大象传媒

I was in the Air Sea Rescue with the RAF and my job was direction finding. We were based in Breda.

A bomber came down in the sea off the Dutch coast and the crew managed to get out into the sea. Infact the bomber itself floated. At that stage they brought in a 'Walrus'; they picked up the crew, sank the bomber and then failed to get off the sea themselves. So they brought an American Catalina, picked up the crew of the bomber and the Walrus, sank the Walrus and failed to get off themselves!
By that time the Germans knew all about it so they sent two planes over to investigate. So the German and British fighters fought over the Catalina.
So they brought over a Naval Motor Torpedo Boat from England who picked up the crew of the bomber, the Walrus and the Catalina and sank the Catalina.
They took the whole lot back on the Motor Torpedo Boat to England after sinking three aircraft!

We were listening in on our station and direction finding. It was a completely ridiculous situation but as far as we were concerned we were doing our job direction finding. The significant point of this story is the tremendous amount of waste that goes on during war time.

This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of Lewis Gollop with his permission and he fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.