"The first mission by a “Catalina” in the Northern Fleet was on June18, 1944, sent out to rescuethe crew of an IL-2, which had landed inVarangerfjorden, Norway."
“Catalinas” were also used for the rescue of crews of surface ships which had been sunk and airplanes which had been shot down. In this regard, two “Catalinas,” in the region of Podkov Island, detected a group of Red Army sailors from trawler No. 120, whom they rescued and got aboard a ship."
“Catalina” aircraft took part in operations of the naval air forces of the fleets with the mission of rescuing downed crewmen. This provided enormous moral support to the crews of bombers and torpedo planes and also to the fighter planes supporting their combat actions. For example, this occurred in the operation undertaken to sink the training battleship, “Schleswig-Holstein,” at Swinemunde (Swinoujscie, Poland) anchorage in May 1945."
Source:
http://www.ijnhonline.org/wp-content...-WIP-Aug05.pdf