A Superb, Most Important, Early & “Historically Unique“ Whitley bomber pilot’s Aircrew Europe, casualty group of three with Mention in Despatches.

To:
Flying Officer T. H. Parrott, M.I.D.
77 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
KILLED IN ACTION, 12th MAY 1940.

“Tim” Parrott holds two unique places in RAF history.

He and his crew were the only airmen to actually land their aircraft inside Germany during WW2. Thinking they were just inside France, they had actually landed during a fuel emergency in a field just inside the German border! ….They took off again and with a superb piece of luck they totally got away with it …However the crew were then tragically lost just eight weeks later when they became the very first bomber command crew to be shot down and killed when they attacked the railway system at Monchengladbach on what was the first ever targeted raid on Germany in WW2.

[BIOGRAPHY] (1916-1940) 23.
F/O T.H. PARROTT. M.I.D. R.A.F.
(Known as “Tim” by his friends & family)
Thomas Hayward Parrott, was born on 26th November 1916, the son of Walter Lawrence Parrott, part of a well-known family of solicitors in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and his wife Katherine Mary (née Seaton). He was the second of three sons and was born in Kelerberrin, a wheatbelt town 127 miles east of Perth, Western Australia.

By the 1920s the family were living at Homefield, Oxford Road, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. In September 1929 at age 12 Thomas went to Lord Williams’s Grammar School as a boarding pupil and although of average academic ability, he was quite a good sportsman. In his last term in 1933, his housemaster wrote of him. “He will probably leave in this term much to our regret. His modesty, good nature, skill and courage at games, particularly at Rugger, have made him deservedly popular.”

Thomas served for a while with the Middlesex Yeomanry (part of the Royal Corps of Signals) and in June 1936 received his commission into the Royal Air Force. He trained as a pilot and was stationed with 77 Squadron at RAF Driffield in Yorkshire. In February 1940, having been promoted to Flying Officer, he was “Mentioned in Dispatches”.

On the evening of 12th May 1940 he took off in an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mark V aircraft on a bombing mission to Monchengladbach, Germany. The aircraft crashed in the target area and Thomas, age 23, was killed together with three other members of his crew. The one survivor F/O Don Blew, the 2nd pilot, became a prisoner of war in various German camps of the early wartime period & finished his captivity at the famous Stalag Luft 3, the home of The Great Escape.

This was the first bomber to crash inside Germany whilst carrying out a bombing operation on a mainland target.
The crew were originally buried in Lohmannsheide Forest Cemetery, near Duisburg and were reinterred on 24th June.
1947. His younger brother Peter Lawrence Parrot DFC & Bar AFC, served with great distinction as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force with multiple kills of enemy aircraft while flying with 43 Squadron during the Battle of Britain.












39112 Flying Officer Thomas Hayward Parrott, Royal Air Force, is buried in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Germany. He is remembered in Thame on Lord Williams’s School Memorial Board.


[THE MEDALS]




1939-45 Star (Bomber Command Clasp) in named box of issue.
Aircrew Europe Star
War Medal 1939-45 ( M.I.D.) 20th February 1940.

-Also Included-
Official RAF WW2 Medals & Casualty Condolence Slip.
Flt/Lt T.H. PARROTT.






Official “Bomber Command” clasp with issue slip & named box.

With an extensive album housing a selection of superb original pre-war & later aircraft photographs & associated newspaper cuttings. Some of these with additional documentation relating to his brother who was a famous thrice decorated Battle of Britain “Fighter Ace”.

[A VERY CHALLENGING DAY of FLYING]
In January 1940, Tommy Parrott force landed in a field in France on one engine after his Whitley aircraft shed its starboard propellor.

[ANOTHER VERY CLOSE RUN THING]...”Landed in Germany”
On 15th-16th March 1940, Flying Officer THOMAS HAYWARD PARROTT, with his crew of four, performed by complete accident a unique & potentially fatal feat which remained unparalleled & was never repeated for the rest of the war.

Having dropped his load of propaganda leaflets on Warsaw, Poland, in an old Whitley bomber, P/O Timmy Parrott initially began a “dead reckoning” return transit across Germany on his way back to RAF Driffield in Yorkshire. However, and owing to a very low fuel state and fast deteriorating wind and weather, he decided to put down as soon as possible after crossing what he thought was the Franco-German frontier.

After landing in a large and bumpy field and exchanging a few words with some local villagers who had arrived in the field, the conversation quickly disillusioned them, as they had in fact landed in Germany !

Almost immediately some German troops were seen approaching on bicycles and who then began firing at the aircraft and crew.

The quick-witted airmen promptly dashed back into their Whitley aircraft and took off under a brisk hail of rifle fire. Upon becoming airborne they only just about cleared the hedges at the far end of the field. The aircraft eventually landed safely some 20 miles further on at a French Airfield in what was in March 1940 still British held territory.

They were all safe, but apparently rather shaken by the experience.

[THE FINAL & FATAL SORTIE]
Flying Officer Tim Parrott then took part in another historically pioneering flight, albeit with totally tragic results. On the night of 11/12 May 1940, RAF Bomber Command launched its first ever deliberate raid on a German town. The target was the railway line system passing through Mönchengladbach which became the aiming point for a small force of Whitleys and Hampdens.

Tim Parrott’s Whitley V N1366 (KN-K) was shot down during the raid and holds the quite incredible distinction of being the very first RAF bomber command aircraft of The Second World War to crash inside Germany while carrying out a bombing operation on a mainland target.

39112 F/O Tim Parrott and three of his four crew members were also killed in the shoot down. The three lost airmen were.

1) 580497. Sgt Thomas Todd Atchinson. (Observer). 23
2) 551624. LAC Terrance Poad.
(Wireless Operator). 19
3) 624943. AC2 Tudno Jones.
(Wireless Operator). 20

The sole survivor was:
39705. F/O Donald Blew (2nd Pilot).
Don was one of the earliest POW’s of WW2 and was held as prisoner 594, with eventual incarceratio at the Famous Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan, the home of The Great Escape.









This amazing group is perhaps one of the most historically outstandingly & interesting non-gallantry RAF assemblies we’ve ever had the privilege to own. Because of what it represents, it really does come in at pole position in the annals of Royal Air Force history.

(SOLD)