Crash boats of World War II

85-foot crash boat P-520 on the Willamette River in Portland in 2007
AAF / USAF Crash Rescue Boat Association plaque, in Memorial Park at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, in Dayton, Ohio

Crash boats, at the time known as "aircraft rescue boats" or "air-sea rescue boats", were United States high speed boats built to rescue the crew of downed Allied aircraft during World War II. US boats came from the observation of British experience with high-speed launches (HSL) by the Royal Air Force Marine Branch during the Battle of Britain.[1][2][3][4]

By the end of World War II, America had produced 300,000 planes, creating a need to have crash rescue boats stationed around the globe. These boats were fast boats used to rescue pilots, crew and passengers from downed aircraft in search and rescue and air-sea rescue missions. The boats would race out to a crash site and rescue wounded aircrew.

Some speed boats built before the war were acquired and converted to be crash boats and many new boats were built. Standard crash boats were built in four lengths for World War II. The smallest standard size boat was 42 feet long, while the larger boats were 63, 85 or 104 feet long. They were built for the Army Air Forces and the US Navy, while some were transferred to the Allies. The design was similar to patrol boats built for the war, but with less or no armament and first aid equipped. The boats were designed to be light and fast to be able to get to the downed aircrew as fast as possible.[5]

Most were used in the Pacific War across the vast South Pacific, primarily in island hopping. Some were stationed on the West Coast of the United States to support the vast training centers. Many were designated Air Rescue Boats or ARB or AVR or P or C or R Hull classification symbol. After the war, most were abandoned or destroyed, though a few served in the Korean War (with United States Air Force), while some sold to private and some donated to Sea Scouts. By the Korean war the helicopter had taken the place of the crash boat in rescuing pilots and aircrews.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ "Design & Construction of Boats". Uscrashboats.org. 1944-07-25. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  2. ^ "US Army Rescue Boats P". shipbuildinghistory.com.
  3. ^ "Boats of the United States Navy". Maritime.org. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  4. ^ "The Forgotten Ones: 5 Fascinating Stories from the Korean War". July 27, 2019.
  5. ^ "Marker Monday: WWII Rescue Boat Station". July 13, 2020.
  6. ^ Jordan, Margaret. "1943: The Development of Air-Sea Rescue".
  7. ^ "Memorial Park". www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
  8. ^ "The birth of modern Air-Sea Rescue". April 28, 2012.