856th BS

Thompson Crew

Front Row, L-R:

David Croft        - Bombardier
Donald St. Martin  - CoPilot
Abe Thompson       - Pilot
William Clarke     - Navigator

Back Row, L-R:

Garrett Parnell    - Gunner    (DNB)
Johnnie Page       - Gunner
Walter Rohde       - Gunner
Robert Osborne     - Gunner
Harold Parvi       - Engineer
Louis Meyer        - Radio Operator

The Thompson crew arrived at Harrington after flying eight missions at North Pickenham where they had first reported in July of 1944.  Special Orders #120, dtd 16 August 1944 show the ten-man crew, who managed the following numbers of missions before the drawdown of mid-September 1944:

Thompson    (P)    Nine missions
Clarke      (N)    Nine missions
St. Martin  (CP)   Seven missions
Groff       (B)    Eight missions
Parvi       (E)    Nine missions
Meyer       (RO)   Nine missions
Parnell     (TG)   Eight missions
Page        (E)    None
Osborne     (D)    Five missions
Rohde       (AG)   None

Page and Rohde make their only appearance at Harrington in this set of orders and were probably orphaned and sent to a replacement depot.  Parnell was later killed in November of 1944 on a combat return flight from Cheddington where the LEMKE crew had been sent on Detached Service.  His younger brother, Ben Parnell, later wrote the first comprehensive history of the group.  See the Honor Roll page for details of the Lemke crew incident.

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