Parker, Donald
Donald PARKER
Flying Officer, RAAF No. 47435
No 1 Salvage Party
Don was born on 20th April 1909 and enlisted 3rd February 1942. He describes one of the many retrieval operations he was involved in, following raids on NW area airfields by Japanese aircraft during 1943.
30th June 1943 there was a raid by a large force of "Betty" bombers supported by about thirty "Zeros". The Wing was scrambled, with about twenty Spitfire Vc's getting into the action. Many enemy aircraft were shot down, mostly into the sea and some Spitfires were lost. Only two pilots were lost - one on fire when landing and the other, Pilot Officer James Charles Wellsman of 54 squadron was missing. No 6 Communication Flight, whose Commanding Officer was Doctor Fenton, a Flying Doctor before the war, was based at Batchelor airfield, had several aircraft including DH 82 Tiger Moth, DH 84 Dragon, a Lockheed Lodestar and a Supermarine Walrus, which were used for search and rescue, often in conjunction with No 7 RSU. This RSU covered the area west to Broome, east to Gove, south to Katherine and north to Bathurst and Melville Islands. Many Spitfires were repaired and/or recovered from this huge area.
At the time of this raid, a recovery party, including myself, was in the field south of the action looking for an aircraft. A coded radio message was received to search for "Jimmy" Wellsman. A call to No 6 Com Flt produced a Tiger Moth flown by Len Conroy [or Conway] to land at a temporary strip, made by running tracks back and forth, to make the strip and marked at each end by a white tape. A small fire gave the wind direction. The approximate area of Jimmy's last sighting was also radioed. After a long search, and fuel getting low, the crash site was found and by flying low and slow, Jimmy was sighted, lying on his back with arms outstretched. Conroy made a very good landing about half a mile away, on what appeared to be grass, but it turned out to be hard black soil, with large buffalo footprint holes nearly as large as the aircraft wheels, but somehow the undercarriage held together. The crash site was about thirty miles west of Batchelor and in the Reynolds River swamp area. It seemed that Jimmy had shot down a Betty and was either shot down by the Betty's tail gunner, or pulled out too late from the fight and crashed into the tree tops. The Betty hit the ground and broke into many pieces, strewn over three hundred yards. The Spitfire, BR 528, was broken into large pieces on high ground in tall timber and bamboo grass- it had not caught fire. Jimmy was thrown clear and was lying, dead, in twelve foot grass. The body was far enough from the river to be safe from crocodiles and, with no dingoes around, it was safe to leave it.
The Tiger Moth got airborne with difficulty and returned to Batchelor. At this stage the swamp prevented transports getting in and of course helicopters were unknown. After about two months, in September, the swamp had dried out enough to let vehicles in and I led a party of six to recover the body. A litter was made of canvas and saplings and Jimmy was brought out and handed over for burial in the Berrimar Cemetery by Wing Commander Bob Foster's party, later to be re-interred in the War Cemetery at Adelaide River, NT. Both aircraft were left where they fell.
Fifty years on the Spitfire is still being searched for as it is wanted by the RAF as a memorial to the young men of England who came to Australia and gave their lives in defence of our Country. The Wellsman family had been trying to find out what happened to Jimmy for years. A small article in an English newspaper, written by Bob Foster, was relayed to the family and recently Paul Wellsman, the younger brother, now retired, came to Australia and found out all about the event , his death and resting place.
While in Sydney, Paul Wellsman was invited by the Spitfire Association to their annual reunion after the Anzac day march, where he met the men of No 1 Fighter Wing. He also planted a tree in memory of his brother and so he takes his memories of Australia and Jimmy back home as he returned from his pilgrimage.
Donald Parker was discharged on 14th September 1945 from RAAF Headquarters.
Don keenly followed the activities of the Spitfire Association and attended it's functions whenever it was possible for him to do so.
Don Parker of Redland Bay and Cleveland Queensland died on 29th July 2000. Roy Hutton alerted us to Don's demise.
Bruce Read, Paul Carter and Edited by David Hamilton
The Spitfire Association
