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Wing Commander Bob Bray

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Robert Walter Bray was born on May 5 1921 in Sheffield and educated at King Edward VII Grammar School in the city. He joined the RAF in June 1940 and trained as a pilot.
In June 1941 he joined No 75 (NZ) Squadron to fly the Wellington, and over the next six months bombed many targets in Germany . In September he attacked La Spezia in Italy . On December 23 he took part in a raid on Düsseldorf, his 32nd and final operation with No 75 Squadron. He was later awarded his first DFC . During a rest period as an instructor, Bray flew a Wellington in the first “1,000 Bomber” raid, on Cologne. Two nights later he flew on the second raid, in which Essen was the target.

 

After he had completed his tour with the Pathfinder Force in June 1944, Bray was rested until April 1945 when, at the age of 23, he was promoted to wing commander and given command of No 571 Squadron. Piloting the high-flying Mosquito, he attacked Berlin eight times in two weeks. On his eighth operation his aircraft was hit by flak but he managed to get back to base. On April 26 he bombed a seaplane base in Schleswig-Holstein. It was his 94th and final operation.


Bray was hoping to remain in the RAF after the war, but the death of his father prompted him to return home where, for the next 40 years, he ran the family business in Sheffield, the men’s outfitters Bray Brothers. A modest, self-effacing man, he greatly enjoyed golf, skiing and travelling around Europe. Bob Bray married, in 1945, Winifred Frith, who died in 1980. His long-standing companion, Alicea Bentall, survives him.

Wing Commander Bob Bray, born May 5 1921, died August 15 2014

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By the summer of 1943, Bray had already completed more than 30 missions when he joined No 105 Squadron as the unit became part of Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force. Equipped with the new Oboe radar, the squadron’s Mosquitos illuminated and marked targets with flares and target indicators for the main bomber force. Bray was in constant action from August 1943 during the Battle of the Ruhr, when industrial targets were attacked.
 

On the night of March 26 1944 he was flying one of six Mosquitos which dropped target indicators on the Krupp's works in Essen to provide an aiming point for a force of 705 bombers. Despite complete cloud cover, Bray dropped his markers using Oboe, and proof of their accuracy came in the form of a large red glow through the cloud followed by large explosions; the glow could be seen from as far away as the Dutch coast.


On the night of May 4/5 Bray dropped a 4,000lb bomb on the IG Farbenindustrie AG chemical works at Leverkusen. Over the target, flak smashed into the starboard engine and his Mosquito lost height rapidly. Bray wrestled with the controls and managed to reach Kent flying at very low level. With one engine on fire and the other malfunctioning, he managed to land on the crash strip at Manston, near Ramsgate.
 

In the lead-up to the Allied landings in Normandy, Bray marked railways, marshalling yards, night fighter airfields and oil installations, mostly in France. On D-Day, he took off before dawn and dropped his markers on the huge gun battery at Longines near Cherbourg, which posed a great threat to the invading naval forces. The main force of bombers destroyed it. After attacking airfields and the docks at Le Havre, he marked the V-1 site at Reneserve on June 16. It was his final sortie with No 105 after 15 months of continuous operations. A few days later he was awarded a Bar to the DFC he had earned earlier in the war.


 

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