Keith Quilter (third
right) and best friend Walter Stradwick (fifth right) whose grave
he is going to visit in Japan

by Tricia Jamieson

As the pilot of a Second World War bomber, Keith Quilter
saw his best mate shot down in a ball of flames while attacking a
Japanese aerodrome.

He survived two kamikaze attacks on his war ship and had to
ditch his Corsair after being shot down.

Now Mr Quilter, who celebrated his 90th birthday on Tuesday, is
returning to Japan 67 years later to lay a wreath at the grave of
his friend and cabin mate Walter Stradwick.

“This is the first time I have been back and I don’t know how I
will feel,” said Mr Quilter, who lives at Stone Corner, Ebony, Isle
of Oxney, near Tenterden.

“I think it will be quite weird. I am upset at the thought of
seeing Wally’s grave.”

His trip has been made possible thanks to £3,700 from the Big
Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return 2 programme.

“Originally I was just going to where I was shot down,” he said.
“Then I got the funding and I thought, I can’t go all that way and
not pay my respects to Wally.”

Second World War hero
Keith Quilter with a picture of him as a pilot

His best friend is buried in the British war cemetery at
Yokohama.

Mr Quilter has already been on the internet to find out where
the grave is. He plans to lay a wreath and take a photograph which
he hopes to send to Walter’s family if he can trace them.

He also plans to visit a memorial to Robert Hampton “Hammy”
Gray, a fellow fighter pilot on board HMS Formidable.

He was one of the last Canadians to die in the war and was
awarded the Victoria Cross for an attack on a destroyer in Onagawa
Bay. The memorial is the only one dedicated to a foreign soldier on
Japanese soil.

Mr Quilter said: “We were all such young and cocky fighter
pilots, but by the time VJ Day came I think half the squadron had
been lost.

“Walter was a lovely guy and Hammy was also full of fun in the
mess.”

Walter died as they flew side by side just 50 feet from the
ground over islands between Okinawa and Taiwan on July 18,
1945.

Mr Quilter said: “He went into the ground and
I saw a horrible great mass of flames alongside me.

“I joined the tail end of my CO’s group to attack a different
aerodrome. I got hit as I went into a 45 degree dive to strafe the
aerodrome. I heard this huge bang – a 20mm shell hit the side.

“When I eventually got back to the carrier, all the chaps on
deck were pointing up at my aircraft. When I got out I saw a hole
in the fuselage so big you could put your head inside.

“That mission was the one that caused me the most personal loss.
When your close friend and cabin mate is shot down and you get back
to the ship and walk back into an empty cabin room, that is quite
something.”

Mr Quilter survived two kamikaze attacks on HMS Formidable, one
of which destroyed the fighter he had been sitting in seconds
earlier.

Less than a week after his best friend died, he was shot down
attacking a Japanese destroyer inside a harbour at Owaze.

“We attacked by coming in really low over the water and released
the bombs just before we passed over the ship,” he said.

“One of our chaps got hit and had to ditch in the water. I
wanted to come around again to see if he was OK but there was a gun
position there and I got hit.

“My engine suddenly stopped so I had no choice but to ditch. I
had to open the hood quickly before the plane sank, got into my
dingy and paddled away to the open sea.”

Mr Quilter was picked up by an American submarine on standby to
save Allied pilots.

He was on board the sub for three weeks and as they sailed into
Saipan, heard that the Japanese had surrendered.

His return trip to Japan begins on May 19 with a flight to
Toyko. After visiting Walter’s grave he goes to the memorial to
Hammy Gray and then to Owaze where he was shot down.

Mr Quilter is the 50th successful application for lottery
funding for a veteran to visit Japan.

Click here for more information on the programme.