Plaque honours radar raid pilot
WERE it not for the efforts of the pilots who bombed German radar installations ahead of D-Day, including one in Guernsey, the shape of the Second World War might have been very different, Lt-Governor Vice Admiral Sir Ian Corder said yesterday.
Sir Ian was speaking prior to unveiling a plaque in memory of Flight-Lieutenant John Saville, whose plane crashed in Havelet Bay on 5 June 1944 after a successful bombing run.
Flt-Lt Saville was the leader of Typhoons from 439 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their target was the Freya radar at Fort George.
Sir Ian said that while it could never be known for sure, if this and other attacks on German installations had failed, the bloody scenes at Omaha beach might have been repeated at the other sites where allied troops landed on 6 June.
The Bailiff, Sir Richard Collas, read a short poem – High Flight, by Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee – during the ceremony, and wreaths were laid representing, among others, the local branch of the Royal Air Forces Association, the St Peter Port constables and the Guernsey branch of the Channel Islands Occupation Society.
The service was conducted by Town Church rector the Rev. Matthew Barrett.
'I have always wanted to have a memorial plaque,' said St Peter Port constable Dennis Le Moignan. 'It was just a question of getting around to it.'
The plaque, made by monumental masons Henry, was paid for out of the parish constables' funds and not from ratepayers' contributions.
