8:00am Thursday 25th August 2011
A WARTIME flier’s extraordinary story of survival after his bomber crashed into the sea will spark a moment of reflection during this week’s Clacton Air Show.
A flypast has been arranged in memory of Pilot Officer Charles Woodbine Parish and his crew.
PO Parish was the sole survivor of a crash over the North Sea off the Essex coast on September 8, 1940. Their Wellington bomber was struck by lightning on its way back from a raid over occupied Europe.
The strike disabled both engines and its six-strong crew jumped from the plummeting aircraft.
PO Parish was the only one to survive – after swimming an incredible seven miles to shore, using the stars to guide him.
Even more remarkably, PO Parish took just a week to recover before returning to the fray with his squadron.
On Friday afternoon, a Spitfire will stage a flypast above the Greensward, in Frinton as part of an event, organised by Walton Heritage Trust and the East Essex Aviation Museum.
The warplane will fly at 2.30pm as a gathering below pays tribute to the bomber’s crew.
Historian Geoff Rayner, who helped organise the flypast, said it was about time PO Parish and his crew were remembered.
He said: “The crew members played their part in the war effort and deserve to be honoured.
“It also brings home to local people what happened in their own area.”
Of PO Parish’s crew, only the body of Colchester-born Sgt Jack Brown was ever found. He is buried in the town’s Mersea Road cemetery.
Squadron Leader Lionel Andrews, Sgt Donald Payne, Sgt Nugent Bull and Pilot Officer Walter Searles were never found.
Last year, a similar flypast over Walton honoured the memory of Pilot Officer Gerard Maffett, who crash-landed locally in 1940 during the Battle of Britain.