Matthew William Bell

Lancaster PA214 (Flight Lieutenant Bell), 227 Squadron, took off from RAF Balderton at 1705 hrs, to bomb the Wintershall Synthetic Oil Plant.

The aircraft was intercepted and shot down at 23.15 by a Ju 88 night fighter piloted by Hptm Gerhard Friedrich NJG6, killing all the crew.

Most of the crew had been involved in a serious landing accident on return from Sassnitz a week previously.

Matthew was buried in Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany (Coll. Grave 9.F.4)

The other seven members of the crew were also buried in Durnbach War Cemetery:
190988 P/O Peter Thomas Edwards, RAFVR (Coll. Grave 9.F.5-7)
153497 F/O Gerald Francis Orry, RAFVR (Coll. Grave 9.F.5-7)
134762 Flt. Lieut. Stanley Thomas Rouse, RAFVR (Coll. Grave 9.F.5-7).
160198 F/O Leonard Sidney Smith, RAFVR (Grave ref. 9.F.1)
1802383 Flt. Sgt. George Forster Constable Stephenson, RAFVR (Grave ref. 9.F.1)
161024 F/O Henry Albert Thomas, RAFVR (Coll. Grave 9.F.5-7)
1805639 Flt. Sgt. Raymond Cecil Stanley Wells, RAFVR (Grave 9.F.2)

The other members of the crew are also commemorated on the RAF Balderton Memorial and this Roll of Honour.

CWGC Additional information: Son of Thomas Henderson Bell, and Ann Whitfield Bell; husband of Isabel Bell, of Dean Bank, Co. Durham.

CWGC headstone personal inscription: 'Thy will be done'

Gerhard Freidrich (Nachtjagdgeschwader 6). b. 1917 k. 16 March 1945. Claimed 30 air victories, including three Lancasters on the night of 14/15 March 1945, He was awarded the Knights Cross (15 March 1945). Freidrich was flying a Junkers Ju88 (G-6) over the area of Stuttgart on 16/17 March 1945 when he fired at a Lancaster (PB785, 576 Sqdn); his aircraft was destroyed in the explosion when the Lancaster’s bomb load detonated. Freidrich, his two crew and the seven crew of the Lancaster were all killed. (forum.axishistory.com and others)

Additional research/record updated (RF Oct. 2026)