Trafford

Born during the March quarter 1921 in the Chorlton R.D. - ref: 8c/1176, the
son of Robert Ernest & Margaret Ethel Parry (nee Jones).  His parents
resided at 8 Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range, Manchester.

Instructor Navigator.

All No. 48 Air Training School War Diaries have been lost, but their
casualty records still exist.    No. 41 Air Training School War Diaries
exist up until April 1943, thereafter they are lost.   Very few of their
casualty records exist.

A Pilot Instructor, he died of Multiple Injuries in a flying accident in
South Africa.    The Woodbrook airfield runway ran east - west and sloped
down east towards the Buffalo River estuary.   Due to this, it was a
particularly difficult airstrip to land on.

He took off at 10.20 hrs from 48 School, flying a Tutor 621 - No. 722 for
low level "attacks" in co-operation with the East London Ack Ack gun
positions, training gunners in the sighting at diving A/c.    There were
six Ack-Ack sites to be "attacked" - 4 on the western side and 2 on the
eastern side of the Buffalo River.   Witnesses stated that the a/c dived
towards the gun position and pulling out of the dive went straight into a
second attack that was very much slower than the first.   He pulled out of
this dive and climbed to about 300 feet where he did a stalled turn. It
appeared that he wanted to make another attack from that stalled position,
but the a/c went into a spin and the engine noise died away.  They managed
to extricate the seriously wounded passenger - F/Off A.M. Bracey, but could
not extricate the pilot whose right leg was trapped and a mobile crane was
required to remove his body.  The a/c crashed about a mile to the west of
the River.

The following standard notice appeared in the Daily Dispatch on the 21st
May 1943.

"All claims against the late Flight Lieutenant Noel Parry, are to be
submitted to the Station Adjutant, Woodbrook, East London within 21 days
reckoned from the 24th May.    No claim can be admitted if received after
the announced date.  Signed - A.F. Clarke, Station Adjutant, 48 Air School,
East London".

The G.O.C. Coastal Command wrote to the Secretary for Defence stating that
he did not wish there to be an inquest as this would publically reveal the
existence of Ack-Ack sites.

He was a popular Instructor and a Station Chapel was built in his name.  He
is commemorated on the 25 Group Memorial at Port Alfred and in the
Stretford WW2 Memorial Book.

There were two Air Training Schools in East London - the other, No.41
School was situated at Collondale Airfield which is now the main commercial
East London Airport.    Woodbrook Airfield disappeared under a modern
Industrial Estate. Both Schools came within 25 Group whose H.Q. was at Port
Alfred Airfield (formerly 43 Air Training School, but now a private air
training school).    The 25 Group's War Memorial is still sited at this
airfield and both Noel Parry and Harry Greenhalgh's (see the Altrincham
Database) names are listed upon it.  Memorial states that his number was
79179.

He was buried at 11.00hrs on the 21st May 1943.

I have researched all 25 British WW2 burials at East London and put
together a document about them.