Flt Sgt Albert Edward Gray force landed in France after action on 26 August 1941 when the Sqn was operating out of RAF Hornchurch, Essex: An extract from the Squadron diary (RAF Form 540) states:
Dull cloudy day brightened after lunch and Circus 87 was put on at 1720 after we had been at Readiness since dawn and were about to be released. We were middle Squadron in Target Support Wing in attack on St. Omer aerodrome and saw more. 109s than for a long time past - 120+ was on the board at Ops, but Batchelor called it 50+ so as not to shake the boys too much. We couldn'’t come to grips at all but George Barclay and Sgt. Gray were jumped on coming out at Gravalines by 4 Me 109Fs with the result that Sgt .Gray has not yet returned - a great pity as he was a real good lad and the best type of Sgt. Pilot. His aircraft was W.3247 (City of Hull) and was one of the few remaining batch of Spitfire VB's.
He was shot down, injured and bailed out over the Channel and picked up by an E-boat. Captured and spent the rest of WWII as a prisoner at Stalag Luft IIIE at Kirchhain in Poland. This weekend I was contacted by Norbert Mytnik whose son, Jaromir was helping to clear the site using a metal detector. They found a cigarette case with Sgt Gray's name on and sent the attached photographs. Copies of the photos have been forwarded to Sgt Gray's family. It is amazing that such a find could be made 72 years later.
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