Percy Gratwick

He charged enemy posts to clear the way for his own platoon.

Percival Eric Gratwick, known as Percy, was born at Katanning, Western Australia, in 1902. His father died while he was a child, leaving his mother to raise the family. After leaving school he worked in Perth before moving north to the Pilbara. His working life included droving, station work, blacksmithing and mineral prospecting.

Gratwick was initially rejected for military service because of a damaged nose. After paying for corrective surgery, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Claremont on 20 December 1940. He sailed from Fremantle in July 1941 and joined the 2/48th Infantry Battalion in the Middle East. His first experience of battle came at El Alamein.

During the attack on Trig 29 on the night of 25–26 October 1942, intense enemy fire stopped his platoon's advance. Its commander, sergeant and many soldiers were killed, leaving only seven men. Gratwick charged an enemy position with grenades and destroyed the defenders, including a mortar crew. He then attacked another position with rifle and bayonet. Machine-gun fire killed him before he reached it, but his actions weakened the defence and helped his company capture its objective.

The Victoria Cross was announced posthumously in January 1943. Gratwick was buried in El Alamein War Cemetery. His mother received the decoration later that year. His medals are preserved by the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia, and communities in the Pilbara commemorated the former drover and prospector through buildings and places bearing his name.

Official Victoria Cross citation (London Gazette, 26 January 1943, page 523):

During the attack on Trig 29 at Miteiriya Ridge on the night of 25th–26th October, 1942, the Company to which Private Gratwick belonged, met with severe opposition from strong enemy positions which delayed capture of the Company's objective and caused a considerable number of casualties. Private Gratwick's Platoon was directed at these strong positions but its advance was stopped by intense enemy fire at short range.

Withering fire of all kinds killed the platoon commander, the platoon sergeant and many other ranks and reduced the total strength of the Platoon to seven. Private Gratwick grasped the seriousness of the situation and acting on his own initiative, with utter disregard for his own safety at a time when the remainder of the Platoon were pinned down, charged the nearest post and completely destroyed the enemy with hand grenades, killing amongst others a complete mortar crew.

As soon as this task was completed, and again under heavy machine-gun fire, he charged the second post with rifle and bayonet. It was from this post that the heaviest fire had been directed. He inflicted further casualties, and was within striking distance of his objective, when he was killed by a burst of machine-gun fire.

By his brave and determined action, which completely unnerved the enemy, and by his successful reduction of the enemy's strength, Private Gratwick's Company was able to move forward and mop up its objective. Private Gratwick's unselfish courage, his gallant and determined efforts against the heaviest opposition, changed a doubtful situation into the successful capture of his Company's final objective.