Harry R. Savage.
Navigator · Of Concord, Michigan, MI.
The Man Behind the Name
2nd Lt. Harry R. Savage served as navigator aboard his aircraft during the August 1, 1943 Ploesti raid. He had completed 12 missions before this operation. Three separate source documents record his fate: E&E Report No. 2444 (S/Sgt. Murray), E&E Report No. 2451 (S/Sgt. Koen), and MACR-462. His next of kin was his mother, Mrs. Clarence M. Savage, of Concord, Michigan.
Savage did not bail out with the crew members who survived. Murray's report places the crash over Serbia; Koen's account and the MACR both locate it over Bulgaria, where a mid-air collision brought down the aircraft. Savage was in the nose/cockpit section when the plane struck the ground. His individual casualty questionnaire described him as probably killed and injured in the mid-air collision.
S/Sgt. Koen, who survived and filed E&E Report No. 2451 upon returning to the UK in October 1944, confirmed Savage was reported dead. Savage was killed in action on the Ploesti mission of 1 August 1943.
Service record.
Missions flown.
The missions below are those we have been able to document for this airman, drawn from flight logs, mission records, and archival sources. It is not necessarily a complete account of every mission flown; gaps may reflect missing documentation, transferred assignments, or records lost to time.