Group Captain Ken Parfit
Lancaster bomber navigator with wartime Pathfinder Force
GROUP CAPTAIN KEN PARFIT, who has died aged 96, flew 29 missions in Lancasters, the majority with the Pathfinder Force.
Kenneth John Parfit was born in Middlesex on March 20 1924 and educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Barnet. In 1941 he went up to Glasgow University to study Mathematics and Astronomy and served in the University Air Squadron before enlisting in the RAF Volunteer Reserve.
In 1943 he trained as a navigator in Canada and by the summer of 1944 had joined 61 Squadron. His first bombing operation was against the French city of Caen where German forces were holding up Allied ground forces after the landings in Normandy.
A few days later his Lancaster was badly damaged over Bordeaux and, with one engine at full power and a second on half power, the crippled bomber managed to reach England.
After five operations, Parfit and his crew joined 97 Squadron, part of the Pathfinder Force based at Coningsby. Their first operation was against Rheydt on September 19, when Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC was the master bomber. Soon after the raid was over, Gibson and his navigator were killed when their Mosquito crashed over the Netherlands.
Parfit attacked synthetic oil plants and the port at Danzig, and he twice bombed the Dortmund-ems Canal. He “celebrated” New Year 1945 in his Lancaster at 20,000 feet when it was “coned” by enemy searchlights and came under intense anti-aircraft fire.
On April 18 he flew his 29th and final mission of the war, bombing the marshalling yards at Komotau in Czechoslovakia.
Post VE-DAY he flew long-range transport flights on Yorks of 246 Squadron until he was demobbed in August 1946.
After four years of civilian life, he re-joined the RAF and for the next three years served in the education branch. He returned to flying as an instructor at No 2 Air Navigation School at Thorney Island, before converting to the Beverley, a lumbering transport aircraft. He joined 53 Squadron in 1957 and was involved in many overseas exercises over the next two years.
He served 18 months in
the MOD, after which there was an urgent requirement for a Beverley squadron commander, and Parfit left for Khormaksar in Aden to take over 84 Squadron. He made numerous flights supporting ground forces engaged with Yemeni insurgents.
A period back with the MOD, responsible for tactical air transport and helicopter operations, was followed in June 1968 by his appointment as commander of 30 Squadron, one of the first Hercules squadrons, based at Fairford.
During his time with the squadron, he circumnavigated the world twice, flew London policemen into Anguilla in the West Indies to provide a quick response following a period of unrest in nearby Antigua, and flew British troops into Northern Ireland.
In June 1974 he was appointed station commander at RAF Episkopi in Cyprus. Within days there was an attempted coup against Archbishop Makarios, the president, and five days later Turkish forces invaded northern Cyprus. Episkopi became a sanctuary for thousands of people, and Parfit and his staff had to assist in the evacuation and airlift of British nationals.
Sixteen months after his appointment RAF Episkopi was closed and Parfit left for Ankara to serve on the staff of Cento, where he was responsible for RAF personnel serving in Turkey. He retired from the RAF in 1977, then spent four years working for British Aerospace in Saudi Arabia, including two years as service manager at Tabuk Air Base. He finally retired on 1982.
In 2015 he was appointed Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur.
He is survived by his wife Margaret and by three daughters and a son.