Seenotdienst The Seenotdienst ( sea rescue service ) was a German military organization formed within the " Luftwaffe " ( German Air Force ) to save downed airmen from emergency water landings . The " Seenotdienst " operated from 1935 to 1945 and was the first organized air - sea rescue service . The " Seenotdienst " was at first operated as a civilian service run by the military , and later was brought formally into the " Luftwaffe " . Throughout their existence , the group solved a number of organizational , operational and technical challenges to create an effective rescue force . When British and American air leaders observed the German success , they modeled their own rescue forces after the " Seenotdienst " . As the Allies of World War II advanced , denying sea areas to German forces , local groups of the " Seenotdienst " were disbanded . The last active group served in the Baltic Sea in March 1945 . 1930s . In 1935 , Lieutenant Colonel Konrad Goltz of the " Luftwaffe " , a supply officer based at the port of Kiel , was given the task of organizing the " Seenotdienst " , an air - sea rescue organization that would focus on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea . Goltz gained coordination with aircraft units of the " Kriegsmarine " as well as with civilian lifeboat societies and the " German Maritime Search and Rescue Service " ( DGzRS , or " Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger " ) . He held administrative command over the Ships and Boats Group which was organized at Kiel within the " Luftwaffe " . Goltz was to operate the " Seenotdienst " as a civilian organization manned by both military and civilian personnel , with civil registrations applied to the aircraft . Early in 1939 , with the growing probability of war against Great Britain , the " Luftwaffe " carried out large - scale rescue exercises over water . Land - based German bombers used for search duties proved inadequate in range , so bomber air bases were constructed along the coast to facilitate an air net over the Baltic and North seas . Following this , the " Luftwaffe " determined to procure a purpose - built air - sea rescue seaplane , choosing the Heinkel He 59 , a twin - engine biplane with floats . A total of 14 He 59s of the oldest models were sent to be fitted with first aid equipment , electrically heated sleeping bags , artificial respiration equipment , a floor hatch with a telescoping ladder to reach the water , a hoist , signaling devices , and lockers to hold all the gear . The Heinkel He 59s were painted white with red crosses to indicate emergency services . A varied collection of small surface craft were placed under the command of the air - sea rescue division . World War II . The first multiple air - sea rescue operation occurred on December 18 , 1939 . A group of 24 British Vickers Wellington medium bomber s were frustrated by low clouds and fog in their mission to bomb Wilhelmshaven , and they turned for home . The formation attracted the energetic attention of " Luftwaffe " pilots flying Bf 109 fighter aircraft as well as Bf 110 heavy fighter s , and more than half of the Wellingtons went down in the North Sea . German " Seenotdienst " rescue boats based at Hörnum worked with He 59s to save some twenty British airmen from the icy water . In 1940 as the German advance moved to occupy Denmark and Norway , the " Seenotdienst " added bases along the coasts of those countries . A squadron of obsolescent Dornier Do 18 s that had been used for sea reconnaissance was assigned to air - sea rescue . Some of the Heinkels that had been flying out of the island of Sylt were transferred to Aalborg in northern Denmark . The two bases in Norway were located at Stavanger and Bergen . In many cases local rescue societies cooperated with the " Seenotdienst " . When Holland and France fell to the German advance in May and June 1940 , more rescue bases were put into operation . The Hague and Schellingwoude became rescue bases in the Netherlands , and Boulogne and Cherbourg in France hosted rescue units that were soon to be active during the Battle of Britain . The " Seenotdienst " was taken formally into the " Luftwaffe " in July 1940 , becoming " Luftwaffeninspektion 16 " ( German Air Force Inspectorate 16 ) under the direction of " Generalleutnant " Hans - Georg von Seidel , the Quartermaster General of the " Luftwaffe " , and thus indirectly under " General der Flieger " Hans Jeschonnek , the Chief of the " Luftwaffe " General Staff . Dutch rescue craft belonging to the Noord - en zuid - Hollandsche Redding Maatschappij ( NZHRM , translated North and South Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution ) and the Zuid - Hollandsche Maatschappij tot Redding van Schipbreukelingen ( ZHMRS ) were incorporated into the " Seenotdienst " during the occupation of the Netherlands . The fast motor life boats were painted white with red crosses , though twice the boats were strafed by Allied aircraft . Civilian boatmen enjoyed good relations with German authorities . Between 1940 and 1945 , the Dutch boats saved some 1 , 100 seamen and airmen . Near the end of the occupation some local boat commanders defied the Nazi regime , and three Dutch lifeboats escaped across the Channel , one carrying 40 Jews to sanctuary in England . In response to the heavy toll of German air action against Great Britain July – August 1940 , Adolf Galland recommended that German pilots in trouble over the ocean make an emergency water landing in their aircraft instead of bailing out and parachuting down . The aircraft each carried an inflatable rubber raft which would help the airmen avoid hypothermia from continued immersion in the cold water , and increase the time available for rescue . By comparison , British fighters such the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane did not carry inflatable rafts , only life jackets which were little help against the cold . In July 1940 , a white - painted He 59 operating near Deal , Kent was shot down and the crew taken captive because it was sharing the air with 12 Bf 109 fighters and because the British were wary of " Luftwaffe " aircraft dropping spies and saboteurs . The German pilot ' s log showed that he had noted the position and direction of British convoys — British officials determined that this constituted military reconnaissance , not rescue work . The Air Ministry issued Bulletin 1254 indicating that all enemy air - sea rescue aircraft were to be destroyed if encountered . Winston Churchill later wrote " We did not recognise this means of rescuing enemy pilots who had been shot down in action , in order that they might come and bomb our civil population again . " Germany protested this order on the grounds that rescue aircraft were part of the Geneva Convention agreement stipulating that belligerents must respect each other ' s " mobile sanitary formations " such as field ambulances and hospital ship s . Churchill argued that rescue aircraft were not anticipated by the treaty , and were not covered . British attacks on He 59s increased . The " Seenotdienst " ordered the rescue aircraft armed as well as painted in the camouflage scheme of their area of operation . The use of civil registration and red cross markings was abandoned . A " Seenotdienst " gunner shot down an attacking No . 43 Squadron RAF Hurricane fighter on July 20 . Rescue flights were to be protected by fighter aircraft when possible . In August , a few captured French and Dutch seaplanes were modified for rescue and attached to the organization . Some three - engined Dornier Do 24 flying boat s that were built in Holland , and eight French Breguet Br . 521 " Bizerte " models were refitted with standard " Seenotdienst " rescue supplies . Further bases set up at Le Havre , Brest , St . Nazaire and Royan . More aircraft were brought under " Seenotdienst " command on an " ad hoc " basis , depending on the urgency . On May 22 , 1941 in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Crete , a squadron of Do 24s was called upon to rescue survivors of the sinking of the — some 65 British sailors were picked up . In the battle for Malta , some 1 , 000 rescue missions were flown by Do 24s , with many shot down . In saving Italian sailors from the battleship " Roma " , four out of five Do 24T aircraft were shot down . The fifth flying boat rescued 19 men . British and American response . During the first two years of war , the British had no coordinated air - sea rescue units — only about 28 crash boats and no dedicated aircraft . The ditching of a British aeroplane in the Channel or the North Sea usually doomed its crew . The fate of downed airmen was primarily in the hands of their parent organization , and they had little they could do to help the crash boats locate the accident site . In January 1941 , a Directorate of Air - Sea Rescue was formed by the Royal Air Force for the purpose of saving those in distress at sea , especially airmen . Proper provisioning of rescue squadrons was slow , and it took more than a year for sea - going rescue boats and aircraft to come together in active ASR squadrons . Between February and August 1941 , of the 1 , 200 British airmen that landed in the Channel or the North Sea , 444 were rescued , with 78 more picked up and interned by the " Seenotdienst " . The organization copied much from the successful efforts of the " Seenotdienst " . British air - sea rescue units began in September 1942 to work with the United States Army Air Forces to coordinate rescue activities over the Channel and the North Sea . Observers from the U . S . took cues from both the " Seenotdienst " and the British rescue operations . The combined US - UK effort led to the saving of some 2 , 000 American fliers from the seas around the UK . From the time of its inception to the end of the war , the British effort alone rescued 13 , 629 people from the ocean , 8 , 000 of which were airmen . Retreat . As the Allies advanced following the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 , the " Luftwaffe " pulled bases back to keep them from being overrun . Units of the " Seenotdienst " whose areas of operation were threatened by Allied activity were disbanded or reorganized into other groups with safer locations . For instance , in July 1944 , surrounded by the U . S . VIII Corps gathering to attack Brest , " Seenotstaffel 1 " that had been operating there since June 1940 , with a southern detachment at Hourtin , was sent to Pillau in the Baltic Sea , then redesignated " Seenotstaffel 60 " in August . In November 1944 , German leadership decided that the flying boat manufacturing resources could be put to better use elsewhere , and ordered the Dornier factory to cease making Do 24s . The most persons that a single " Seenotdienst " aircraft rescued in one sortie was 99 children and 14 adults carried by a Do 24 , saved from orphanages threatened by the Soviet advance into Koszalin during the Battle of Kolberg at the beginning of March 1945 . The load was so great that the aircraft was unable to take off — instead , it wave - hopped and taxied back to base . During the same battle , six boats working with the " Seenotdienst " made repeated trips March 17 – 18 to a pier in Kolberg and evacuated 2 , 356 people . Rescue equipment . During the Battle of Britain , a problem that the " Seenotdienst " observed among both British and German aircrew was termed " Rettung Kollaps " ( rescue collapse ) — a number of rescued fliers lost consciousness and died some 20 – 90 minutes after being pulled from the icy water . Investigation into the matter was initiated , including experiments on prisoners at Dachau concentration camp which involved submersing men in extremely cold water to induce severe hypothermia . The human subjects were then warmed up using various methods under analysis such as being wrapped in an electrically - heated sleeping bag , being bathed in warm or hot water , or even having several naked women forced to copulate with the victim . Some 80 – 100 prisoners died in the process . In October 1940 at the suggestion of Ernst Udet , yellow - painted " Rettungsbojen " ( sea rescue buoys ) were placed by the Germans in waters where air emergencies were likely . The highly visible buoy - type floats held emergency equipment including food , water , blankets and dry clothing enough for four men , and they attracted distressed airmen from both sides of the conflict . British airmen and seamen called them " Lobster Pots " for their shape . German and British rescue boats checked the floats from time to time , picking up any airmen they found , though enemy airmen were immediately made prisoner of war . The " Seenotdienst " carried out its own studies that determined which new rescue inventions were to be incorporated throughout the " Luftwaffe " . A bright green fluorescein dye was found to be useful to mark the area of a water landing , and all German aircraft began to carry the dye . Compact inflatable dinghies were developed for all combat aircraft , even single - engine fighters .