LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Alan Albert WADDELL
Service No: 408133
Born: Eastwood NSW, 15 November 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 January 1941 (at Hobart TAS)
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Binbrook, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 12 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z8376), Germany, 31 May 1942, Aged 24 Years
Buried: the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Albert William Augustus and Helen Waddell, of Manly, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Flying Officer Waddell has a service number indicating a Victorian or Tasmanian enlistment (408XXX) but it shown as enlisting from NSW by DVA. The Casualty File held by NAA states that he was employed by Cadbury’s in Hobart when he enlisted.
Wellington Z8376 took off from Binbrook at 2340 hours on the night of 30 May 1942 to bomb Cologne, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and the aircraft failed to return to base. It was later established that the aircraft crashed near Dusseldorf and all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of Z8376 were:
Sergeant Herbert Bottomley (1360092) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Robert Gordon Kenyon Holden (403092) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Arnold Adolf Seifert (R/80202) (RCAF) (Observer)
Flight Sergeant Edward Savage Masson (817211) (RAF (Auxiliary Air Force)) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Alan Albert Waddell (408133) (Pilot)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/123/259