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Old 2nd Jan 2017, 14:37
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Geriaviator
 
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THE PARKHOUSE MEMOIRS – Part 21

The memoirs of Sqn Ldr Rupert Parkhouse, recorded in 1995 – Part 21. First post in this series is #9775 on page 489 of this thread.



“I went to the OCU at Benson for 14 days' ground school and was able to get home every weekend, which was a great bonus”, says Rupert. It was indeed a bonus, for he wooed and married Rosemary, the sister of an old school friend. The couple are pictured on their wedding day in 1946, and on their anniversary 70 years later in their nursing home in Southbourne, this picture courtesy of the Bournemouth Echo. Rosemary, now 93, said: “I think we were two very lucky people who clicked together and stayed together.”

FROM BLACKPOOL I was sent to a POW rehabilitation unit at West Malling where we spent a month being lectured. They actually tried to give us drill which we steadfastly refused to do. I was given a fortnight's leave at the end of November, and I went to the Air Ministry where I persuaded Wing Cdr Day to put me back on the list for flying. I realised that if I did not do so then I would never lay the ghost of that awful mistake, which I think engendered a basic underlying fear of flying.

So I was sent to 21 PAFU, a pilots' advanced flying unit, and I met a lot of other ex-POWs on the train to Wolverhampton where we were met by RAF lorry for our journey to RAF Wheaton Aston.

We arrived at the Mess about 5pm on November 10, 1945, and were just unloading our luggage when above the 10/10 cloud we heard the most terrific explosion and about a minute later a Mosquito fuselage, minus outer wing sections and tailplane, flames belching from both engines, came hurtling out of the sky like a flaming rocket and went crunch into the centre of the airfield.

About two minutes later a Roman-candling parachute came out, it hadn't developed properly, and beneath it was the body of a man spreadeagled with his arms out and his foot attached to the parachute harness, going at such a speed he could not possibly have survived the impact. Then about 10 minutes later we saw a man coming down on a fully developed parachute, so we could see the general direction he was going, and boarded the lorry to retrieve him.

I have always thought what an amazing return to flying that was, that so soon we should see the dark side of that activity. I never knew what happened to the aeroplane but it must have had an effect on me because I took about 20 hours to go solo on the Oxford. [The Mosquito PR34, fastest of all the Mosquitos, had been on a radar calibration flight when the starboard engine exploded and started an airframe fire. The navigator survived but the pilot, P/Officer John Peter Van der Heijden, RAFVR, was killed – Ed.]

My instructors were all dying to leave the Service and became rather impatient, but I don't know why I found it frightfully difficult to readjust. Eventually I went solo and was then sent to Seighford to do a beam approach course, which was successful.

By that time Alistair Panton had got to Benson as SLO and Tommy Callen, another POW, was on the staff at the photographic HQ, and they arranged that I should join the Mosquito OTU. Well, the adjutant at 21 PAFU tried to persuade me against this, saying that I had obviously had difficulty on the Oxford and it was really crazy for me to go and fly the Mosquito which was known to be quite a tricky aeroplane. But I was starting to get optimistic by then and I wanted to get to Alistair Panton and a lot of other POWs who were now flying at Benson.

So I went to the OCU at Benson for 14 days' ground school and was able to get home every weekend, which was a great bonus. The OCU aircraft moved to a satellite aircraft called Chalgrove and I was there in June and July flying dual on the Mosquito T.3, an unarmed trainer version with dual controls.
NEXT POST: Rupert soldiers on with the Mosquito, but is relieved when he is transferred to be a staff pilot at Leuchars in Scotland, operating the kindly Anson on navigation training.
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