He joined the RAF in September 1939 and trained as a pilot.īy the end of 1940 he was flying Hampden bombers with 44 Squadron. To further his education he obtained sponsorship to England and arrived just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Joseph Henri Jean Sauvage, a native of the Seychelles, was born on Februand educated at St Louis College, Victoria, in the Seychelles. The citation described him as “a great leader whose example has been a source of inspiration”. He was rested, and soon after he was awarded the DSO. His final, and 64th, bombing operation was to Leipzig on October 20. On August 23 he flew on the first raid of the Battle of Berlin, which he attacked on two more occasions.
Sauvage’s Lancaster had been badly damaged over the target but he managed to fly to Maison Blanche in Algeria and make a safe landing.
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It was given the code name “Operation Bellicose”, and this was the first time such a “shuttle” operation had been mounted. To confuse the German night-fighter force waiting for the bombers to return to their bases in England, the Lancasters flew on to an airfield in North Africa after bombing the target. A later reconnaissance flight confirmed that considerable damage had been achieved. Sauvage had to make four runs over the target before dropping his target indicators over the centre of the factory, which the main force then bombed. In June he was the pilot of one of four Lancasters of 97 Squadron selected to act as marker crews for a larger force attacking Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance, where the old Zeppelin sheds had been converted to a factory manufacturing early-warning radar equipment crucial for the Luftwaffe’s highly effective air defence system. In April 1943 he joined 97 Squadron, part of Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force, having already completed a tour of operations flying Hampden bombers, for which he was awarded the DFC. After the war he was a pioneer in the development of air charter and the holiday airline business. Squadron Leader John Sauvage, who has died aged 100, was decorated three times during his career as a bomber pilot.
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