Service number:

568506

Nationality:

British (1801-present, Kingdom)

In 1935, at the age of 15 Fred Fray joined the RAF as an apprentice and passed out of Halton in 1938. He was posted to No. 97 Squadron operating the Handley Page Heyford. Subsequently he volunteered for aircrew trainining, becoming a Flight Engineer by trade.
On May 17, 1942 he flew his first operational sortie in Stirling I W7527 to drop mines off the Danish coast, followed by two nights later bombing the U boat pens at St. Nazaire.
On the night of 21 June 1943 Fray took off in Short Stirling R9266 for Krefeld on his 51st operation. Just after midnight the aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Fray managed to bail out after which he was captured and spent the rest of the war as PoW in Stalag Luft VI at Heydekrug in Lithuania.
He was flown back to England on May 7, 1945. On October 23, 1945 he was invested with the DFM at Buckingham Palace.
With the hostilities came to an end his flying days were over and he was commissioned as an engineering officer and continued to serve for a further three years.

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• - https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36015/supplement/2157/data.pdf
  - FlyPast April 2001 page 65-67
  - Fly Past June 2001 page 87-89