At war's beginning, blond, reticent Robert Hampton Gray, 27, was a student at the University of British Columbia, hoping eventually to become a physician. By 1940 he was a sublieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm. In five years he won a citation for dive-bombing attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, a D.S.C. for sinking a Japanese destroyer. On Aug. 9, 1945, five days before war's end, he skimmed off the flight deck of the carrier Formidable, led an eight-plane attack on Japanese warships outside Tokyo Bay. Tearing through heavy flak, he piloted his riddled, blazing fighter to within 50 feet of...
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