The Pittsburgh Press (May 2, 1941)
U-BOAT VICTIMS AIDED BY U.S.-MADE BOMBER
London, May 2 (UP) –
An American-made Catalina flying boat, being ferried from the United States to Britain, was instrumental in saving the survivors of a merchant ship which had been torpedoes hundreds of miles put in the Atlantic, a joint communique of the Admiralty and Air Ministry announced today.
The flying boat sighted the ship’s lifeboats when the pilot descended to investigate a huge patch of oil on the sea, 1,000 miles from shore. The commander of the Catalina aircraft, Flight Lt. R. W. Gautrey, radioed the position of the lifeboats and a British destroyer picked up the survivors.
The survivors, including women, children and babies in arms, were landed at a British port last night. They reported they had been in lifeboats 21 hours before they were picked up.
Survivors said a U-boat shelled the sinking vessel for 15 minutes while they were taking to the boats. They said a torpedo killed a few crewmen and the shelling another.
The Catalina flying boat is known in the U.S. as the Consolidated PBY-5 bomber.