Thomas Gray, VC (17 May 1914 – 12 May 1940) was a British airman and a recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

forces.

RAF career

Gray was 25 years old, and a

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

No. 12 Squadron RAF Number 12 Squadron, also known as No. 12 (Bomber) Squadron and occasionally as No. XII Squadron, is a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The squadron reformed in July 2018 as a joint RAF/Qatar Emiri Air Force squadron. It is currently ...

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF) during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when the following deed took place for which he and his pilot Flying Officer

Donald Garland Flying Officer Donald Edward Garland, VC (28 June 1918 – 12 May 1940) was a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and ...

were awarded the VC in a joint citation. On 12 May 1940, over the

Albert Canal The Albert Canal (, ) is a canal located in northeastern Belgium, which was named for King Albert I of Belgium. The Albert Canal connects Antwerp with Liège, and also the Meuse river with the Scheldt river. It also connects with the Dessel� ...

, Belgium, one bridge in particular was being used by the invading German army, with protection from fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft and machine-guns. The RAF was ordered to demolish this vital bridge, and five

Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hi ...

bombers were despatched with Sergeant Gray as the navigator in the plane leading the bombing attack. They met an inferno of anti-aircraft fire, but the mission was accomplished, much of the success being due to the coolness and resourcefulness of pilot Donald Garland of the leading aircraft and the navigation of Sergeant Gray. Only one aircraft made it back to base. Gray is buried at the Heverlee War Cemetery near

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

in Belgium.

Victoria Cross citation

The announcement and accompanying citation for Gray's VC was published in supplement to the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

'' on 11 June 1940, reading: ThomasGrayVCGrave

Legacy

Vickers VC-10 The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance rout ...

Serial 'XR807' of No. 101 Squadron was named 'Donald Garland VC & Thomas Gray VC'. In 2005, to mark its 90th anniversary, No.12 Squadron RAF flew a

Tornado GR4 The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (interd ...

with Flying Officer Garland's and Sergeant Gray's names painted under the cockpit as a mark of respect. There is a monument on the bridge to the operation. On the day of the attack on the bridge, Garland and his crew flew from the grass airfield near the village of Amifontaine, France, where No. 12 Squadron had been based since December 1939. No memorial to the airfield, and to the men who flew from it, has been reported to exist in the area.Peter West, "Boredom, Bravery and Courage," Flypast Magazine, March 2003, pp. 65–68.

References

External links

Flying Officer D.E. Garland & Sergeant T. Grey
in ''The Art of War'' exhibition at the

UK National Archives , type = Non-ministerial department , seal = , nativename = , logo = Logo_of_The_National_Archives_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg , logo_width = 150px , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , juris ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Thomas 1914 births 1940 deaths British World War II recipients of the Victoria Cross Royal Air Force airmen Burials at Heverlee Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Royal Air Force recipients of the Victoria Cross People from Wiltshire Aviators killed by being shot down Military personnel from Wiltshire