The Last Victoria Cross

A navy pilot won Canada’s last VC of the Second World War

 

The Victoria Cross awarded to Lt Robert Hampton Gray is perhaps the most poignant of all VCs, as his act of valour occurred at the same time as the Americans dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, leading to Japan’s surrender and ending the Second World War. 

 “Hammy” Gray of Nelson, BC, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Naval Voluntary Reserve in July 1940, because, in his words, “I was getting a little mad at Hitler.”

Gray was sent to Halifax’s HMCS Stadacona to await transportation overseas for service with the Royal Navy. He lived at the Exhibition Grounds in austere accommodation, his boredom broken only by “seemingly endless route marches around Bedford Basin.”

In Britain, Gray transferred to the Fleet Air Arm and returned to Canada in 1941 for pilot training. After graduation, Gray was back in Halifax, crammed with thousands of others into Y Depot (today’s Windsor Park).

Gray returned to Britain in November and was posted to 1841 Squadron, embarked in the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable. He received a Mention-in-Dispatches “for undaunted courage, skill and determination in carrying out daring attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz,” hiding in a Norwegian fiord.

In April 1945, Formidable joined the British Pacific Fleet working with American carrier groups against Japan. On July 28, Gray was leading a Corsair fighter-bomber flight when he scored a direct hit on a Japanese destroyer, sending it to the bottom. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his “determination and address in air attacks on targets in Japan.”

On August 6, an American B-29 bomber took off on a mission that changed warfare--and the world--forever. The Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, instantly incinerating thousands of people and buildings in a blinding flash of light.

Since it was obvious the war would end shortly, pilots were instructed not to take unnecessary chances.

On August 9, Gray led eight Corsairs, each carrying two 500-pound bombs, over Onagawa Bay in northern Honshu. Several ships rested at anchor in the bay, surrounded by steep hills on three sides.

Gray led the attack, coming in low from inland. A hail of intense anti-aircraft fire from the 900-tonne ocean escort Amakusa, the destroyer Ohama, a minesweeper and a subchaser streamed towards him, knocking off one of his bombs and setting his airplane on fire.

Nevertheless, Gray kept steady on his course, 15 metres above the water, and dropped his remaining bomb only 45 metres from Amakusa.

By now, smoke and flames were streaming from Gray’s Corsair. As he passed over Amakusa, his bomb smashed through the hull and crashed into the engine room, where it exploded, instantly killing 40 sailors. Amakusa listed and began to sink.

Gray continued seawards, his blazing Corsair completely enveloped in smoke. Then his aircraft slowly rolled over on its back and disappeared into the water in a violent burst of spray.

The remaining Corsairs strafed the burning wreck and surviving crewmen. Amakusa soon went under, taking another 31 sailors with her. In all, 157 Japanese perished in the attack.

About two hours later, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The Japanese accepted the Allied terms of surrender the next day.

Senior British officers unanimously agreed on the VC as the only suitable honour to recognize Gray’s gallantry. Their recommendation noted his “brilliant fighting spirit and inspired leadership; an unforgettable example of selfless and sustained devotion to duty without regard to safety of life and limb.”

In 1952, Gray’s widowed mother, Wilhelmina, opened the Hampton Gray Memorial School at the home of Canadian naval aviation, HMCS Shearwater. Like all Canadian sailors who lost their lives in the war and have no known grave, Gray’s name is also inscribed on the Sailors’ Memorial in Point Pleasant Park.

      Today, a simple granite cairn stands in Sakiyama Peace Park, overlooking Onagawa Bay. Erected by the Japanese in 1989, it is the only known instance of a monument honouring an Allied serviceman in all of Japan.

It seems somehow fitting that such a memorial should recognize the gallantry of the war’s--and Canada’s--last Victoria Cross recipient.

 

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