Franks - Beyond courage: air sea rescue by Walrus Squadrons in the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Tyrrhenian Seas, 1942-1945

In 1994 PSL published my book Another Kind of Courage covering the Supermarine Walrus squadrons, which operated around the United Kingdom during World War Two. It was originally intended to incorporate within it the activities and rescues of the Walrus squadrons in the Mediterranean between 1942-45, but that would have made the book too large. Unhappily, therefore, it was decided to extract the Mediterranean chapters.

However, John Davies of Grub Street Publishing has made the decision to complete the Walrus air sea rescue story by producing this book on the Mediterranean units, which is most gratifying. That is because these stories of exceptional bravery by the rescue aircrew can now be shared with the general public and aviation enthusiasts, as well as the tales of those they saved from watery graves or captivity.

As those who have read Another Kind of Courage will already appreciate, it took extraordinary courage to land this comparatively small, single-engined amphibian aeroplane on the sea. The sea was often far from calm, rescues often under the eyes of the enemy, and the pilots were aware that due to weight of extra bodies, or the extremes of weather, not to mention a high running sea, the Walrus might be unable to take off again. Yet the men of the Walrus squadrons rarely hesitated, knowing full well that the quicker the downed airmen were out of the water, the better their chances of survival.

Although we are talking of the Mediterranean rather than the English Channel or the North Sea, the waters off the North African coast, or off either side of the Italian mainland those extending into the Adriatic or the Tyrrhenian Seas were no less cold. Anyone enjoying seaside holidays along any of the Italian coasts, or Sardinia and Corsica, will only know the warmth of coastal seas in high summer. Shocked and perhaps wounded airmen who came down miles from shore, often completely out of sight of land, will describe a very different tale of water temperatures. Even if they were in a dinghy, the heat of a summer sun beating down on them, and little or no drinking water, gave them another set of problems, so the sooner they were rescued the better.

What follows, therefore, are the stories of the men who came down on the sea and those very special pilots and observers who unhesitatingly flew out to find them and then pick them up. It took a special kind of courage and, as the RAF and Royal Navy will tell you, it still does today.