page_title: Air-sea rescue
section_title: Britain
hierarchical_section_title: Air-sea rescue / History / World War II / Britain
caption_attribution_description: A rigged Airborne Lifeboat in front of the Vickers Warwick B.1, BV351, sometime after June 6th, 1944. Imperial War Museum? - picture scanned by me Ian Dunster 15:45, 25 January 2006 (UTC) from the Alas, Poor Warwick article in the October 1976 issue of Aeroplane Monthly and uncredited.
context_page_description: Air-sea rescue is the coordinated search and rescue of the survivors of emergency water landings as well as people who have survived the loss of their seagoing vessel. ASR can involve a wide variety of resources including seaplanes, helicopters, submarines, rescue boats and ships. Specialized equipment and techniques have been developed. Military and civilian units can perform air-sea rescue.
  Air-sea rescue operations carried out during war have saved valuable trained and experienced airmen. Moreover, the knowledge that such operations are being carried out greatly enhanced the morale of the combat aircrew faced not only with the expected hostile reaction of the enemy but with the possible danger of aircraft malfunction during long overwater flights.
context_section_description: Prior to the Second World War, there was still no fully functional coordinated British air-sea rescue organisation for rescuing aircrew from the sea. The aircrew relied on the High Speed Launches (HSL) established at flying boat bases. On 14 January 1941, the first air-sea rescue was set up (the Directorate of Air Sea Rescue Services). The service the aircraft used were diverse. Westland Lysanders were used to scouting the coastlines, while the Supermarine Walrus was planned to be used for long-term use. By June 1941 rescue from the seas had increased to 35 percent. The Air Ministry decided the service could do better. It was merged with another Directorate, Aircraft Safety. On 23 September 1941 Air Marshal John Salmond took over the organisation. In October 1941 No. 275 Squadron RAF and No. 278 Squadron RAF were given to ASR work. This was supported by two squadrons from Coastal Command equipped with Hudsons. No. 16 Group was authorised to create No. 279 Squadron RAF on 24 October to act as a specialised ASR squadron. No. 280 Squadron RAF was created on 28 November 1941 and was given Anson aircraft in place of Hudsons, as they were desperately needed for A/S operations.
  The British developed the first air-dropped lifeboat; a 32-foot (10 m) wooden canoe-shaped boat designed in 1943 by Uffa Fox was to be dropped by RAF Avro Lancaster heavy bombers for the rescue of aircrew downed in the Channel. The lifeboat was dropped from a height of 700 feet (210 m), and its descent to the water was slowed by six parachutes. It was balanced so that it would right itself if it overturned—all subsequent airborne lifeboats were given this feature. When it hit the water the parachutes were jettisoned and rockets launched 300 ft (90 m) lifelines. Coamings were inflated on the descent to give it self-righting.
  Fox's airborne lifeboat weighed 1,700 pounds (770 kg) and included two 4-horsepower (3 kW) motors—sufficient to make about 6 knots—augmented by a mast and sails along with an instruction book to teach aircrew the rudiments of sailing. The lifeboats were first carried by Lockheed Hudson aircraft in February 1943. Later, Vickers Warwick bombers carried the Mark II lifeboat. The Fox boats successfully saved downed aircrew as well as glider infantrymen dropped in the water during Operation Market-Garden. The lifeboats carried emergency equipment, a radio, waterproof suits, rations and medical supplies.
  Aircraft suitability once again came in for discussion during the war. Ansons and Boulton Paul Defiants were not suitable for ASR operations. The Vickers Warwick was earmarked for the main ASR aircraft. Four 20-aircraft squadrons with specialised ASR conversion were to be made available by the spring, 1943. While development was slow, the effort paid off. In May 1943, 156 men of Bomber Command were rescued from the sea by No. 279 Squadron alone. By the end of 1943 Coastal Command had rescued 1,684 aircrew out of 5,466 presumed to have ditched in the sea. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, 163 aircrew and 60 other personnel were rescued. During the month, June 1944, 355 were saved by ASR units of Coastal Command. In all, 10,663 persons were rescued by Coastal Command in ASR operations. Of this total, 5,721 were Allied aircrew, 277 enemy aircrew, and 4,665 non-aircrew. By the end of the war, British ASR had saved over 13,000 lives and was one of the largest such organisations in the world.
caption: A British Mark I airborne lifeboat shown rigged for sailing, in front of a Vickers Warwick rescue aircraft
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