Harry Parkins, now in his 80s, served in the RAF as a young 20-year-old Warrant Officer Flight Engineer.
Harry Parkins grew up in the East End of London, in Hackney, went to school in Hackney.
As a young man, still in his teens, so in those days legally not even classified as yet a man, he was walking to work one day, to find on his arrival it had been destroyed in a German bombing raid, all he found was the smoking ruins.
That decided matters. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was stationed in Lincolnshire, known for its number of airfields as Bomber County.
Known as 'Ackney Harry', Harry Parkins served with two squadrons, based at two different airfields - 630 Squadron at RAF East Kirkby and 576 Squadron at RAF Fiskerton. The service with 576 Squadron at RAF Fiskerton was more by accident than design. His first crew was a mix of British and Commonwealth, including crew from New Zealand and Australia. The second crew was all British. He flew exclusively Avro Lancasters.
First crew: Pilot Joe Lennon, Flight Engineer Harry Parkins, Bomb Aimer Jimmy Hurman, Navigator Bruce Reese, WOP Jimmy Marriot, Mid Upper Gunner Joe Malloy, Rear Gunner Joe Pollard.
Second crew: Pilot Flight Officer Fry (Chips), Flight Engineer Harry Parkins (Ackney Harry), Bomb Aimer Woodliffe (Fingers), Navigator Smith (Smithy), Wireless Operator Lait (Sparky), Mid Upper Gunner Younger (Geordie), Rear Gunner Jones (Taffy).
On a bombing raid to Munich on 24 April 1944 via the French Alps and Italy to fool the Luftwaffe night fighters, a round trip of more than 2,000 miles, Harry Parkins and his crew are believed to hold the record for the longest flight by an Avro Lancaster. After taxiing for take-off, the plane was topped up, it ran out of fuel just as they touched down at East Kirkby, 10 hours and 25 minutes later.
The final operation of the war, the dropping of food to the starving Dutch (part of Operation Manna) on VE-Day, brought the final tally of operations to 45. At the end of the war, Harry Parkins was a vetearn of 45 operations.
Following the final operation on VE-Day, Harry Parkins went into nearby Lincoln to celebrate the end of the war with Germany (the war with Japan had yet to end). It was here that he met Mavis Wright who was to become his wife.
On leaving the RAF (now married), Harry Parkins remained in Lincolnshire, where he has lived ever since.
As a special 80th birthday treat, Harry Parkins was taken by his daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and her boyfriend to the former RAF East Kirkby where he had been stationed during WWII (before being stationed at RAF Fiskerton). Following the wedding reception of granddaughter at nearby Petwood Hotel (used as an officers mess by the Dambusters Squadron), he then made a return visit with friends of the family as a honoured guest of the Panton Brothers. An account, 'The People's War', can be found in Reedlink December 2005.
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