US Navy: Naval Aviation Doctrine: Introduction to Naval Aviation, 1946 - Air-Sea Rescue

INTRODUCTION TO NAVAL AVIATION  - RESTRICTED - ISSUED BY AVIATION TRAINING DIVISION OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS U. S. NAVY. * JANUARY 1946 * OPNAV 33-NY-85; Chapter IX. Tactics and Flight Operations.

7. AIR-SEA RESCUE

The rescue of airmen downed at sea was one of the dramatic new assignments of the Navy growing out of World War II. Never before had aviators flown at such distances from their carriers or land bases; never had pilots in wartime flown over territory so little known or potentially so dangerous to prisoners of war.

The Navy's policy is always to get the flyer back - even if it meant, as it did, sending a submarine into Truk lagoon or a destroyer into the mouth of Tokyo Bay. Successful rescues became almost commonplace, so well organized did air-sea rescue procedure function in the last years of the war.

Preparation

The Navy's policy was to make certain that aviation personnel forced to ditch or bail out were ready for the emergency. Training in swimming became a part of pre-flight instruction for pilots and aircrewmen. Rigid minimum requirements were set up. Mock ditchings and bail-outs were a standard part of the curriculum at many air stations. When a flyer joined the Fleet, he was physically and mentally prepared for emergency sea landings, thereby eliminating much of the actual danger.

No expense was spared to provide proper emergency equipment. The relatively crude inflatable life rafts available at the beginning of the war were constantly improved, and all the other gear - smoke and dye markers, food rations, radar reflectors, "Gibson girl" radios, first-aid kits - were marvels of compactness and portability. The war saw perfection of a means for manufacturing drinking water at sea, the Permutit Kit, a device compact enough to be carried in a man's hip pocket. In terms of equipment developed and of information collected from every available source survival at sea advanced further during World War II than in any previous period.

Aircraft droppable signal kit

Procedure

The methods for locating and receiving, downed airmen vary with the operating;area and the means available.

In carrier strikes the air-sea rescue procedure is written up as part of the general operating plan. Flyers are briefed in communications, signals, safety areas, and procedures for attracting the attention of rescue ships. Surface and undersea vessels are assigned to predetermined locations where they can be within reach of survivors. Patrolling aircraft are ordered to keep a lookout for aviators forced to land at sea. In the last months of the war the air-sea rescue portion of the operating plan worked so smoothly that sea rescue became routine.

The Navy's surface forces, supplemented by patrol planes, cooperated during the war with the Army in rescuing bomber pilots downed on the long hops between the Marianas and the Japanese main islands. A regular patrol was established, vessels were assigned to specific areas, and communications procedures drawn up.

At land-plane bases, of course, air-sea rescue procedure is the responsibility of the area commander. Using whatever surface facilities are available and coordinating search plane forces of all services in his area, the commander draws up a suitable rescue plan.

Submarine surfaces to pick up downed pilots (on raft off starboard bow)

Mariner parachutes raft to downed airmen off Japan

The Solomons campaign saw the first use  of "Dumbo" pilots on an organized scale - that is, a group of planes set aside for the specific purpose of rescuing downed aviators. This program was tied in with the secret system of "coast watchers," who worked with friendly natives in helping to protect flyers from enemy forces until they could be flown out by rescue planes.

Perhaps the most elaborate plan of all during the war was used in the Western Sea Frontier, primarily a training and servicing area. A Joint Intelligence Center kept itself informed of all military flights in the region - Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Coast Guard. Careful check was made of flight schedules, areas to be flown over, departures and arrivals. When a plane signalled for assistance or was overdue, the whole search machinery of the area went into action. Coast Guard aircraft, in an alert status whenever planes were in the air, could take off on a few minutes notice to locate survivors, drop whatever gear they required, report on their condition, and assist in guiding surface vessels to the scene. Sometimes, in emergency cases, the planes would land at sea; but generally the dangers of such landings made it advisable to leave that phase of the operation to surface vessels.

By training its flying personnel to meet the hazards of forced landings at sea, by providing the most complete and efficient emergency equipment, and by drawing up planned procedures, the Navy saved hundreds of aviators who lived to fight another day.

Smoke signals

"Dumbo" brings in rescued airman

Pilot comes aboard from inflated raft