Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

JENSEN Albrecht Maxwell  

Albrecht (Max) was the son of Albrecht Eiler JENSEN & Gladys Ada BRICKNELL and was born on the 27th of September 1921 at 62 Lyall Street, Kalgoorlie, WA.

He was the 2nd child born into the family of 5 children.

His parents were married on the 21st of May 1913 in the St John’s Church, Kalgoorlie, WA.

His mother was the daughter of Frank William BRICKNELL & Ada Gertrude Hope JONES and was born in 1890 in Broken Hill, NSW.

His father was the son of Olaf JENSEN & Anna Kirstine and was born on the 11th of July 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The family had arrived in Australia around 1889.

His father was an employed in the office of the Kalgurli Mine.

By 1934 the family had moved to 21 Queen’s Street, Maylands.

At the age of 19, Max enlisted into the RAAF on the 3rd of February 1941 in Perth and was allotted the service number 406567.

Four Pilot training courses were being conducted (Courses 10 – 13 of the Empire Air Training Scheme) at Pearce Initial Training School and Max was allocated to 11 Course, progressing to 4 Service Training, RAAF Geraldton.

At the completion of pilot training at Geraldton SFTS in 1941 each course had a percentage posted directly overseas and others for duties in Australia. Following two weeks' leave, the overseas postings, Bart included, were assembled at 5 Embarkation Depot in Perth to await sailing directives.

In October 1941, postings were received for them to be sent to Sydney to join a ship bound for a destination overseas. The first leg of the journey began at the Perth Railway Station with sad farewells to wives, girlfriends and relatives and thoughts that it may be years before seeing each other again. The steam engine gave a whistle and a crowded train headed towards the East.

They spent ten days in No 2 Embarkation Depot, Lindfield, NSW before receiving news, that an overseas ship had accommodation for the group. No one knew where they were bound for - maybe the Middle East, USA or UK!

The only clue was that they were to proceed to Newcastle (NSW) and board a ship called the 'SS Themistocles'. On the 18th of November 1941, the ship sailed with an overseas contingent which included Max and 23 members of 10-13 Courses.

Wednesday the 26th of November 1941 was a great day for Albany. The RAAF contingent paraded through the town and School children were given the morning off to see them and on the 29th of November they were all in Fremantle again. At this stage all the contingent had survived the first month of overseas service. “Little did they know that of this group of 24, fifteen would be killed within the next 12 months”. On the 5th of December, after anchoring a day in Gage Roads Fremantle to have a 4 inch gun mounted on the fore dock that they headed due west for South Africa.

They arrived at Durban on the 22nd of December 1941. During this time the world war situation had dramatically changed and Japan was in the war.

It was nearly Christmas and they made the most of a few days leave in Durban. Australians had a reputation - some good, some bad - mainly from the Army divisions going through to the Middle East.

Max joined a slow 5 knot convoy which called at Sierra Leone on the 16th of January 1942. After being chased by submarines and turning out to their gun posts to shoot down German bombers (which turned out to be RAF Arvo Anson’s) they reached Liverpool on the 18th of February 1942, exactly 3 months after leaving Sydney.

Ninety days confined on one ship, exercising daily with deck sports, card games in the evenings, sleeping and eating.

When they arrived in the UK, they were bundled on a train in Liverpool, lunch in London, pass fields of snow and delivered to Bournemouth 3 Personal Reception Centre on the south coast all in the one day.

Whilst Max was here his father; Albrecht, enlisted into the Swanbourne Volunteer Defence Corps, 3rd Battalion on the 22nd of March 1942 at Mt Lawley, WA and was allotted the service number W68863.

It was April 1942 before most of them were sent to Advanced Flying Units in England with the RAF, to become accustomed to European flying conditions and eventual postings to operational squadrons.

The pilots from 10 and 11 Courses were posted to the UK with the same contingent and only split when training at Flight Training Units.

Max was posted to No. 15 Advanced (Pilot) Flying Training Unit in Oxford where they trained in Airspeed Oxfords.

On completion of his training, Max was attached to 142 Squadron at RAF Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

He was involved in flying raids over Dusseldorf & Bremen, Germany in September 1942. 

On the 23rd of February 1943 Max was to lose his life. He was piloting Wellington DF691 of 142 Squadron. They took off from RAF Blida at 0230 hours to attack the docks at Bizerte, Tunisia. The ETA to the target was 0515 hours. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Several crews saw an aircraft crash into the sea north of Bizerte, but they could not identify the aircraft. All the crew lost their lives at sea and have no known graves.

Max was 21 years old.

His name is commemorated on the Malta Memorial, Malta.

Photo Reference;

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C396782?image=1