John Sauvage flew sixty-four operations in Bomber Command and was decorated three times.  His first tour was on Hampdens with 44 Squadron and after a spell as a bombing instructor he was recruited to the Pathfinder Force.  He attacked Hamburg, Peenemunde and Berlin in addition to targets in the Ruhr and in Italy.  He marked the old Zeppelin sheds at Friedricshafen, where key radar components were being manufactured.  His Lancaster was badly damaged and he flew on to Algeria where he landed safely.  After his second tour he joined Transport Command and flew the York.  On one sortie he took ‘Monty’s Double’ to Gibraltar and North Africa in an attempt to deceived the Germans a few weeks before D-Day.  After he left the RAF he flew on the Berlin Airlift and was a pioneer of the air charter and holiday tourist airline business becoming the the managing director of Britannia Airways and chief executive of Thomson Travel Group.

In the photograph, John Sauvage is on the left with his ground crew and his Lancaster.

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