Airmen Behind the Medals by Graham Pitchfork

Author:Graham Pitchfork
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
ISBN: 9781473874282
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-08-10T04:00:00+00:00

Jones in the cockpit of HSL 186. (Jones family)

The air-sea rescue launches on the south coast were busy during the period leading up to and immediately after D-Day, on 6 June 1944. On the 11 June, Jones sailed for a position twenty-five miles south of Dungeness where a Walrus of No. 277 Squadron had rescued a badly wounded pilot, Lieutenant Ralston of the USAAF’s 369th Fighter Squadron. The Walrus had been unable to take off due to a heavy swell and was taxiing back towards the English coast when Jones arrived. At 1400 he took the amphibian in tow and transferred his nursing orderly to the aircraft to treat the wounded pilot. Almost three hours later he arrived at Dover having towed the Walrus for thirty-seven miles.

Having been involved in one of the greatest events of the Second World War, the Normandy landings, Jones’ next, and in the event his last, major operation was in support of Operation Market Garden, the airborne assault at Arnhem.

The large-scale airborne operations against the bridges at Grave, Nijmegen and Arnhem in Holland, which commenced on 17 September, placed one of the heaviest demands on the air-sea rescue service. The need to reinforce the troops on the ground created a steady stream of gliders and transport aircraft each day until the 21 September. RAF and naval rescue craft from Yarmouth, Gorleston, Felixstowe, Dover and Ramsgate, were positioned in the North Sea in a double line under the air routes from the English coast up to the Dutch coast. Each launch was visible to its neighbour, thus minimising the chance of any ditched aircraft or glider not being seen by at least one of them. There were seventeen air-sea rescue launches positioned to cover the northern route and ten for the southern. Rescue aircraft flew constant patrols with others on immediate standby.

For the third lift, on 19 September, Jones was stationed some fifty miles east of the North Foreland when, at 1400, he received a signal by Aldis lamp from a minesweeper directing him to the north-east where an aircraft was circling. On arrival he found an American Waco glider awash with three survivors aboard. The pilot was 300 yards away, clinging to a partially inflated dinghy. After picking up the only four survivors, the glider was sunk by the HSL’s gunfire to prevent spurious reports should the wreckage be seen floating. Shortly afterwards he received a signal to search in his immediate area for another glider. Eventually he found the wreckage, but with no survivors aboard. After an extensive search he returned to Dover with his four survivors, arriving at 2030.

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