HAZARDOUS TASK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 255, 25 September 1940, Page 2

HAZARDOUS TASK

MARINE CRAFT SECTION

HEROES AT SEA

The successful removal of the giai bomb which threatened to destroy, bt Paul’s Cathedral has, throw ng light on the work of the bomb disposal squads to whom such hazardous task are part of the daily routine served to emphasise that throughout the Armed Forces there are men .on assignments which normally r - little publicity, but which call . for- ■ - greatest bravery. Another such in stance is revealed in the account of ati English journalist of the Me the men of the Marino Craft faectiou of the It.A.F. He writes: 1 have just. been listening at hea - quarters of the Coastal joir.manc, It.A.F:, to the almost story of the most bombed men in Britom. These men lead lives more than any others in all the activities that combine to give Britain s Force that well-proven superiority, man for man, machine for over the numerically stronger enemy. They are tho “Three Men in a Boat’’—a little yellow armoured ta get motor-boat—who provide our bombeis with the nearest thing to a real, live human target to be found anywhere. You meet them all round the coasts ot Britain—wherever there is a sea t.i get for our bombers. Their boats, painted yellow, so as to stand out well as targets, as they arc smaller than any host le craft oui bombers have to bit, take up thou position on the ranges when the uai y practice times come round. The three men are snug inside, under three and a-half tons of armour. Colossal weight for so tiny a craft. But, even so, they wear crash-helmets ana ear-protectors.' The armour covers the wheel-house, engine-room and hull. The rest of the boat is packed with a secret buoyant material to render it unsinkable. it. Not one has ever yet been sunk, .IJut several have been overturned by the force of the bombs. The three men specially trained to escape from their target in such emergencies, get clear till the craft rights itself, or is righted. Then back they climb again, and carry oh as usual. FEARLESS MEN.' The percentage of hits is just as uncomfortably high, and has gone up enormously since the outbreak of war. But the practice bombers don’t have it all their own way. The three men in the little yellow boat give them a run for their money. They streak along at 20 knots, turning, zig-zagging, watching the bomber’s course and dodging it, pretending to bo a hostile motor torpedo boat, tho smallest and nimblest objective our aircraft ever have to hit. Many a bomb-aimer who lias sent a U-boat to its doom has a friendly thought in the moment of success for the fearless and hard-bitten three men in a boat who gave him practice. Tlieifs is riot a single act of courage. It is just a routine incident in the daily round. Not one of them 0 ever makes a song about it. So much so that not orie person I’ve met has ever heard of these silent heroes who pit' their speed ’ and ’ armour against the , precision bomb-aimers of the It. A.F. There are .many...such ..crews and such boats. They belong to the Marine. Craft Section of, the It.A.F., and are' operated by the Coastal Command. - , _ The crews receive the ordinary pay of their • ranks. Their extraordinary job is contributing immensely to the deadly skill of British 1 'bombers. And these bombers are now finding their mark in relentless and incessant raids on enemy objectives, from Bergen to Brest and from Gibraltar to the Ret' Sea!