Cecil ‘Boz’ Parsons, ‘Flying Coffin’ pilot who flew raids against Berlin and Dunkirk – obituary
Squadron Leader Cecil “Boz” Parsons, who has died aged 105, flew heavy bombers over Germany and then against the Japanese in the south-west Pacific region before becoming a farmer and a schoolmaster in his native Australia.
He began flying operations in July 1941 as the second pilot of a Halifax bomber with 35 Squadron based in Yorkshire. Over Kiel at 20,000 feet the aircraft was coned by searchlights and the captain began to take evasive action during which he lost control.
The bomber entered a steep dive as the captain tried to jettison the bombs and he ordered the crew to bale out. Parsons and the navigator exchanged a “no way” glance as Parsons grabbed the four throttles and closed them.
To his surprise, the bomber levelled out at 11,000 feet. His presence of mind and quick reactions saved the situation, but not before the unfortunate tail-gunner left and landed in Kiel Harbour in mid-winter.
Parsons transferred to 58 Squadron to fly as the second pilot of a twin-engine Whitley bomber. In September 1941 he attacked Brest, where the German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were based. Shortly afterwards, after an accident returning from a public house in the dark, it was two months before Parsons returned to flying.
Of his many operations in the “Flying Coffin”, as the Whitley was known, none was to be more dangerous than the Berlin raid of the November 7/8 1941 when, in an operation which many felt should never have been mounted, the attacking force sustained a 12.5 per cent loss rate, due partly to the atrocious weather, with icing in cloud and adverse winds, resulting in several Whitleys running out of fuel on the way home, Parsons’s aircraft landing at an airfield on the north coast of Norfolk virtually out of fuel. Winston Churchill’s comment that, “There is no need to fight the weather and the enemy at the same time”, led to a suspension of raids on Berlin until January 1943.
Parsons flew his first operation as the aircraft captain on December 7/8 when he attacked Dunkirk. After take-off, and at just 150 feet, he had to exert strong forward pressure on the control column to keep the nose of the heavily-laden bomber from rising, and resulting in a loss of airspeed, which could have caused a fatal crash.
A glance out of the cockpit revealed that the flaps had dropped to an angle of 60 degrees from the 10 degrees set for take-off. There was no point in blaming the inexperienced second pilot who had selected the wrong lever, so Parsons instantly raised both the flaps and the undercarriage himself, and the Whitley staggered into the air.
After many raids against targets in the Ruhr, Parsons was rested and became a bombing instructor. When Bomber Command launched its first “Thousand Bomber” raid on May 30/31 1942, against Cologne, crews from the bomber training units were used to make up the numbers. Parsons flew a Whitely on this raid and the two that followed against Essen and Bremen. At the end of his tour in late 1943 he headed back to Australia having twice been mentioned in despatches during his time in Bomber Command.
Cecil Edgar Robertson Parsons, known as Boz, was born into a farming family on September 12 1918, in the western district of Victoria. He was educated at Geelong Grammar School and went on to gain a science degree at Melbourne University.
After joining the militia, he transferred to the RAAF and trained as a pilot in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
On his return to Australia in 1943 he converted to the four-engine long-range B-24 Liberator bomber. He was attached to the USAAF 380th Bombardment Group operating from an airfield near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territories. As captain of an all-Australian crew, he attacked Japanese targets in New Guinea and in Java, some sorties over 12 hours long. For their long-range bombing efforts, the 380th received the coveted United States Presidential Citation. Having completed eight operations, Parsons and his crew received the award.
With American forces advancing in the Pacific, the Parsons crew transferred to 24 Squadron RAAF operating from the Northern Territory. His first operation was to drop supplies to the army on Batanta Island in western New Guinea. This set the pattern for many of his operations. The most vital was Operation Perch to drop special forces of “Z” Force behind enemy lines. The mission was highly successful and attracted widespread praise. In due course, he was awarded the DFC for his outstanding work inserting special forces on clandestine missions.
Parsons flew over 20 operations before he joined a training and test flying unit. At the end of the war, back in command of a Liberator, he flew the most satisfying and rewarding operations, those to bring home Australian prisoners of war.
After leaving the RAAF, he flew with a small company delivering mail and medical services in the Northern Territory before taking up farming on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.
In 1962 he returned to his old school as a teacher of agricultural science and chemistry. He was soon promoted to be housemaster of Manifold House, his own former house, where his long reign is affectionately remembered by thousands of former pupils. When headmaster Charles Fisher was tragically killed driving to Timbertop in 1978, Parsons was appointed senior master to manage all four campuses of the school until the arrival of John Lewis from Eton.
He retired after 20 years at the school and, in his later years, he continued his agricultural pursuits on the Bellarine Peninsula. He kept flying his own Piper Arrow until he was 94. A year later, he achieved a hole-in-one using a five wood on his local golf course where he had been a member for many years.
“Boz” Parsons is survived by Barbara, his wife of 77 years and by their two sons and a daughter.
Cecil Parsons, born September 12 1918, died February 1 2024
