Keone D. Parmentier

In November 1940 the British press referred to a Dutch pilot, Keone D. Parmentier, whose family had been wiped out during the German invasion of the Netherlands. He was said to be carrying out nightly vengeance raids against German targets in Holland. His raids were principally directed at Rotterdam where his family was killed. After each raid, it was reported, he dropped a signed note telling the Dutch people where he would strike next. Allegedly, the Germans placed a price equivalent to £2,500 on his head.

Was this just fanciful propaganda or was there some truth? Was Keone D. Parmentier the K.D. Parmentier who flew the KLM DC2 to second place in the 1934 England to Australia MacRobertson Air Race? What became of K.D. Parmentier?

TIA

Tony Crompton

No there is no truth at all in this story. Yes, K.D. (Koene Dirk) Parmentier was the captain of the DC2 'Uiver' in the London-Melbourne race. The Germans invaded Holland on May 10th 1940. On May 13th Parmenire flew a KLM DC3 - PH-ARZ from Amsterdam Schiphol to England. During the war he was in charge of the 6 remaing KLM planes that flew the line Bristol-Lissabon in charter for BOAC.

After the war he helped building up KLM again and it is know that the legendary Plesman saw him is his successor. On 21st October 1948 while on his way to the USA, he tried to land the Lockheed Constellation PH-TER 'Nijmegen' at Prestwick, Scotland in very bad weather. The plane hit a high-voltage cable and crashed. Parmentier en two other passengers, one of them the Technical Director of KLM, Veenendaal, the other generaal-major G.J. Sas, Dutch military attaché in Washington. Parmentier was 44 years old when he died.

Full Dutch biography at http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/ bwn2/parmentier

Regards,

Theo Horsten