GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
Kenya, January 1954 - the wreckage of Savage’s aircraft Bar to D.F.C. London Gazette 25 January 1944. The original recommendation states:
‘Flight Lieutenant Savage has been on operations since November 1941, 20 of his sorties being over Germany and Occupied France. Since the award of his Distinguished Flying Cross, he has completed a further 61 sorties both by day and by night. His exceptional keenness and skill in flying against the enemy has been an outstanding example to other members of the Squadron, and he has been one of the Squadron’s most successful night intruders, on many occasions flying in bad weather over difficult country. On frequent occasions during the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, Flight Lieutenant Savage has acted as a pathfinder for other members of the Squadron, and for other squadrons operating over the same target.’
Denis Charles Savage, who was born in Portsmouth in June 1921, enlisted in the Royal Air Force shortly after the outbreak of hostilities and, having gained his “Wings”, was posted as a Sergeant Pilot to No. 88 (Hong Kong) Squadron, a Boston unit based operating out of Attlebridge, Norfolk.
No. 88 Squadron - France and Germany
Having participated in the “Channel Dash” operation in February 1942, Savage completed his first bombing sortie on 14 April, when with 12 other squadron aircraft he attacked Mondeville Power Station at Caen, the first of a flurry of “Circus” and “Rover” operations. On the 17th he was detailed to attack shipyards near Rouen, on the 25th Le Havre, and on the following day St. Omer, while on the first day of May he had to take evasive action over his target, the artificial silk factory at Calais.
Then in June he participated in a strike against the oil tanks at Bruges on the 8th, his Boston sustaining flak damage, but, unperturbed, he brought his aircraft down 150 feet on his very next operation, an attack on Haamstede aerodrome on the 25th, and, as cited in his D.F.C. recommendation, with good effect.
Next called upon to lend support to the Dieppe raid on 19 August 1942, Savage completed a smoke-laying dawn patrol without incident, but his second sortie of the day was anything but uneventful, his Boston, and another one piloted by a Canadian from No. 226 Squadron, being greeted by a curtain of heavy flak on laying their smoke over the port’s east jetty and cliffs - the Canadian’s aircraft was hit and crashed into the sea (see The Greatest Air Battle, by Norman Franks, for further details).
Later in the month, as also cited in his D.F.C. recommendation, he carried out a spectacular low-level strike against Comines Power Station, dropping down to roof-top height to deliver his bomb load, an incident recorded by his target camera; so, too, his equally hair- raising attack on Mazingarbe Power Station on 22 September - a remarkable image probably taken from about 50 feet.
Savage, who had been commissioned as a Pilot Officer mid-tour, was recommended for his D.F.C. by Squadron C.O., Wing Commander J. E. Pelly-Fry, D.S.O., on 24 February 1943, and, tour expired, was posted to R.A.F. Lyneham pending a posting overseas.
No. 18 Squadron - North Africa, Sicily and Italy
Posted to No. 18 Squadron, a Blenheim unit operating out of Canrobert, Algeria, in December 1942, he undoubtedly heard about the recent demise of the Squadron’s C.O., Wing Commander Hugh Malcolm, who won a posthumous V.C. for leading a daring sortie on the 4th of that month; so, too, about the horrendous losses sustained in aircrew and aircraft on the same occasion.
Notwithstanding such disconcerting intelligence, he embarked upon another stunning tour of operations, this time completing over 60 sorties in the period leading up to November 1943, initially carrying out low-level strikes against enemy aerodromes, armour, transport and shipping on the North Africa front, and not just of the bombing type, machine-gunning being high on the agenda when it came to enemy troops.
Re-equipped with Bostons in April 1943, the Squadron went on to lend equally valuable support during the operations in Sicily and Italy, at one stage operating out of Malta, and, as stated in the recommendation for his second D.F.C., Savage often acted as pathfinder - thus his leadership on the occasion No. 18 were ordered to bomb Cassino on 10 October 1943, besides numerous other occasions. But no less noteworthy in the relevant entries of the unit’s Operational Record Book are the frequent references to his Boston sustaining flak damage - a case in point being an operation on the Sfax-Sousse road on 29 January 1943, when his Boston was extensively damaged and a crew member, Sergeant Hilton, wounded in the thigh.
Savage, who had been advanced to Flight Lieutenant, was recommended for a Bar to his D.F.C. by Squadron C.O., Wing Commander D. J. Sandoman, on 24 November 1943 and, tour expired, was posted back to the U.K.
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