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Lt.
Robert Hampton Gray
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Onagawa
Wan, Japan
August 9th,
1945
Royal Canadian
Naval Volunteer
Reserve |
Robert
Hampton Gray was born in Trail, British Columbia, on the 2nd of
November 1917, the son of a Boer War veteran. He received his early
education in a public school and high school in Nelson, B.C. and then
spent a year at the University of Alberta in Edmonton followed by two
years at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. In 1940 he was
selected as one of seventy-five candidates for commissions in the Navy. He
was one of thirteen who qualified as pilots in the Fleet Air Arm. In 1944
he was a lieutenant on H.M.S. 'Formidable'. For his brilliant work during
the attack on the German battleship 'Tirpitz' in Alten Fjord he was
Mentioned-in-Dispatches. In July 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished
Service Cross for aiding in the destruction of a destroyer in the Tokyo
area and on the 9th of August he won the Victoria Cross as
recorded in the citation. Lieutenant Gray has no known grave as neither he
nor his plane were ever found, but his name is inscribed on the Sailor's
Memorial in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His Victoria Cross is on loan to the
Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
Citation
'For
great bravery in leading an attack to within fifty feet of a Japanese
destroyer in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire, thereby sinking the
destroyer although he was hit and his own aircraft on fire and finally
himself killed. He was one of the gallant company of Naval Airmen who,
from December 1944, fought and beat the Japanese from Palembang to Tokyo.
The actual incident took place in the Onagawa Wan on the 9th of
August 1945. Gray was leader of the attack which he pressed home in the
face of fire from shore batteries and at least eight warships. With his
aircraft in flames he nevertheless obtained at least one direct hit which
sank its objective.
Lieut.
R.H. Gray, D.S.C., R.C.N.V.R., of Nelson, B.C., flew off the Aircraft
Carrier, H.M.S. "Formidable" on August 9th 1945, to
lead an attack on Japanese shipping in Onagawa Wan (Bay) in the Island of
Honshu, Mainland of Japan. At Onagawa Bay the fliers found below a number
of Japanese ships and dived in to attack. Furious fire was opened on the
aircraft from army batteries on the ground and from warships in the Bay.
Lieut. Gray selected for his target an enemy destroyer. He swept in
oblivious of the concentrated fire and made straight for his target. His
aircraft was hit and hit again, but he kept on. As he came close to the
destroyer his plane caught fire but he pressed to within fifty feet of the
Japanese ship and let go his bombs. He scored at least one direct hit,
possibly more. The destroyer sank almost immediately. Lieutenant Gray did
not return. He had given his life at the very end of his fearless bombing
run.
The
London Gazette, 13th November 1945
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