Ray Watts (footballer)

Raymond Carson Watts (13 August 1917 – 17 January 2008) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
He married Myrtle Jessie Louise Gregory (1917–), the daughter of Harry "Speed" Gregory on 21 June 1941.
A forward, Watts grew up in Launceston and played his early football with Churinga Football Club in the Tasmanian Amateur Football League. He was the league's best and fairest player in 1936.
Watts made his VFL debut in the 11th round of the 1937 VFL season against North Melbourne and kicked three goals. He kicked 60 goals for Essendon in 1938, a total bettered by only one teammate, Tom Reynolds. This included a career best seven goals in a win over St Kilda, which he equaled twice more in his career. He was Essendon's third leading goal-kicker in 1939 and 1940.
He was a member of the Essendon seconds premiership team in 1941, but made only two appearances in the seniors that year, as he had enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force.
During the war he served as a warrant officer and in 1943 was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, along with his pilot Arthur Simpson (408881), for their efforts in a bombing operation over Germany. They were flying over Hanover on a Lancaster bomber when the airscrew of a German night fighter tore a hole under the plane's nose, which resulted in the plane falling 3000 feet. Despite this, they were able to recover and still achieve their objectives in dropping the bombs at their target.
In 1944 he was shot down by enemy fire and managed to hide in a Belgian pine forest for six weeks until he was captured. He spent more than a year as a German prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III.
He returned to Essendon in 1945 and played briefly in the seconds before transferring to Preston.