Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sergeant J. Saffrey, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was killed in action while serving as a Navigator in a Wellington of No. 166 Squadron in October 1943

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box with named and numbered issuance slips and Air Ministry condolence slip in the name of ‘Sergeant J. Saffery’, extremely fine (3) £250-300

John Saffery commenced his operational career as a Navigator in No. 166 Squadron, a Wellington unit operating out of Kilmington, Lincolnshire, in July 1943.

Allocated to Sergeant E. D. G. Price’s crew, he flew his first sortie on the night of the 27th, one of the famous Hamburg ‘firestorm’ raids - pilot and crew afterwards described the extent of the fires as ‘rather terrifying’ but returned to the same target on 2 August.

Having then participated in a spate of mine-laying sorties off the Dutch and French coasts, Saffrey and his crew were detailed to attack ‘a special target’ at Le Portel on the night of 8-9 September - in fact a diversionary raid in support of Operation “Starkey”, a ploy to fool the enemy into believing that an invasion armada was bound for France. For the population of Le Portel, situated between two major enemy gun batteries, the cost was high, some 500 inhabitants being killed.

For his next sortie - his 12th - Saffery was allocated to Sergeant K. Hurst’s crew to attack Kassel on the night of 22-23 October. Nothing further was heard from their aircraft after take-off, which crashed at Obermeister, near Warburg. Only the pilot survived.

He was the son of Percival Gustave and Marie Jane Saffrey, and the husband of Marjorie Barrie Saffery of ’56 Broadway, Mill Hill, London N.W. 7’ (as per the above described forwarding box). Aged 32 years, he was buried in Hannover War Cemetery.