FLYING CATS

The 2nd Emergency Rescue Squadron had been formed at Hamilton Field, California in December 1943 and after training at Keesler Field, began to move to the 5th Air Force area in July 1944 to operate from Biak Island off New Guinea.
  It appears very likely that a Hudson friend of mine may have been the first to be rescued by an AAF Catalina in the Pacific area, as in the following account:
On 26 July 1944 some B-24 USAF aircraft were ordered to bomb the Japanese held airstrip and buildings at Ransiki in the western part of Dutch New Guinea. Photographs taken earlier of the target area, had shown only thee AA gun emplacements at each end of the airstrip, and weather forcasts were good for the morning.
  Over the target area, Bill Amos had just released bombs from the B-24 in which he was commanding, when he was aware of two direct AA hits to his aircraft. He peeled off immediately away from the rest of the formation. One engine was on fire, another was rapidly losing oil and racing. He headed east and checked on his crew. The co-pilot, Bill Rush, was slightly injured. The bomb-aimer however, Jim Bishop, had been severely wounded in the abdomen, and others in the crew bandaged his wounds and administered morphine.
  Height was now being lost on the two remaining engines which were overheating, and with the airspeed then at 100kt, the nearest friendly base was Wakde Island, two hours away. On the radio guard frequency, signals were blocked by some Naval transmissions and Amos gave orders for ditching procedure to be followed. On ditching, a dinghy was released and inflated. the bomb-aimer had been given two life jackets but he was unconscious and needed another man to support his head. When the aircraft sank, four rear gunners went down with it; they had given all their attention to Jim Bishop. An emergency radio was found floating and was operated by now by one of the six survivors.
  With a sheet, rain water was collected during a passing squall, and with an improvised drogue, some small purple fish were caught and eaten. During the night it became apparent that Jim Bishop had died, and there was a reluctant but unanimous decision made and acted upon, with one of the crew speaking the first three lines of

 

FLYING CATS

the 23rd Psalm.   The remaining five were now surrounded by mist over the sea and their dinghy which was in sighting distance of Geelvink Bay, a Japanese naval base. Engines were heard and they wondered. At daybreak they saw the coast only a mile away with enemy lorries moving . During a rain squall, a B-25 broke cloud but seemed unaware of the dinghy and its occupants. [Read Mission Report]  In the early afternoon a Catalina was seen heading their way, and when a quarter-of-a-mile distant, one of the ditched crew jumped up and waved madly although by then the waves were running 3-4 feet high. Typically, as the Catalina touched down it disappeared! It was then seen again only 100 feet away; the engines were cut, and the dinghy was paddled to a blister, where the cry was heard: 'Hey, you guys want a ride?'
  After the engines were re-started a gunner sank the dinghy with a spray of bullet. Bill Amos was invited forward to take off where the captain grabbed his arm and gestured him behind the pilot's seat. As Amos recalls: "For one accustomed to hard runways, it was a hairy exhibition of a new way to kill yourself. The throttles were eased forward and the plane began accelerating in a wallowing, erratic path through the water. This kept increasing and at 40 knots, started smashing through each three foot wave with a series of gigantic thuds. The speed increased and the plane-to-wave impacts changed to a succession of shuddering crashes as each wave, now a solid obstacle, tried to destroy this foreign thing that refused to conform to wind and water motion.
  Now a solid curtain of water flowed down each side and forward window making visibility out of the cockpit impossible. Unconcerned, the pilot continued maneuvering . A shaft of water erupted out of the floor and the navigator reported that the drift meter housing had been torn away, the pilot nodded. The impacts diminished and the captain yelled if he wondered if they'd ever get onto the step."
  Amos looked at the pilot who was now sweating heavily and it occurred to him that perhaps he should have been more concerned  about that stage of his rescue. 

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