As recommended by others in response to your query on the RAF Commands forum earlier this year (http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?21288-RAF-Air-Sea-Rescue-launch-activities-in-North-Sea-WW2), your best approach is to obtain a copy of AIR 29/443 from the National Archives; the reference includes the Operations Record Book (aka diary) for No 22 Air Sea Rescue unit based at Grimsby (see http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?6359-30-Asr&styleid=3).

Incidentally, your query on the RAF Commands forum noted only 8 crew members were saved.

Windhover,

I suspect that date, 8 May, originates from page 534 of Captain Harry C Butcher’s My Three Years with Eisenhower (1942-1945). Butcher was Eisenhower’s Naval Aide, and although his book, published in 1946, was based on his personal diary, he was not actually privy to discussions between Eisenhower and his Commanders in Chief.

On the other hand Chester Wilmot’s The struggle for Europe (1952), based on documents to which he had been allowed access, quotes the decision being made on 17 May.

Gordon A Harrison in Cross Channel Attack (page 269 of http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-XChannel/USA-E-XChannel-8.html) also quotes 8 May as being the date the decision was made – but gives no reference and completely ignores the despatches of two senior officers, General Eisenhower and Admiral Sir Bertram H Ramsay, which tell a different story.

On page 5 of his report as the Supreme Commander of the AEF (Report by the Supreme Commander to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on the Operations in Europe of the Allied Expeditionary Force: 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 (http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/070/70-58/)), Eisenhower wrote Later, on 17 May, I set June 5 as the ‘final’ date for the assault, subject of course, to last-minute revision if the weather should prove unfavourable.

In paragraph 28 of his despatch to the Supreme Commander, Admiral Sir Bertram H Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander in Chief (http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/LondonGazette/38110.pdf) gives the same date – 17 May:

28. Owing to the need to take account of the latest photographic reconnaissance showing the exact position of obstacles the final decision as to D-day and H hour was not made until 17 May when 5th June was selected, with postponement acceptable to 6th and 7th.

There is little doubt but that the date and hour of the assault were discussed during early May, as they had been during the previous year. Logistically the invasion would have been impossible by the preferred target date of 1 May, the reason Eisenhower persuaded the Combined Chiefs of Staff to accept a month’s delay – to 31 May. From that moment only two factors needed to be considered, the state of moon and tide, and the weather, which meant the earliest date had to be the 5th June (weather permitting).

Brian

There seem to be two conflicting reports of the weather conditions

1. The met report of ‘Rainy with strong winds’
2. An old man’s memory of ‘No rain, no winds, few clouds’

I don’t have access to the Cranwell hourly observations for the afternoon of 10 Feb 1945, but at 1200 GMT (1 pm local time) the wind was WSW 25-31 mph with 3/10 cumulus at 2500 ft. There was a light shower at some time during the afternoon, but that only amounted to 0.1 mm. Some CuNimbs developed during the afternoon, but I suspect that was later rather than earlier. By 1800 GMT the wind had dropped to 8-12 mph. (Source Met Office Daily Weather Report which may be accessed online).

Gentlemen,

Try http://www.aviatorsdatabase.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Lost-Patrol.pdf which is an article that appeared in the June 1973 issue of Naval Aviation News. It is a summary of events based on the Navy Board of Inquiry; not only does it provide far more detail than appears in popular accounts, but it also avoids the mistake of so many other authors in trying to make events more exciting and mysterious.

In this account Great Sale Key is an uninhabited island just north of Grand Bahama Island. There is a line of smaller islands extending from north-north-west of Great Sale Key to the south-east (which leads me to wonder if Taylor overflew the northern ones and mistook them for the Florida Keys).

Brian

Tom,

I suggest you take your query up with the Great War Forum. I’m sure Mick (Davis I think), who is extremely knowledgeable about aircraft of the era, would be able to help.

Brian