While the naval and military history of Gibraltar has been well presented and illustrated through the years its air     history has been less well  served and especially in the crucial role that its land and seaplane base played in peace and war.  This study by Henry Probert, sets out to repair that omission and that is the story of this book.  Recent events following the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic have high-lighted the outstanding achievements of our maritime airmen in what was then RAF Coastal Command and the Gibraltar squadrons were very much part of that fine story. 

  With more than twenty submarines sunk directly or jointly with surface ships and half as many again put out of     action, they set a record for a single Royal Air Force base in anti-submarine warfare.But important as those successes were, that was only part of the story.  Key roles in support of the invasion of North Africa and the Mediterranean campaigns were to be followed in peace by the long years of the Cold War and then the Falklands conflict, in both of which the Rock was once again an important air base.  The story shows that as those pressures relaxed in peacetime so the potential for commercial aviation asserted itself to develop the Rock into the flourishing air centre that it is today.  As the title suggests, among the many factors that shaped this striking story none have been more persistent than the unbroken presence of the Royal Air Force and the friendship of the people of Gibraltar. 

  The RAF's Airs Sea Rescue Service saved thousands of aircrews in the Second World War, often in the most challenging conditions. This wide ranging, authoritative account draws upon over 40 first-hand testimonies and official reports from the National Archives, as well as dramatic, previously unpublished photographs. It explores Air Sea Rescue action in three operational areas - North-west Europe, the Mediterranean and the Far East - and features a wide variety of rescue craft: RAF or Royal Navy launches, airborne lifeboats, aircraft such as the Lysander or specialist amphibians and flying boats. In depth research into official records reveals how the service was formed and how it evolved in wartime years; it also provides many fascinating of the training and equipment on which physical survival was to depend.

  Several of the compelling accounts, from new archival or interviews with surviving members of the Goldfish Club, appear for the first time in print. They vividly evoke the reality of being shot down at sea, sometimes drifting for days awaiting rescue, and the variety of forms in which this eventually came. Among these true stories, powerful tributes to resourcefulness and courage, are the unforgettable experiences of;

Lieutenant Roy Veitch, who with particularly bad luck, had to bale out over the Adriatic three times in 4 weeks; amazingly, he was also successfully rescued each time.

Flight Sergeant Mike Cooper, who came down in a minefield within range of German guns at Calais; an amphibious aircraft still managed to pull off a daring rescue, dodging both mines and enemy fighters overhead.

Sergeant B.A. Watson, who was finally picked up from the Mediterranean after surviving in his dinghy for 8 days, the sole survivor of his crew.

Meticulously researched and encompassing all theatres of conflict, this offers a unique perspective on the Air Sea Rescue Service at its most critical time.