Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An outstanding Second World War D.F.C. and Bar group of eight awarded to Flight Lieutenant D. C. Savage, Royal Air Force, who completed over 80 operational sorties in Blenheims and Bostons, many of them of the low-level variety over North-West Europe: post-war he served in the Federation of Malaya Police before rejoining the Royal Air Force and being killed during an operational sortie in Kenya during the Mau Mau troubles

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse of the Cross officially dated ‘1943’ and the Bar ‘1944’; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R. (581 P./Lt. D. C. Savage, F. of M. Pol.), good very fine and better (8) £3000-3500

D.F.C. London Gazette 20 April 1943. The original recommendation states:

‘This officer joined No. 88 Squadron from No. 17 O.T.U. on 9 November 1941. While with this squadron he completed 13 operational sorties of the “Circus” variety.

Pilot Officer Savage took part in the search for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in February 1942 and, with one other aircraft of No. 88 Squadron, was engaged in smoke-laying operations during the assault on Dieppe on 19 August 1942. In one of these his only accompanying aircraft was shot down.

He has two outstanding low-level attacks to his credit against Power Stations in Occupied France. The first of these, against the Comines Power Station on 29 August 1942, was pressed home to such good effect that, as the attached B.C.I.R. shows, the installation was out of action for 13 weeks. Mazingarbe Power Station was the second, and this was bombed from roof top height on 22 September 1942. Results as good as those at Comines must have been achieved, for three direct hits were scored on the boiler and turbine house, the roof of which was blow off by the explosions.

In the first “Intruder” operations conducted by Boston aircraft, Pilot jOfficer Savage attacked the aerodrome at Haamstede, Holland. Here bombs were dropped from 150 feet and numerous fires were observed, one row in the middle of the aerodrome and another in the N.W. corner, as the aircraft left the target.

This pilot has proved himself to be outstanding in his class and he has now completed a most successful operational tour.’


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.


Palestine and Kenya

On being demobilised from the R.A.F.V.R., Savage gained appointment as a Lieutenant in the Federation of Malaya Police, in which capacity he witnessed active service during the emergency period (Medal & clasp), but he later rejoined the Royal Air Force and, by early 1954, was flying operationally out in Kenya against the Mau Mau. But, as described in the following official account, he was killed during the course of a sortie on 19 January:

‘Flight Lieutenant Savage was the pilot of a Harvard aircraft which took off from Mweiga airfield for a strike against a known Mau Mau hideout. Whilst climbing towards the target, he was seen by No. 2 aircraft to be turning sharply to port some 300 feet below and close to the ground. The aircraft was not observed flying again. When located, the aircraft had crashed in the Aberdare Forest area ... it is assumed that during the sharp turn to port the aircraft stalled and flicked into the ground.’

Savage was buried in the Nyeri Civil Cemetery, Kenya, and it is believed that his next of kin never received his Africa General Service Medal; sold with a large quantity of research, including extensive O.R.B. extracts, to which should be added a recommendation for consulting Martin Bowman’s The Reich Intruders, the definitive history of dramatic low-level medium bomber raids over Europe in the last War.