High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Denis Frank Spotswood GCB, CBE, DSO, DFC (26 September 1916 – 11 November 2001) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. He fought in World War II as a flying boat pilot and then as a coastal reconnaissance squadron commander during Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. He served as a station commander in the late 1940s and early 1950s before becoming a senior air commander in the late 1950s. As the Chief of the Air Staff in the early 1970s he had a major role in implementing the defence savings demanded by the Heath Government in the face of economic difficulties at the time.