Memorial

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1st Lt Donald J. Doyle worked in an aircraft factory.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United States in Los Angeles, California on 13 April 1942.

The airplane took off from Advanced Landing Ground A-78 in Florennes, Belgium at 18:52 hours. They were last heard from at 19:45 hours via GCI at which time the pilot was reported to have said, "Hot target, see you later". The location at that time was south of Bonn, Germany.

According to two investigations in September 1948 and November 1951 the airplane was strafing military vehicles in a low dive and hit the top of some trees in the vicinity of Neustadt and crashed into the woods, bursting into flames in three separate spots. The two crew members were found dead. The fire brigade of Neustadt was alerted at that time and took over guard duty at the scene of the crash. Although a thorough search for casualties was conducted that very night, the prevailing darkness prevented positive results. However, on the next morning, the two crew members were found dead at a distance of approximately 500 meters behind the main part of the plane. Both remains were placed into caskets and buried by civilians in the community cemetery of Neustadt-Wied.

At the distinterment in March 1946, both bodies were found by a team of the U.S. Army They were wrapped into mattress covers and placed on a truck, with which they were evacuated to an unknown destination. The grave digger of Neustadt recalled that no tags were attached to the bodies and he was wondering at that time how the team was able to tell the bodies apart, since approximately ten other bodies were already on the truck. According to an investigation in April 1951 the remains were marked as Unknown X-7440 and X-2282 at that time. Further information is unavailable but it is a fact that only the remains of Lt Williams were identified. He is buried at Margraten.