AUGUST 20TH. - GREAT YARMOUTH AND GORLESTON, NORFOLK. An aeroplane had been reported down in the sea five miles N.E. of Winterton. The life-boat was launched at 1.54 P.M. and reached the position given at 3.10. There she saw and spoke to a naval trawler and a drifter. The master of the trawler said that he had seen the aeroplane come straight out of the clouds and dive into the sea where it “ exploded like a depth charge “. It was he who had sent the message which had called out the life-boat. He was on the spot himself in ten minutes, but found no sign of the airmen, and all he picked up was two oxygen bottles.

The master of the drifter said that he had been searching ever since the aeroplane fell, but he had only found small wreckage.

Several trawlers and a sloop arrived, and they too searched but found nothing. The life-boat then went towards Winterton, still keeping a good look out. About six in the evening a German aeroplane came in from the sea, dropped several bombs in Gorleston,and put out to sea again. The life-boat was then just passing Caister, and the aeroplane attacked her with machine-gun fire. The bullets struck the sea just astern, but none hit the boat, and she continued on her way, reaching her station again at 7 in the evening.

A letter of thanks was received from the Royal Air Force. - Rewards, £4 15s. 6d..