American Invasion' AS A TRAINING EXERCISE, three American inflatable assault boats set out from Calais on the morning of Tuesday, August 19, 1975, to cross the Channel, land and scale the cliffs of Dover.

However, the weather deteriorated, there were fuel problems, and at 1202Dover Port Control Authorities informed Dover lifeboat honorary secretary that the master of a car ferry had reported seeing two inflatable boats with American service personnel on board which appeared to be sinking two miles east of Dover.

The 44' Waveney lifeboat Faithful Forester slipped her moorings to investigate at 1209 and set out in a moderate west-south-westerly breeze and a moderate sea and ebbing tide. On arrival at 1230 she took the two boats in tow and brought them back against wind and tide to Dover, The occupants, 15 men and five women, were suffering from seasickness and exposure and were taken aboard the lifeboat.

Faithful Forester arrived in Dover at 1340 when the Americans were landed.

The third inflatable boat was towed in to the beach by a trans-Atlantic yacht from Brazil..