Walter Edmund Doole

  General Notes:

WALTER DOOLE
Private
Pte 30413
22nd (Motor) Bn., N.Z. Infantry
who died on Monday, 2nd June 1941. Age 27.
Additional Information: Son of Walter Doole and of Edith Doole (nee Dawkins), of Hawera, Taranaki, New Zealand.

Commemorative Information
Cemetery: SUDA BAY WAR CEMETERY, Greece
Grave Reference/
Panel Number: 15. A. 3.

Location: Suda Bay is on the northern coast of Crete, and Suda Bay War Cemetery is at the north-western corner of the Bay, 5 kilometres east of Han ia (or Khania) and 3 kilometres north of the Hania (or Khania) - Rethymn on - Heraklion road. The cemetery is in an olive grove and is well signpos ted from the main road.

Historical Information: Suda Bay, on the northern coast of Crete, provides the only natural large anchorage in the island and one of the best harbourages of the Eastern Mediterranean. The first German parachutists and glider regiments landed on the Akrotiri Peninsula, the Northern part of the bay, where after desperate fighting they managed to infiltrate, eventually joining up with other units which landed in the West. The small village of Suda suffered heavy damage during this battle. Buried in the cemetery are those who were killed during the operations in Crete, many of whose graves are not identified. This is due to the fact that the German occupying forces moved many of the remains from their graves in the fighting areas into four large burial grounds, which they called British Military Cemeteries, and in so doing lost the identities of the casualties. The graves were moved into the war cemetery by 21 and 22 Australian War Graves Units from burial grounds and other sites in various parts of the island. The special memorials commemorate men known to have been buried in certain groups of graves but whose actual graves within those groups cannot be exactly determined. The memorials therefore are inscribed "Buried near this spot". The other special memorial bears the inscription "Believed to be". Those whose graves are not identified are commemorated by name on the Athens Memorial to the men of the land forces of the British Commonwealth who lost their lives during the campaigns in Greece and Crete in 1941 and 1944-1945, in the Dodecanese Islands in 1943-1945 and in Yugoslavia in 1943-1945, and have no known grave. This stands in Phaleron W ar Cemetery, Athens.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Military: Served and died in WW2.