Flight Sergeant (Air Gunner) B. W. O. Dockerty
640 Sqn. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
1801212
Died on active service, 2 February 1945, England. Aged 22.
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Bradford Dockerty was born in 1923, the son of Mr and Mrs A. H. Dockerty of Send, Surrey.
Bradford left the County School in 1933 while in the second year.
Before the war Bradford was an active member of Send Air Training Corps. Only months before his death he married F. E. C. Chamberlain.
640 Squadron was a heavy bomber squadron operating Mk III Handley-Page Halifax bombers from RAF Leconfield near Beverley in Yorkshire.
Halifax Mk. III
Bradford was an air gunner aboard Halifax MZ492 of 640 Sqdn when it took to the air at 2036 on 2 February 1945 heading for an attack on the synthetic oil refinery at Wanne-Eickel, Germany. Just twelve minutes after take off the pilot reduced power and the aircraft was seen to bank steeply and crash into Lakes Wood near Lockington. Only one member of the crew survived.
The crew that night were as follows:
Pilot Officer Noel Sisley - Aged 20 from Queensland, Australia. Killed.
Sgt. J. S. Whitman - Escaped practically unscathed.
Sgt. Walter Jeffries - Australian. Killed.
Sgt. Thomas Gibson - Aged 21 from Bamburgh. Killed.
Flt. Sgt. Alexander Gray - Aged 21 from Aberdeen. Killed.
Sgt. Martin Delahunty - Aged 21 from Prestwich. Killed.
Bradford Dockerty is buried in Abingdon New Cemetery, Oxfordshire (grave IF.13). He is also remembered on the Woking County Grammar School roll of honour located in Christ Church, Woking.
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Last updated 4 July 2010
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Woking News and Mail
Woking County School magazine
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