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Show . Canadian Air Men Cheat Davey Jones . . i i 11 "'vrn I ? i, : -vt-- J .0 r - - , - . f -b s v- - ' 4 t s I IK NEW and ingenious methods of locating and rescuing airmen forced down at sea have recently been devised. In R.A.F. and R.C. A.F. records are detailed reports of how hundreds of airmen's lives have been saved from the ocean under un-der conditions which would have meant certain death a few years back. All this has been achieved despite de-spite the many-sided problem presented pre-sented when land planes are forced to attempt landings on water. Bomber crews are taught how to brace themselves for the impact of a forced landing on water; how to inflate their dinghy and climb into it with minimum loss of time; and how to release pigeons telling their location and the time of the crash. New types of dinghies have been designed and new kinds of food containers developed. Chief among these is the Lindholme sea rescue gear, recently adopted by the R.C.A.F The Lindholme gear consists o five cylinder-shaped plywood containers, con-tainers, four of them waterproof, linked together by 2S0 yards of floating cord. These are dropped from the rescue plane like a. "stick" of bombs. The center parcel contains a large rubber dinghy, capable of holding 7 or 8 men, which inflates automatically on contact with the water. The other four containers are sealed to keep out water and hold food, clothing, comforts, and warning signals. To provide drink and nourishment nourish-ment are tins of water, condensed milk, emergency rations, malted milk tablets, chewing gum, and barley sugar. For warmth there are four waterproof sleeping suits and eight "everhot" chemical bags. Shaken up with sea water and placed inside in-side the sleeping suits; these bags dry out sodden clothing and generate gen-erate heat for 96 hours. To send out signals and to attract attention are four red smoke generators. Also included are cigarettes, matches, a pack of waterproof playing cards to while away time until a ship arrives, a baling cup and sponge, and a practical first aid outfit. Being adrift on a raging sea under un-der these circumstances isn't still comfortable as being at home in carpet slippers with a pipe and the evening paper but, once they have received the Lindholme rescue gear, torpedo victims and "ditched" airmen have protection against exposure ex-posure and an almost 100 per cent chance of being located soon by surface craft. |