One of the incredible things about Americans, according to the Japanese, is the great trouble and expense they endure to rescue one man. But to Americans a comrade's life is more than a unit of supply. To save a life they frequently tie up many valuable ships, daily risk planes and submarines. Some recent examples:
¶ A B-29 left Osaka with two engines severely damaged; the crew bailed out near Sofu Gan, 350 miles off the Japanese coast. Three planes (two PBYs, a B17) which were near by to spot such trouble marked the survivors' area with smoke bombs. The survivors opened their dye markers, which colored the water green around each man. The B-17 "Dumbo"* dropped a 1½-ton, two-engined Higgins boat by parachute. Two men crawled into the boat, picked up the other survivors. The Dumbo radioed a submarine, which reached the Higgins boat next morning. One man was lost: the flight engineer, whose 'chute had failed to open.
¶ A fighter pilot radioed that he was going down in a small bay on the Japanese coast. A PBY Dumbo received his message, sighted him, but got hit by several Jap antiaircraft shells. The Dumbo retreated and radioed for fighter cover. While the fighters strafed the Jap gun emplacement, the PBY landed on the water, picked up the pilot.
¶ A P-51 Mustang pilot was rescued less than three miles off Honshu in broad daylight by a surfaced submarine. Jap picket boats dared not venture out: submarine and pilot were protected by a circling Superdumbo.
¶ A B-29 Superdumbo, assigned to keep radio and visual watch for airmen going down, spotted three life rafts in the water. Already in contact with a submarine, the Superdumbo passed the word. But two Jap picket boats headed for the life rafts. The Superdumbo dropped four bombs which missed. Another Superdumbo showed up with two PB4Y (Liberator) Dumbos. They strafed and sank the Japanese craft, then guided the submarine to the survivors.
Not all men shot down in enemy waters can be rescued. One P-51 pilot was caught by Jap PT boats after they had damaged a Dumbo and driven off a submarine. Shore guns killed another fighter pilot only 100 yards off Chichi Jima in a Higgins boat after it had been dropped to him. But, between June 1944 and June 1945, the Navy alone saved 2,100 of its pilots and crewmen.
How It Started. Air-sea rescue had its beginnings before the war, when float planes and flying boats sometimes landed on the water (if it were calm enough) to pick up training pilots or ship-based sailors in distress. The R.A.F. developed the practice of parachuting boats with reinforced bows to airmen who went down near the German-held coast of Europe.