Hello all, first time poster in the "War at Sea" section. 6th MARCH 1942 - Coast Watchers at Malin Head in Donegal, Ireland (thats the very top point of Ireland) recorded the following: At about 11:40am a plane was sited from Malin LOP drifting in the sea a half a mile out. The volunteer on duty reported it as a Catalina. Local men took to sea in a rowing boat to try get to the aircraft but after three hours had to give up due to snow and terrible weather conditions. A British destroyer arrived later and the men reportedly seen on the aircraft were rescued. THE QUESTION: I am trying to determine if the name of the vessel doing the rescue would be recorded somewhere in UK records? Might I find anything about this in Admiralty war diaries do you think? I have read the Admiralty War Diaries on Fold3 for the 6th and 7th but there is no obvious mention. I'm making wild assumption any such rescue might have come via a Londonderry based vessel but I suppose equally it might be from anywhere. Thanks Dennis (Edit: Clarified the question I'm asking)
On another site: Catalina VA721 crew, 6 March 1942. The "owner" of which is a member here and pops up regularly, indeed yesterday on another thread. This forum has a one line entry: Irish Wrecks On-Line - North Co. Donegal Wreck List and cites the source as "Irish Wrecks Database" by Roy Stokes & Liam Dowling. Inching forward: From: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/military/Crashes_in_IOM_Scotland_and_NI.pdf Your text is similar to: Foreign Aircraft in Ireland 1939 - 1945
The last link is my own site. Familiar with RAFC post, I commented on it. My question relates to what vessel might have carried out the rescue
States logbooks of the Coastwatchers available here https://www.militaryarchives.ie/en/...ght/online-exhibitions/look-out-post-logbooks
Unfortunately the IMA website does not have all the log books online, they have generally the first ledger for each one, you still have to visit on site to see them all. That collection is a reading room collection, not an online one: Look-Out Post Logbooks (September 1939 - June 1945) | Reading Room Collections | Collections | Military Archives Again, question being asked is what Royal Navy sources might mention the rescue carried out by the vessel. Assuming it was a RN vessel and not American.
Your post states a British destroyer arrived. Assume this will be difficult to track down unless you can track down RN ships logs for that date Royal Navy ships' log books - The National Archives
Have you tried to see if the Canadian 45 Ferry unit (see Post 2) has a war diary? I would expect them to mention who rescued their crew.
Yes, I have been in touch with the DHH in Canada, their 45 Group/Ferry Command archives couldn't shine any light on the subject.
