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New Zealander Flt Lt Alfred William Doel is one of the hundreds of Bomber Command aircrew lost in the North Sea. It is the airmen like Doel and his aircrew who are remembered in the LOST memorial, in Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands – is a tribute to all missing airmen who perished over the North Sea

F/Lt Alfred William Doel
(Credit: Weekly News / Online Cenotaph)

Doel was born on April 14, 1918 in Auckland. He applied to enlist in the Civil Reserve of Pilots in September 1938, then in March 1939 for a Short Service Commission in the Royal Air Force, but as no further appointments were being made at that time he then applied to join the RNZAF. He enlisted at the Ground Training School, RNZAF Station Levin, on the 26th of October 1939.

After completing his initial training, he was posted to No. 2 Elementary Flying Training School at RNZAF Station Bell Block, and from there to RNZAF Station Woodbourne, where he was awarded his Flying Badge (Wings) on the 23rd of April 1940.

Commissioned with the rank of Pilot Officer, Doel left for England in June 1940, potsed first to No. 7 OTU in Hawarden,  before transferring to No. 15 OTU at Harwell in Berkshire, where he crewed up and completed his training on Wellington aircraft.

Doel and hos crew were then posted to No. 37 Squadron, Feltwell. As second pilot on a Wellington with this squadron, Alfred flew five operational missions over Europe, bombing the German ships ‘Gneisnau’ which was berthed at Kiel and the ‘Bismarck’ which was berthed at Hamburg, and also bombing the cities of Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin.

In November 1940, No. 37 Squadron moved to the Middle East, flying to an advanced landing ground at Fayid in the Western Desert. From this base, and from the nearby satellite strip at Fuka, Alfred carried out 11 ops, bombing targets.

On one of these raids whilst attacking an aerodrome at Berca, near Benghazi, the Wellington bomber he was second-pilot aboard crashed into the desert and caught fire. All the members of the crew escaped the aircraft wreck safely, and after walking for eight hours they were picked up by an army truck and returned to their unit.

During the next three months Alfred carried out seven more ops from various bases in the Western Desert, with targets as diverse as Derna in Libya; Katavia on Rhodes Island; Durrazo in Albania; troop concentrations at Veles in Yugoslavia; marshalling yards at Sofia in Bulgaria; and dropping supplies to Greek troops on the front lines.

In May 1941 he was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer, and shortly after he returned to the UK, where he was posted to the Central Gunnery School at Castle Kennedy for non-flying duties.

In March 1942 Alfred was rose to the rank of Flight Lieutenant, and with the promotion he was posted on the same day to No. 75 (NZ) Squadron at Feltwell.

With the New Zealand squadron he carried out nine operational sorties as captain of a Wellington bomber before being posted to No. 109 Squadron at Stradishall in Suffolk, where he carried out five ‘special duties’ ops.

This squadron was a special unit, set up to use the OBOE beam system for bombing targets. It was the squadron that pioneered the Pathfinder system. It is recorded that Alfred made five ‘special duty operational flights’ with this squadron.

After these raids Alfred was taken off ops and he proceeded to No. 11 Operational Training Unit at Bassingbourn in Hertfordshire on the 9th of August 1942. Ten days later he moved to No. 3 Flying Instructor’s School at Hullavington, Wiltshire, to undergo training in how to teach his skills to others. On the 18th of September 1942 he returned to No. 11 OTU at Bassingbourn, now as a qualified instructor.

With this school at Bassingbourn, and later at Westcott, Buckinghamshire, Alfred instructed crews on Wellington bombers for many months, before eventually crewing up himself again in preparation of his upcoming second tour of ops.

This came on the 5th of May 1943 when he was posted to No. 1662 Conversion Unit at Blyton, Lincs, for conversion with his crew to Handley Page Halifax bombers. Later in the same month with that unit he converted again to Avro Lancasters, and on completing this course satisfactorily in early June 1943, Alfred and his crew were posted to No. 12 Squadron at Wickenby, Lincs.

Within days, on his 38th operational sortie, Alfred’s aircraft failed to return. Two other New Zealanders in the crew were killed, Flight Sergeant Owen Kendrick Whyman of Te Puke, and Flying Officer Owen Kenyon Jones of New Plymouth.

In the night of 11 to 12 June 1943 he flew his 38^th  mission to Düsseldorf. Above the target his Lancaster III, DV157, was damaged by German anti-aircraft fire and on the return flight they came under anti-aircraft fire again near Amsterdam.

Doel ordered the crew to jump, but only air gunner Sgt. Donald templeman succeeded before the Lancaster with the remaining six crew members crashed into the sea between the piers of IJmuiden. He was captured and became a POW in Stalag Kopernikus.

Those lost were:

• F/Lt Alfred William Doel (RNZAF 39907), pilot
• Sgt William Frank Briggs (RAF), flight engineer
• WO Robert Durham (RAFVR), navigator
• F/Sgt Owen Kendrick Whyman (RNZAF 413294), bomb aimer
• F/O Owen Kenyon Jones (RNZAF 40921), air gunner
• Sgt Thomas Robert Pagett (RAFVR), air gunner

In the course of the weeks, three of them washed ashore. Flight engineer Sergeant Biggs washed ashore at Bergen aan Zee and was buried in the war cemetery of Bergen. Both Whyman and Jones’ bodies came ashore at Zandvoort.

In the eighties, a piece of the tail of the Lancaster would wash ashore.

Alfred Doel is still listed as missing. He was twenty-five.

You can read more about the LOST memorial here https://www.nzbombercommand.co.nz/the-lost-over-sea-tribute/

References:

• Air Crew remembered website
• Wings over Cambridge website
• Errol Martyn, ‘For Your Tomorrow’