Distinguished Service Order In the early days of the war, Davies and
Richard Peirse carried out a number of raids on German submarine bases at
Ostend and
Zeebrugge. Both were awarded the DSO:
Victoria Cross Davies was then posted to the
Dardanelles, and was awarded the
Victoria Cross on 1 January 1916 for an action at Ferrijik Junction, in what was then part of
Bulgaria near the border with
Ottoman-controlled Europe, on 19 November 1915. Today, Feres (Ferecik in Turkish) is in the Evros region of modern Greece. Davies was 29 years old, and in command of
No. 3 Squadron RNAS. His citation read: This was the first
combat search and rescue by aircraft in history. Like later search and rescue efforts, Davies' action sprang from the desire to keep a compatriot from capture or death at the hands of the enemy; unlike most of those future efforts, it was a one-man impromptu action that succeeded because of a peculiarity in construction of his aircraft. The
Nieuport 10 he was flying was a single seat model which had had its front cockpit decked over. When Davies picked him up under rifle fire, Smylie wriggled past Davies and through his controls into the tiny roofed-over front compartment. Smylie was so thoroughly wedged among the controls that, upon landing, it took two hours to extricate him. Davies was also
mentioned in despatches for his Gallipoli service. In early 1916, Davies was transferred to the
Western Front, conducting bombing raids behind German lines, and then as wing commander in the seaplane carrier , attached to the
Grand Fleet. and returned to naval service. After the war, he was awarded the
Air Force Cross and the French
Croix de guerre with Palm. ==Interbellum and Second World War==