memorial between Pesche and Couvin, Belgium. December 2003

The Memorial is located on the roadside north of the crash site.

Another excerpt from PER ARDUA AD ASTRA "...The monument in Couvin, for the first time, makes a significant, lasting and appropriate recognition of this loss. It symbolizes the thankfulness of the Belgian people just as it symbolizes the personal loss to the families involved. May these men now rest in peace knowing they are not forgotten and that the significance of their sacrifice has not diminished but grown with time..."

 Left - Hector Maurage with Joanne Hart (neice of pilot James Parrott).

Hector Maurage was personally responsible for the Parrott crew memorial, as well as others in the locality. The warmth shown by him and by the people of Couvin towards the family's of crew 140 present on memorial day is something they will all never forget.

Heavy Conversion Unit 1664 crash

On the 15th April 1944 F/O Pearce and members of a crew were in flying in Halifax EB-205, they were returning from cross country training flight (HCU 1664), experiencing poor weather the a/c over shot the runway at Topcliffe striking a house and subsequently catching fire. Five of seven crew were killed, along with three civilians.

 Halifax EB-205 crash site today

The three civilians killed were Mr. and Mrs. Stone the occupants of the house, and James McNulty who was cycling by the cottage at the time of the crash. Airman John Tynski and F/O Harry Pearce survived, Harry would be the navigator with the F/Lt. J. Parrott crew.

Photos and written material courtesy Leslie Green