Christchurch Beaufighter Pilot Rescued From Sea

[Dave Homewood]

CHRISTCHURCH MAN RESCUED.
During a recent attack on the Dutch coast a Beaufighter piloted by Warrant Officer Douglas Mann, Christchurch, was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Mann and a companion were forced to land in the North Sea and, confined to small one-man dinghy, they survived for five days, when they were spotted by an Allied aircraft, which dropped them a larger rubber dinghy. Three more days were spent on the open sea, and then they were picked up and conveyed to England. TOP: The crew of a high-speed rescue launch stands by, about to rescue the two airmen. BELOW: Douglas Mann, smiling, bearded, and grey-faced after his ordeal, is shown being removed on a stretcher at a rescue base after his harrowing eight days at sea.
PRESS, 2 DECEMBER 1944

[Dave Homewood]

N.Z. AIRMAN'S ORDEAL

ADRIFT FOR EIGHT DAYS EXPERIENCES OFF FRISIAN ISLANDS

(Air Ministry News Service.)

In peace time Warrant Officer Douglas Mann and Flight Sergeant Donald Kennedy lived 13,000 miles apart— Mann in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Kennedy in Southport, Lancashire, England. War brought them together, closer than either of them wishes, for after flying together as a crew in a Royal Air Force Coastal Command Beaufighter, they tossed about in the same dinghy in the rough North Sea for eight days.

They admit now that they are safely back in England after climbing into their water-logged dinghy four miles off the enemy shore of Terschelling (one of the Frisian Islands) that there were times in that seemingly interminable week adrift when they thought all was over and cared very little what happened. But they reckoned without the vigilance of the Air-Sea Rescue Service.

Warrant Officer Mann, who is 26 and lives at 127 Edgeware road, St. Albans, Christchurch, was the pilot, and Flight Sergeant Kennedy, aged 21, of 159 Wennington road, Southport, the navigator of a Beaufighter of a New Zealand Squadron of Coastal Command which was engaged on anti-shipping operations off the Dutch coast.

There is nothing spectacular about these two young men who lived through this long, eight-day nightmare alone in the North Sea, with only the enemy coast in sight. They would dismiss themselves as “just a couple of ordinary flying types." Until that night when they “ditched as they went in to attack an enemy convoy, adventure had seldom come their way, they said. Before the war, Warrant Officer Mann was a joiner with the maintenance department of the New Zealand Railways at Christchurch. Flight Sergeant Kennedy was a railway booking clerk at South Meolscop station, Southport.

Aircraft “Ditched”
Even when they came together a year ago at an operational training unit and began flying as an operational crew a few months later their log books had nothing very sensational to record. Then came their twenty-ninth sortie. They were briefed with other aircraft to attack an enemy convoy at night off Terschelling. Their aircraft was badly damaged, and they were forced to "ditch," taking to the dinghy carried in the aeroplane.

Their rations were four pints of water each in sealed tins, a tin of milk tablets, barley sugar, and chewing gum. Allied aeroplanes were sighted on several occasions. On the fourth day, a flight of British aeroplanes dropped an airborne lifeboat, but the two men were unable to reach it. Later, a Warwick dropped them a dinghy, with supplies and warm sleeping suits, and the airmen were just able to reach it. A second attempt to drop a boat to the men failed. By the eighth day Warrant Officer Mann and Flight Sergeant Kennedy were about 20 miles off Texel. Four United States Mustangs sighted them, and soon afterwards they were picked up by an R.A.F. rescue launch. By that time, they had drifted 50 miles, and their water supply was down to a pint.

PRESS, 20 DECEMBER 1944

[davidd]

Now that was a tough experience for any two humans to endure, no matter how well they knew, or admired (or not!) each other. My understanding is that in the latter years of WW2, all crew members aboard RAF aircraft flying operationally over the sea would each be equipped with, and wear, a personal one-man dinghy AND a Mae West, as well as having an automatically or manually deployable "crew" dinghy. The only explanations for them ending up with just one, one-man dinghy would seem to be that they had trouble getting out of their ditched aircraft, or that their main dinghy AND one of the one-man dinghies was damaged in some way or had to be jettisoned to enable them to escape with their lives. Possible that the surviving documents of 489 Squadron will hold the answer. The appropriate RNZAF official history (Vol 2, p 422) does not go into this sort of detail, so can anybody out there fill in the gaps? It is easy to see why any type of dinghy would be chosen over the Mae Wests as their first choice (they probably kept the MWs on for the duration regardless), but the hurried evacuation of the aircraft after ditching probably had a lot to do with the final outcome.
David D

[longforgan]

Jan 24, 2021 9:44:21 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

CHRISTCHURCH MAN RESCUED.
During a recent attack on the Dutch coast a Beaufighter piloted by Warrant Officer Douglas Mann, Christchurch, was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Mann and a companion were forced to land in the North Sea and, confined to small one-man dinghy, they survived for five days, when they were spotted by an Allied aircraft, which dropped them a larger rubber dinghy. Three more days were spent on the open sea, and then they were picked up and conveyed to England. TOP: The crew of a high-speed rescue launch stands by, about to rescue the two airmen. BELOW: Douglas Mann, smiling, bearded, and grey-faced after his ordeal, is shown being removed on a stretcher at a rescue base after his harrowing eight days at sea.
PRESS, 2 DECEMBER 1944

By the time Douglas Mann and Don Kennedy were rescued Douglas Mann was in a very poor state so the person sitting up in the Landholme dinghy (This was dropped to them a couple of days before by a Warwick) was Don Kennedy. He is also the person on the stretcher not Douglas Mann.

From a tape done by Douglas Mann in 1982 he give details of this ditching:

..... However I couldn’t have been out for long I woke up, the water was around my waist and I climbed out of the top hatch having jettisoned it before of course and climbed out onto the wing and just from reflex action I leaned into the cockpit ‘K’ type dinghy with me.
I looked around and Don was sitting in the aircraft dinghy which was only a few feet away possibly still tied to the wing I had to jump in (I have always been a good swimmer) and I swam over to the dinghy. This is where we struck real trouble as I climbed into the dinghy, I put my foot through the fabric in the floor. We had come through some very heavy and accurate flak. Whether the dinghy had been damaged from Flak or faulty manufacturing we will never know. The actual position we found ourselves in, we were virtually sitting on the side of the dinghy and the whole thing was water logged.

[davidd]

That explains just about everything!
David D