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Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
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440 (City of Ottawa) Squadron
20.10.1944 440 (City of Ottawa) Squadron, RCAF Typhoon Ib PD469 Fg Off. Ronald W. Doidge

Operation: Dive bombing, Netherlands

Date: 20th October 1944 (Friday)

Unit No: 440 (City of Ottawa) Squadron, RCAF, 143 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force

Type: Typhoon Ib

Serial: PD469

Code: I8:E

Base: ALG B-78 Eindhoven, Netherland

Location: Nijverdal 15 km (9¼ mls) west of Almelo, Netherlands

Pilot: Fg Off. Ronald William Doidge J26406 RCAF Age 21. KiA

Above Fg Off. Doidge from his Service Record

Above: Courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen, dated June 25th, 1946

From left to right in the front row: Fg Off. Roger Eugene George McCurdy J21517 (KiA 12th August 1944), Fg Off. James Hughes Beatty J14471, Unknown, Unknown.

Standing second row: Fg Off. John Fraser Dewar J28180 (KiA 12th August 1944), WO2 Richard Arthur Watson R135831, Fg Off. Ronald William Doidge (This report), Sqn Ldr. Harold Orville Gooding DFC J10608, Flt Lt. Clifford Waldron Hicks J26912 (KiA 8th August 1944), Fg Off. Donald Claude Campbell J28170.

Seated on the wing third row: Flt Lt. Donald Edward Jenvey J11309 (Evader/Killed 25th March 1944), Fg Off. John Spencer ‘Sandy’ Colville J29167 (KiA 18th August 1944), Fg Off. R.J. Currie Gardner J36788, Fg Off. Gordon Douglas Russell J13714.


On the 7th June 1944 whilst on a Ramrod mission, flying Typhoon Ib MN257 I8:D, he baled out after his aircraft was hit by flak south of Caen but evaded capture and returned to his unit on the 11th June 1944 at RAF Hurn in Hampshire, England.

Above: Courtesy of The Windsor Star, dated 14th June 1944.


REASON FOR LOSS

On the 20th October 1944 at 07:50 hrs seven Typhoons took off from B.78 Eindhoven, Netherland on a dive-bombing mission on the railway junction at Nijverdal, Netherlands. Only four of the fourteen bombs dropped exploded and the four that did explode did not cut the railway line. It was believed that this was due to a fusing problem.

Flt Lt. Gordon Douglas Russell J13714 RCAF described the loss of Typhoon Ib PD469 and the loss of Fg Off. Ronald William Doidge at 08:15 hrs:

‘I was flying Number two to Fg Off. Doidge and while following him in on his dive on the target, he blew up. There was a large puff of smoke and I observed pieces of his aircraft floating down. No parachute was observed. I did not see any flak but Fg Off. Crowley who was flying behind me states that there was considerable light flak. The aircraft was observed to hit the ground and explode. I returned to base and reported the accident’.

Note: Fg Off. Francis Joseph Crowley J26914 RCAF, was KiA on the 11th November 1944, when his Typhoon MP124 I8:A was hit by flak and exploded in mid-air.

Captured German records documented that the aircraft crashed at Nijverdal 15 km (9¼ mls) west of Almelo in the Netherlands.

Burial details:

Above Hellendoorn General Cemetery

Fg Off. Ronald William Doidge. He was recovered and reinterred at the Hellendoorn General Cemetery Grave 15. Born on the 7th January 1923 in Windsor, Ontario. Son of Capt. William Harold and Charlotte Elizabeth (née Harwood) Doidge of La Salle, Ontario, Canada.

Capt. Doidge was the Adjutant of the 30th (Reserve) Reconnaissance Regiment (Essex Regiment), Canadian Armoured Corps (CAC), based in Windsor, Ontario.

His brother LAC Leslie Travis Doidge also served in the RCAF with 428 (Ghost) Sqn.

Researched by Ralph Snape and dedicated to this pilot and his family.

Other sources as quoted below:

RS 11.05.2023 - Initial upload

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Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
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