{"id":5817,"date":"2011-05-29T22:43:55","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T21:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2011-05-29T22:47:51","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T21:47:51","slug":"reminiscences-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=5817","title":{"rendered":"Reminiscences from a 90 year old war veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1985, my biography of Vee’s father – Flight Lieutenant Karel Kuttelwascher <\/a>DFC & Bar – was published as “Night Hawk”.\u00a0 It took me three years to research and write and I thought that the project was then over – but it keeps coming back to life, even after 26 years.<\/p>\n

In 2006, Vee and I were interviewed for a television programme about her father’s wartime exploits in a series called “Love And War”. From time to time, it is rebroadcast by the Yesterday channel.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of May, the programme was broadcast again. One of those who saw it contacted his daughter who then tracked me down.\u00a0 Don (‘Lofty’) Parks – who is 90 in a few weeks time – was a flight mechanic who worked on Kuttelwascher’s Hurricane IIC aircraft and remembers him well.<\/p>\n

His daughter Gillian Castro was keen to obtain a copy of “Night Hawk” for her father for his 90th birthday but, of course, it has long been out of print and only second-hand copies are available online. So this afternoon we drove over to meet Don and Gillian in St Albans and Vee presented him with a signed copy of the book from our very limited stock. As you can imagine he was absolutely thrilled.<\/p>\n

Don is in incredibly good shape. He still lives alone and does all his own cooking. Each morning, he does a set of exercises that he learned while in the wartime Royal Air Force.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$
\nVee with 90 years young Don Parks<\/span><\/p>\n

We spent over two hours listening to his wartime reminiscences. He was a member of the ground crew at No 1 Squadron throughout the three-month period when Vee’s father shot down 15 German bombers. He later served in Egypt, Palestine and India.<\/p>\n

Vee and I have never seen a decent photograph of her father in his Hurricane fighter aircraft but Don has one which he is copying for us.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$
\nVee’s father in his Hurricane
\n– the swastikas represent aircraft shot down<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"