Since my grandfathers death in 1991, I Have been trying to put together some sort of history of William H Gradwell's events/ roll during WWII. Photos, stories and log books merely give a fraction of the day to day lives of what occured during 1940-1945. The good news is he owned a camera and I have more photos than I can ever post here. The bad news is his story is difficult to piece together for the small tid bits of information that I can verify and collect.
In 1939 William gradwell was living in a small town in the north of England. A green grociers son, he led a fairly simple life. War seemed immenent on the horizon but, believeing (as did most of England) that a truce could be negotiated, there was little he would need to do. After the near inilation of the British Expiditionary force at Dunkirk, most people in Britian knew that the War was on!
In 1940 Hitler began perperation for the invasion of Britian (operation Sea Lion). As a young Man my grandfather, along with a few friends decided to Enlist. Rather that be drafted into the Army, they opted to join the Royal Airforce. He began traing and flight school during 1940 and as his log book records, the battle over the skys of England had already begun.
His first taste of action came during training while doing flight manuevers. A Luftwaffe Me109 fighter plane scored several kills on their traing squadron , but fortunately for Sgt Gradwell and Sgt Dickinson's their aircraft was only grazed.(due only to the quick wit of Dickinson who had noticed the gun fire comming from the ME109--and put the trainer into a steep dive).
During the battle of Britian, Gradwell and Dickinson served in several different squadrons (due to squadrons being reformed and reshuffled as needs and resources arose). Mostly they spent their time in a night fighter roles. Beaufighters, Tigermoths, Blenums, Mosquitos, etc etc. By 1942 they were, by American standards, fighter aces, shortly thereafter there were sent to the squadron 256, left the Beaufighter and were requipped with the faster, more powerful twin engine fighter (mosquito was actually a multi role aircraft) Mosequito de Haviland. By 1943 they were restationed in Luqua, Malta off the coast of Italy where action was frequent and there roles were shifted from that of not only f ighter, but also to an array of attack, and ground support etc etc.
D-Day they flew patrols over the coast of France. and during 1944 flew bomber support, fighter escort, ect ect. (This is from my memory and not from documentation--hopefully its acurate)Late in 44 or early in 45 C dickinson's family had been killed in V-2 (V-1?) attack over London.. His emotional and mental state made it impossible for him to fly. Since my Grandfather had spent almost 5 years of flying with Collin, a pilot who had saved their lives on numerous occasions, and had survived 3 damaged/ crashed aricraft, he chose not to continue his combat role and merely finish out the remainder of the war as an instructor.
