In article ,
ArtKramr wrote:
Subject: Fly Boy ?????
From: nt (Gordon)
just like all those poor saps in TBDs, and B-26s and all the rest. Sucks that
they didn't make it, but they carried the fight forward.

Good post Gordon. I think that only those of us that flew as aircrew can
really fully understand the situation. All others are out of the loop.

Repectfully submit that those who did air-sea rescue were pretty
well aware of it, too. My father did ASR in the channel through '43
and '44 - including picking up those who survived from ditching
fortresses and the like - and got a close view of the many ways in
which an aircraft could fail to ditch in a manner conducive to anyone
getting out alive and of the many ways you could still lose people
afterwards - failing to get out of the aircraft or not reached or
lifted from the water in time (112' Fairmiles weren't big boats,
but they were plenty high enough out of the water to make getting
someone inboard difficult if the weather was dirty).

There's some of his comments up on the WW2 experiences centre
web-pages, at:
http://www.war-experience.org/collec...en/pagetwo.htm
which some here might find interesting.
Actually, I'd strongly recommend the whole site:
http://www.war-experience.org/index.html

They're actively looking for more contributions, and I'm sure that
they would welcome being contacted by some of the survivors of WW2
who post here (Art, for one). They're good people to deal with, too.

No connection with them other than doing patching and proof-reading
of stuff to take the load off my father.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Who dies with the most toys wins" (Gary Barnes)