air-sea rescue, the equipment and organization used to pick up air crew forced to ‘ditch’ in the sea. The efficiency of this service, for Allied airmen at least, increased as the war progressed, which was not only good for morale but a sensible measure as aircrew were always in short supply.
Germany was far in advance of other combatants in providing an air-sea rescue service for its air crews, having created the Seenotdienst within the Luftwaffe as early as 1936. From September 1939
float plane and
flying boat patrols, marked with the Red Cross emblem, covered the North Sea and these were extended to the English Channel when the battle of
Britain started. In case they were unable to land to pick up a ditched crew immediately these aircraft carried collapsible rubber dinghies equipped with radio transmitters, which transmitted on the international distress frequency, and by October 1940 there were 150 aircraft divided into five Seenotflugkommandos. Additionally, sea rescue floats equipped with bunks, food, and water for four men were positioned in the middle of the English Channel.
In March 1940 the British established a unified system of communications which enabled fast RAF launches, or Army Lysander light aircraft with survival equipment, to reach a downed crew quickly, but liaison between the services was initially poor. During the battle of Britain RAF pilots had only inflatable jackets (nicknamed Mae Wests after the busty
Hollywood actress) to keep them afloat; but the German rubber dinghy was soon copied, as was the marker dye, which allowed the dinghy to be spotted from the air, and the radio transmitter. In January 1941 a Directorate of Air-Sea Rescue was established in the air ministry which improved co-ordination. From that time the chances of a pilot surviving improved considerably and from February to August 1941 444 crewmen were rescued out of the 1,200 who ditched.
In August 1941 the UK's Coastal Command took over operational responsibility for ‘deep search’ air-sea rescue at sea, though Fighter Command remained in charge around the coastline, and the following month four special air-sea rescue squadrons (275–278) were formed within Fighter Command. By the end of 1942 another three (279–281) were formed, two of which joined Coastal Command for deep search operations.
During the course of the war the US Army Air Forces formed seven air-sea rescue squadrons and by September 1944 about 90% of US aircrews forced down at sea in the European Theatre of Operations (see
ETOUSA) were being rescued. The record in the
Pacific war was equally impressive with 1,841 lives being saved from July 1943 to April 1945. But the survival of crews depended largely on luck, weather conditions, and the type of aircraft being flown. Bombers were mostly ditched—the B17 Flying Fortress would often float for up to half an hour—but fighter pilots preferred to bail out as their aircraft (especially the Mustang, whose radiator scoop dragged it under immediately), were notoriously hard to ditch.
What improved the chances of all Allied crews immeasurably was the introduction in 1942 of the
Gibson Girl radio transmitter, a development of the German air-sea rescue transmitter first captured by the British in 1941. This was a more reliable form of establishing a downed crew's position than the navigator's estimate dispatched by
carrier pigeons which had originally been part of a British aircraft's air-sea rescue equipment. A further aid came in 1943 when Allied crews were equipped with an automatic oscillator (‘Walter’) which registered on the searching aircraft's
radar. Emergency survival packs such as the Thornaby Bag, which could be dropped to help crews once they had been found, became increasingly sophisticated and by 1944 a powered lifeboat was available which could be dropped by parachute.
The aircraft most widely used for Allied air-sea rescue was the ubiquitous, amphibious Catalina, but in the Pacific the B29 Superfortress, heavily armed and of great endurance, soon proved itself ideal for delivering survival equipment when it began operating in 1944.
helicopters were also used from 1944 onwards by the US Coast Guard and by June 1945 they were in regular use in emergency rescue squadrons. Vital though aircraft were in dropping lifeboats and rescue equipment, most downed Allied crews were rescued by ships.
