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BRITISH WWII AIR SEA RESCUE patch

The INDIANA JONES OF EBAY does it again !!...........I have managed to purchase THREE militaria collections.....& TWO Police collections.....mainly patches, badges,insignia & headgear.

One of the main collection of patches & insignia, is a real treasure trove......I showed samples from it to one dealer who wanted to buy the entire collection...but I would rather let YOU the collectors have a chance than him obtain them solely for profit.

The origianal owner collected some older RARER patches...and also filled the gaps of 'difficult / impossible to find 'items with good reproduction patches. I am Not an expert...........so this collection of patches will be listed as low priced NO reserve........there are genuine and some good repros...I am not sure which is which....come on bag a bargain.............any q's please email me.

DO NOT MISS OUT

NO RESERVE

This item is a SINGLE of cloth patch showing a skyblue ASR SHIP with lettering on an RAF BLUE background

I understand this is for the BRITISH WWII AIR SEA RESCUE operated by the ROYAL AIR FORCE

I am sure that you experts can correct me or supply other details.

Air-sea rescue

One of the biggest oversights of the entire system was the lack of a proper air-sea rescue organisation; the RAF had started organising a system in 1940 with High Speed Launches (HSLs) being based around flying boat bases and at a number of overseas locations. But it was still believed that the amount of cross-Channel traffic meant that there was no need for a rescue service to cover these areas. Downed pilots and aircrew, it was hoped, would be picked up by any boats or ships which happened to be passing by. Otherwise the local life boat would be alerted, assuming someone had seen the pilot going into the water.

RAF aircrew were issued with a life jacket, nicknamed the "Mae West" but in 1940 it still required manual inflation, which was almost impossible for someone who was injured or in shock. The waters of the English Channel and Dover Straits are cold, even in the middle of summer, and clothing issued to RAF aircrew did little to insulate them against these freezing conditions. A conference in 1939 had placed air-sea rescue under Coastal Command. Because a number of pilots had been lost at sea during the "Channel Battle", on 22 August, control of RAF rescue launches was passed to the local naval authorities and 12 Lysanders were given to Fighter Command to help look for pilots at sea. In all some 200 pilots and aircrew were lost at sea during the battle. No proper air-sea rescue service was to be formed until 1941.

^{thanks Wiki}