John Hugh Saffery

[1] Soon after the outbreak of World War II Saffery joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve to serve in the Fleet Air Arm, being commissioned as a temporary sub-lieutenant on 1 November 1939, with seniority from 25 September.

[6] However, in May 1940 the British learned of the use of glider-borne troops by the Germans during the invasion of Belgium, at the assault on Fort Eben-Emael, and so on 17 June Winston Churchill ordered the formation of airborne forces.

Saffery was soon attached to the new unit on the basis of his pre-war gliding experience, being transferred to the Royal Air Force, and appointed Chief Flying Instructor at No.

Saffery flew 37 sorties over Germany and France, photographing potential targets for RAF Bomber Command including V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket launching sites.

[14] Saffery was finally demobilized in 1946, though he remained on the Emergency List of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, until eventually relinquishing his commission on 10 February 1954, being permitted to retain the rank of squadron leader.

[18] The following year he was in charge of a survey in the Sudan, providing photographs and mosaics covering an area of 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2), which were then handed over to ecologists employed by Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, to report to the Sudanese Government on the possibilities of irrigation projects adjacent to the White and Blue Nile.

Using the 900-ton depot ship Oluf Sven, the expedition created a base of operations on Deception Island, which had the advantage of being ice-free during the summer months (from November to March) enabling the use of two PBY-5A Canso amphibian aircraft.

[20] The expedition successfully surveyed 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2), about 70% of the contract area – including all of the South Shetlands Islands, the Palmer Archipelago, the Biscoe Group, and Graham Land down to the 64th parallel.