An RAF hero who survived 64 bombing raids, helped trick the Germans over the D-Day landings and later pioneered the package holiday has died, aged 100.
Squadron Leader John Sauvage was one of the Pathfinder squadron’s most distinguished pilots, lighting up enemy targets with flares for the main bombing force to strike.
He was key to deceiving the Germans over the location and timing of D-Day by flying a lookalike for Field Marshall Montgomery to Gibraltar.
The plan was, if German intelligence thought the British Army supremo was 1,500 miles away, they would not expect the Allied invasion of Europe.
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It was immortalised in the 1958 John Mills movie I Was Monty’s Double.
He was among only 10% of Bomber Command airmen who survived the war and was decorated three times for his skill and courage.
After the war, he dropped supplies to Berlin when it was cut off by the Soviets, was a test pilot for in-flight refuelling and later became a commercial pilot.
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He went on to help develop the idea of package deals as chairman of the Thomson Travel Group.
Jennie Mack Gray, of the RAF Pathfinders’ Archive, called him “one of the legendary Pathfinder figures, a brilliant pilot and leader, and a vivid and
charismatic personality”.
Tommy Doherty, of the RAF Presentation Team, added: “Sqn Ldr John Sauvage had an outstanding career and served our nation in its darkest hour.
“We will never forget him.”
