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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1797.PDF
JULY 15TH, 1943 FLIGHT SAMARITAN SPITFI RES releasing his dinghy after a safe descent, that itwas useless. It can, for example, become punc- tured by the fire from an enemy aircraft or byfragments of flak ; or it may get torn during the process of a hurried departure from his aircraftunder circumstances which do not permit of a really neat exit. This sort of thing does not alwayshappen, of course, but it happens often enough to make the new device an extremely useful additionto the technique and equipment of the Air/Sea Rescue Service. The Spitfire, by the way, hasreplaced the Lysander because it is faster on the job and can take care of itself.A feature of the dinghy dropped by the Samari- tan Spitfire is that it sheds its case and inflatesitself on its way down to the water, and as it is customary to drop it from only about 50 feet, itwill be realised that the process is quick-acting. Reverting to the question of accuracy of aim bythe pilot who drops the dinghy; considerable lati- tude is provided by the fact that when dropped ittrails 75 yards of floating cord. The rescuer ap- proaches the ditched pilot in a cross-wind direc-tion and releases the dinghy up-wind of his posi- tion in the water. Thus the dinghy, with its 75yards of floating line, drifts towards him and he can grasp any part of the line nearest to him andpull the dinghy to him. Having scrambled aboard, a notice on the rim of the dinghy reminds him that the adjacent cordhanging over the side has a food and first-aid container dangling at its other end. Before he drops the dinghy, however, the Spitfire pilot—having located "the body" (as they term, with a certain grim humour, the man bobbing about in his Mae West!) —first makes a dummy run and drops a smoke float, or maybe two. This serves a double purpose. First, it enables him "tosee his "target" position when he is approaching to drop the dinghy, for it must be remembered that even in amoderate sea a man is not easy to see and, during a low altitude approach, may disappear from sight between thewaves so often that the pilot may lose sight of him at the crucial moment. But having dropped the smoke float as nearas possible he will note its position in relation to the man, as he circles to make the final approach, and can check his aim. The other function of the smoke float is to provide a wind-jxlirection indicator for the Walrus pilot whom he will by now Jiavq summoned over his R/T to come and do the actualpicking up. Should the sea.be too rough for a Walrus, an Air/Sea Rescue launch will undertake this part of the job.The launch may be one of the R.A.F.'s own high-speed launches, or it may be a Naval launch operating with theAir/Sea Rescue Service, according to the circumstances. Flight witnessed a demonstration of how well this newmethod works, from an Anson which circled over the scene of operations somewhere off England's southern shores, and MANNA FROM HEAVEN : Having clambered aboard hisrubber dinghy, the pilot has hauled in the precious con- tainer which holds food and, should he need it, a first-aid kit. ON ITS WAY. Snapped just after release irorn the Spitfire, the dinghy,with container attached, is seen to be already half inflated ; the float- ing line is paying out behi/id it as it falls. would pay a tribute to the two officers most concerned,namely, F/O. T. Vacquier, who very nobly volunteered to be dumped, fully dressed beneath his Mae West, into the anythingbut warm waters of the English Channel from a Navy launch, and F/O. D. J. McBrien, D.F.C., who" dropped his dinghywith such commendable accuracy that '' the body '' reached it exactly 12 seconds after it hit the water. McBrien laugh-ingly remarked, afterwards, that this was a particularly lucky shot and that it is not always that the 75-yard of line isthus rendered unnecessary. While the Spitfire was locating his man, circling to drop acouple of smoke floats, and then circling again to make the final run which ended in dropping the dinghy within a fewfeet of "the body," a Walrus arrived over the scene and stooged around awaiting its own turn in the demonstration.In the meantime, our Anson, in the experienced hands of Fit. Lt. F. O. Dimblebee, swept down tb "nought feet" totake a closer look at the gallant victim who by now had been in the water some little time and had only just receivedhis dinghy and clambered into it. He waved gaily to us as we passed, and one could well imagine how joyfully any pilot,in a genuine situation like this, would greet the approach of an Air/Sea Rescue aircraft. Incidentally, the occasion also provided us with the oppor-tunity to appreciate to the full how extremely difficult it is to spot a man in the water even from a few hundred feet up.The bright yellow dinghy, on the other hand, was easily seen from a considerable distance away. It has to be remembered,however, that the green sea was lit by a bright sun and was reasonably calm; the work of the Air/Sea Rescue Service is farfrom being so simple when seas are rough and gloomy. In due course trie Walrus, flown by Fit. Lt. J. V. Renvoize,came to rest on the sea a suitable distance down-wind from "the body" in his dinghy, and taxied carefully towardshim. This calls for considerable care and skill, but only 2J minutes elapsed from the moment the Walrus touched downuntil the rescued man was hauled safely aboard. It should hardly be necessary to add that the speed withwhich the ditched pilot can be got aboard the rescuing craft can sometimes be a vital factor in saving his life, and the per-formance put up during this demonstration spoke extremely well for the skill which is brought to bear That it was not a special effort blessed by unusual goodluck (in spite of F/O. McBrien's modest disclaimer) is borne out by the excellent record this Air/Sea Rescue squadron,commanded by Sqn. Ldr. R. F. Hamlyn, A.F.C., D.F.M., has established. Operating in three flights stationed at threeconvenient points, it was the first to reach its century in rescues which now total 177. Of these 83 were made during thepresent year with a month's record of 37 in June. After a recent raid on St. Nazaire it rescued 33 American Fortresspilots and aircrew within 24 hours. Its pilots, by the, way, are all either Battle of Britainveterans, bomber pilots who are "resting," or pilots back from the Middle East. Sqn. Ixlr. Hamlyn, for example, had abag of 13 Huns in the Battle of Britain; five in one day. BET
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