Page 31 - issue03.05.2019

Royal Air Force News Friday, May 3, 2019 P23

Obituaries

Bomber hero and tourism pioneer

QUADRON LEADER John Squadron in January 1944, he began civilianised Lancaster) and between
Sauvage, who has died aged flying the long-range York transport November 1948 and August 1949
100, was decorated three aircraft to the Mediterranean and he made many round trips to Berlin
Stimes during his career as a beyond. from airfields in Germany during the
bomber pilot. After the war he was As part of the elaborate deception Soviet-imposed siege of the city.
a pioneer in the development of plan in the run-up to D-Day, Operation In January 1950, he flew amphibious
air charter and the holiday airline Copperhead was implemented. aircraft in Central and South America
business. Intelligence staff had noticed that for Shell Aviation, headed by Douglas
In April 1943, he joined 97 Clifford James, an actor serving in the Bader.
Squadron, which formed part of Army, had an uncanny resemblance Six months later he joined the
Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force, to General Montgomery. On May fledgling airline, Eagle Aviation, created
having already completed a tour of 26, Sauvage took off from Northolt by a wartime friend Harold Bamberg.
operations flying Hampden bombers to fly ‘Montgomery’ to Gibraltar, a Flying Yorks, the airline gained
for which he was awarded the DFC. hot bed for German spies and where a government contract for trooping
In June he was the pilot of one he attended a number of high-level flights to military bases overseas. By
of four Lancasters of 97 Squadron meetings with the Governor and other 1954, and re-styled Eagle Airways,
selected to act as marker crews for a representatives. the airline entered the new package
larger force attacking Friedrichshafen His presence would suggest that holiday and inclusive tours market.
on the shores of Lake Constance the Allied landings were to take place The fleet expanded rapidly from
where the old Zeppelin sheds had been in the south of France. Sauvage then Viking aircraft to the Viscount and
converted to a factory manufacturing flew ‘Montgomery’ to Algiers for more then the Boeing 707. Over a period
early warning radar equipment crucial attacked many targets in the Ruhr. He To further his education he meetings with Allied commanders of seventeen years Sauvage, having
for the Luftwaffe’s highly effective air also went to Milan three times and to obtained sponsorship to England and before he was flown to Cairo where started as a pilot, became the training
defence system. Turin and he flew on the large raid arrived just before the outbreak of the he remained in hiding until after the pilot then the chief pilot and finally the
Sauvage had to make four runs that devastated Hamburg on the night Second World War. He joined the Normandy invasion. managing director.
over the target before dropping his of July 24/25, 1943. RAF in September 1939 and trained In June 1945 Sauvage headed for In 1967 he left to become the
target indicators over the centre of Three weeks later he took part as a pilot. India where he flew with the VIP Flight, managing director of Britannia
the factory, which the main force then in the famous raid to bomb the By the end of 1940 he was counting amongst his passengers the Airways later becoming the chairman
bombed. A later reconnaissance flight German’s secret experimental station flying Hampden bombers with 44 numerous Commander’s-in-Chief, and chief executive of the Thompson
confirmed that considerable damage at Peenemunde. On August 23 he Squadron. He attacked targets in including Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Travel Group. He continued to develop
had been achieved. flew on the first raid of the Battle of Germany and in France. Park, and the Prime Minister of New the Group making Britannia a major
To confuse the German night- Berlin, which he attacked on two more On one occasion in July 1941 Zealand. In early September 1945 holiday travel airline. In 1975 he was
fighter force waiting for the bombers occasions. when he was attacking Cologne his he was the pilot when Vice-Admiral appointed OBE for his services to the
to return to their bases in England, His final, and sixty-fourth, aircraft was held in searchlights and Lord Louis Mountbatten flew to the airline industry. He retired in 1986.
the Lancaster’s flew on to an airfield in bombing operation was to Leipzig attacked by an enemy night fighter. Philippines for his only meeting with Sauvage retired to Tewin in
North Africa after bombing the target. on October 20. He was rested and His aircraft was so badly damaged General Douglas MacArthur, the US Hertfordshire where he enjoyed
Given the codename ‘Operation soon after he was awarded the DSO. it was difficult to control but he Supreme Commander, South West golf and reading. He was the most
Bellicose’ this was the first time such The citation described him as ‘a great managed to return to base and make Pacific Area. decorated Seychellois of the Second
an operation had been mounted. leader whose example has been a an emergency landing. In September By mid-1946 Sauvage had left the World War and the Seychelles High
Sauvage’s Lancaster had been source of inspiration’. he attacked Berlin, a target at extreme RAF to begin a long career in civil Commissioner attended and spoke at
badly damaged over the target but he Joseph Henri Jean Sauvage, a range for the Hampden. aviation. his 100th birthday celebration.
managed to fly to Maison Blanche in native of The Seychelles, was born In early 1942 he received his first With Silver City Airways he flew John Sauvage died on April 2. He
Algeria and make a safe landing. He on February 9, 1919 and educated DFC and spent the next fourteen converted bombers to Australia and married his wife Rosemary in August
was awarded a Bar to his DFC. at St Louis College, Victoria in the months as a bombing instructor. South before joining Skyways Limited 1950 and she, three sons and two
Over the next few months, he Seychelles. After finishing his tour on 97 flying Yorks and Lancastrians (a daughters survive him.

Pathfinder pilot who targeted Nazi V-bombs

ING COMMANDER determination to complete his 51 bomber operations he was heard from Star Tiger.
Frank Griffin, who mission successfully.’ awarded an immediate DSO when Griffin spent the next five days
has died aged 99, was Reginald Frank Griffin was born he was described as ‘a fearless and searching for the lost aircraft but to no
Wa decorated pilot with on February 9, 1920 in Torquay. determined captain of aircraft’. avail and the mystery of its loss in the
Bomber Command’s Pathfinder He joined the RAF in July 1939 and After the war he joined British ‘Bermuda Triangle’ was never solved.
Force before embarking on a long trained as an air observer. South American Airways, which had Amongst the passengers on Star
career in civil aviation. By the end of 1940 he had joined been established by his Pathfinder Tiger was Air Marshal Sir Arthur
As the Battle of Berlin gathered 612 Squadron, which was equipped Force Commander, Air Vice-Marshal Coningham the wartime leader of
momentum during December with the Whitley anti-submarine Don Bennett. the Desert Air Force and later the
1943, Griffin took off to attack the aircraft and was based at Wick in At the end of January 1948, Griffin 2nd Tactical Air Force during the
‘Big City’. En-route to the heavily north Scotland. was the pilot of a Lancastrian aircraft Normandy invasion and advance
defended target, the wireless became He flew patrols over the Atlantic carrying freight to Bermuda. into Germany.
unserviceable soon followed by the and the North Sea for the next year He was waiting at Santa Maria in Griffin joined BOAC, later British
failure of a generator that powered before he was selected to train as a the Azores for favourable weather Airways, as a senior captain until his
the Lancaster’s mid-upper gun pilot in Canada. and where he was joined by one of retirement in 1975.
turret rendering it useless. Before By October 1943 he had completed the company’s Avro Tudor passenger After flying the early four-engine
reaching the target, the rear turret his training as a bomber pilot and aircraft, an aircraft that had a short piston airliners, he was an early
also became unserviceable. was posted to 103 Squadron. and troublesome service. captain on the Comet fleet and then
With no self-defence capability He attacked Berlin numerous The Tudor, Star Tiger, had been the Boeing 707.
and unable to communicate with times over the next few weeks in delayed with an engine problem but He retired to Torquay where he
the rest of the force and receive addition to missions to Madgdeburg on the morning of January 29, Griffin was able to embrace his love of the
instructions from the Master and Frankfurt. and on numerous occasions acted as took off an hour ahead of it. He flew sea and where he sailed his own boat
Bomber, Griffin would have been In March 1944 he transferred the deputy to the Master Bomber. into worsening weather and strong for many years. A keen fell walker
justified in abandoning the mission to 156 Squadron, which formed By June he was attacking the V-1 winds forced him off course. and gardener he also amassed an
but he pressed on and carried out a part of the Pathfinder Force. After sites in the Pas de Calais when he He was in regular radio contact extensive collection of Torquay
successful attack. Soon after leaving attacking targets in Germany, Griffin directed the main bomber force as with the captain of Star Tiger and pottery and became an authority on
the target, more equipment failed but and his colleagues began a series they bombed on flares and markers relayed weather reports and informed the subject.
he managed to return to base. of operations in the lead up to the dropped by the Pathfinders. him that he was altering course for Frank Griffin died on March 2.
He was awarded an immediate Normandy invasion in June. By August, the majority of his Bermuda and changing to a new His wife of 73 years, Gwen, died in
DFC, the citation concluding, ‘he Griffin attacked marshalling yards attacks were against oil and industrial frequency. After a flight of over ten 2018. Their son and daughter survive
displayed great skill and outstanding and German supply dumps in France targets in the Ruhr. After completing hours he landed. Nothing further was him.