ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 203194
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| Date: | Wednesday 21 January 1942 |
| Time: | 12:00 LT |
| Type: | de Havilland DH.84 Dragon |
| Owner/operator: | Kevin Parer t/a Parer’s Air Transport Co |
| Registration: | VH-AEA |
| MSN: | 6073 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Salamaua Airfield, Salamaua, Morobe -
 Papua New Guinea
|
| Phase: | Standing |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Salamaua Airfield, Salamaua, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea |
| Wau, Papua New Guinea |
First registered (C of R 4950) 23.3.34 as G-ACOR to Graham Mackinnon, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Named “Fiona” after his daughter. First flown at Hatfield 16.5.34; C of A 4292 issued 19.5.34. Operated by British Continental Airways Ltd, Croydon Airport, London. Named “St Christopher”. Flew scheduled services within England and to the continent. By 3.36 Owned by British Airways Ltd, Gatwick Airport, Surrey. From 8.3.37 Operated by Northern and Scottish Airways Ltd, Renfrew Airport, Glasgow.
Early in 2.38, Purchased by Kevin Parer, Wewak, New Guinea and on 22.2.38 Australian Civil Aviation Board allocated registration VH-AEA to this DH.84 for Kevin Parer. UK registration G-ACOR cancelled the next day (23.2.38). On 10.6.38 Registration application to Kevin Parer t/a Wewak Air Transport, Wewak, New Guinea. Formally registered on 23.6.38 as VH-AEA. 23.6.38 (same day) Australian C of A issued.
28.11.38 (approximately): Damaged in heavy landing at Wewak, pilot Kevin Parer unhurt. Repaired between December 1938 and September 1939 by company engineer E. W. Haynes. In September 1939 there was a change of operating name to Parer's Air Transport Co, Wewak.
On 21.1.42, Destroyed by Enemy Action at Salamaua, New Guinea. Kevin Parer was killed at 12 noon by Japanese fighter strafing attack which also destroyed Mandated Airlines Dragon VH-USA. Pilot William Ernest Clarke, pilot of Mandated Airlines' Dragon VH-USA also destroyed at Salamaua that day, later wrote that he and Kevin Parer were both getting ready to take off for Wau at noon. Parer was in his cockpit but having trouble getting an engine started and called Clarke over to help swing the propeller: "I had just got hold of the propeller when Japanese fighters roared in about 50 feet overhead. A burst of machine gun fire from another sprayed around us. I dropped under the shelter of the engine. I got up and saw Kevin get out of his seat and dash to the back of the cabin where he was hit and fell. The Japs were still coming. I covered Kevin with a blanket and made for a shelter. When the Japs were clear I ran out to the plane, which was now on fire. I tried to get Kevin out but I couldn't manage it. The Japs saw me and back and let me have it. A couple of bullets ripped across my legs above the knees but they were nothing - only shallow flesh wounds. But for Kevin's engine not starting, we would both have been shot down in the air."
William Ernest Clarke also received severe burns to his hands from his attempt to drag Kevin Parer from his burning Dragon. William Ernest Clarke was awarded the George Medal for his valour and bravery. Natives evacuated him to Kokoda and then flown to hospital in Australia. On 21.1.42 (same day) DCA inspector V.W. Burgess sent a cable to DCA Head Office from Salamaua, listing civil aircraft damaged by a Japanese air raid on Salamaua aerodrome that day. His assessment of Dragons was:
VH-USA repairable
VH-UVB destroyed
VH-AEA destroyed
As a result, on 11.3.42 VH-AEA was struck-off Civil Register as "destroyed by enemy action"
According to reports in the contemporary media, (Pacific islands monthly : PIM.Vol. XIV, No. 1 (17 Aug., 1943) - see link #9) the citation for William Ernest Clarke's George Medal was as follows:
"PILOT W. E. CLARK
Awarded George Medal For Bravery
After more than 18 months’ delay, Pilot William Ernest Clark, formerly employed in New Guinea by the late Kevin Parer’s air transport company, has been awarded the George Medal for outstanding bravery at Salamaua in January.
On that occasion, he and Mr. Parer were on the Salamaua aerodrome, preparatory to taking off — he in a Fox Moth, Parer in a Dragon, The aerodrome was then attacked with machine-gun fire by Japanese aircraft.
Parer ran to his machine to try to get it into the air, but was fatally wounded as he entered the plane. As the Dragon burst into flames, Pilot Clark, who had been sheltering, crossed the aerodrome, which was still under heavy fire, and removed the body from the cockpit. He received severe burns on the hands and was slightly wounded by machine-gun bullets.
Kevin Parer, of the well-known New Guinea family, had been in the Territory for many years and had always been connected with air-transport. In 1937, when the Wewak goldfield was well established, he went into business for himself, at first with a small Fox Moth and later, as the business proved successful, with the addition of a Dragon machine. His untimely death, in such a fashion, is regretted, as one of the real tragedies of an altogether tragic period in the history of New Guinea.
Pilot Clark (not to be confused with Flight-Lieutenant G. J. I. Clarke, RAAF, formerly of Carpenter Airlines, who was killed in operations off Dakar in September, 1940) had been associated with Parer’s air-transport company for a considerable time. He is now employed by an Australian airline company".
Sources:
1. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/77-register-gb-g-ac
2. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ACOR.pdf
3. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A5.html
4. http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh84-pt1/dh84-dragon-pt1.htm
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p060.html
6. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH84.pdf
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamaua
8. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1575410
9. Pacific islands monthly : PIM.Vol. XIV, No. 1 (17 Aug., 1943): https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-315014559/view?sectionId=nla.obj-329153162&partId=nla.obj-315016942#page/n13/mode/1up
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Dec-2017 21:16 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 30-Oct-2022 14:45 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative, Category] |
| 30-Oct-2022 14:46 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Departure airport] |
| 30-Oct-2022 14:47 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Category] |
| 30-Oct-2022 14:47 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [[Category]] |
| 30-Oct-2022 14:50 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Category] |
| 26-Jun-2023 02:57 | Ron Averes | Updated [[Category]] |
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