JANUARY MEETING STORNOWAY, HEBRIDES. At 10.30 in the morning of the 9th of February, 1943, the 30- feet motor fishing boat Girl Lena, with a crew of four, was fishing off Stornoway. The sea was smooth, with a moderate north-west wind.

A Wellington aeroplane was seen to crash south of Arnish Point about half a mile from the Girl Lena. She at once went to its help and found that five of the airmen had taken to their dinghy, and one was still in the water.

The aeroplane had sunk immediately, but had left a trail of burning oil on the water.

The rescuers were in great danger for a short time, but they succeeded in getting all six men on board their boat. Later they transferred them to a naval craft. - Rewards, £4, with £3 10s. for loss of fish and 5s. for fuel used.

WALMER, KENT. About three in the afternoon on the 18th of August, 1943, a Royal Marines cutter was seen to be in difficulties. She had twenty-two men on board. A strong wind, with a heavy sea, was blowing the cutter out to sea, where she was in danger of being carried on to a wreck in the Downs. The men had been rowing for over an hour towards land, but all the time they were being carried further out. Two men put out in the motorboat Terrier and reached the cutter just in time, for she was now very near to the wreck. They threw a rope to her, hauled her clear of the wreck and then towed her in. The men were thanked by an officer from the barracks. - Rewards, £1 to one man. The other man had been rewarded by the Bevan Trustees.

DUNBAR, EAST LOTHIAN. At 7.30 in the morning of the 20th of November, 1943, four men were out in the 34-feet motor boat Young Robert, seine fishing, one mile northwest of Dunbar, when they heard an explosion above the clouds. Then they saw a parachute descending. A strong west-south-west wind was blowing it rapidly out to sea. A moderate sea was running. The fishermen cut away their gear and four miles to the north-east reached the parachute. It was now on the sea. They rescued the airman from it, badly burned and exhausted, and took him to Dunbar. - Rewards, £4, with £5 for loss of fishing and 3s. for fuel used.

WALMER, KENT. At two o’clock in the afternoon of the 1st of December, 1943, the coastguard reported an American Flying Fortress aeroplane down in the sea a mile north of the Guildford Hotel in Pegwell Bay.

A moderate north-west wind was blowing.

The sea was smooth. The life-boat was not needed, and four of her crew put out in the motor boat Terrier. She was overtaken by two air-sea rescue launches and the coastguard signal led the Terrier to return. - Rewards, £1 to two men. The other two men had been rewarded by the Bevan Trustees.

ABBOTSBURY, DORSET. At 3.25 in the afternoon of the 5th of December, 1943, an American Fortress aeroplane crashed in the sea, two to three hundred yards from the beach, half a mile north-west of the Abbotsbury coastguard station, as she was returning from an operational flight. A moderate north-north-west wind was blowing, with a slight sea. Two Abbotsbury fishermen saw the crash and put out in their 12-feet rowing boat. They found three men in the water, two of them trying to keep the third man afloat. Another was drifting away in a rubber dinghy. Six were standing on the fuselage of the aeroplane. The two fishermen first rescued the man who was being supported in the water ; he was a man of over sixteen stone, and it was only with considerable difficulty that the rescuers hauled him on board. They then rescued the other two men in the sea and made for shore where they again had great difficulty, and shipped a lot of water in getting the big man out of the boat.

They put out again at once to the six men on the rapidly sinking aeroplane, rescued and landed them, put out a third time and rescued the last man from the dinghy.

Meanwhile, a doctor was trying to revive the big man, but failed. It was thought that shock, not drowning, caused his death.- Rewards, £3.

ST. DAVID'S, PEMBROKESHIRE. About 3.45 in the afternoon of the 7th of December, 1943, W. Watts Williams, the life-boat coxswain, was out alone in his motor boat fishing in St. Bride’s Bay. The weather was calm. A Wellington aeroplane crashed about three miles away. The coxswain pulled up his trawl and made for it. He reached it in half an hour and found the crew of six in their dinghy. They were uninjured, but suffering from cold and immersion. He rescued them, landed them at Solva and returned with his boat to Porth Clais. - Rewards, £1 10s., and 10s. for fuel used.

NEWQUAY, CORNWALL. About 4.25 in the afternoon of the 11th of December, 1943, information was received that a member of the R.A.F. had been caught by the tide under a high cliff and was unable to get up. The honorary secretary of the life-boat station called on the second-coxswain of the life-boat and another fisherman, and they put out in a 16-feet rowing boat and rescued the man.- Rewards, £1.