Ditched fighter pilot survivability

[Mifletz]

How did German life vests compared with Allied Mae Wests? Could either really keep the 150kg weight of a pilot wearing water saturated sheep fleece lined leather flying kit & boots afloat in the sea? Were fighters of either side equipped with dinghys? Did the Germans have rescue radio bleepers? Once the pilot had landed in the water, what was the survival procedure? How did he extricate himself from his parachute & harness before being pulled under?

[Graham Boak]

I can answer some of your queries - single-engined fighters were not equipped with dinghies, at least during the BoB. Some versions of the Bf.110 had them, and bombers generally did.

Similarly, the radio technology of the time did not run to small rescue bleepers.

RAF aircrew had a quick release mechanism on their harness - one sharp blow and it came free. I suspect the Luftwaffe had something similar. The pilots would tend to remove their boots as soon as possible. If they were wearing fleece-lined jackets then presumably they would do the same.

I think there is some evidence that Luftwaffe pilots kept captured Mae Wests, so this may imply that at least some pilots thought them superior. But I don't think this was widespread, not what the actual comparison was.

[Jon]

The early Luftwaffe schwimmvest Battle of Britain period, although compact and small to wear in the confines of a fighter cockpit had a major flaw in that, the back also inflated when the oxygene cylinder was opend. This caused a few pilots to drown because if the were injured or passed out the jacket forced them onto their fronts face down in the sea. Later German schwimmvests had the rear modified and this problem was stopped. I own a Battle of Britain Schwimmvest from a downed pilot in August 1940 and it still has traces of the yellow dye he used to indicate his position when in the sea, this was a great life saving factor and greatly increased the chances of another aircraft spotting you and getting help.

RAF Mae wests were very bulky but supported the head and neck in the sea, another big advantage of the RAF jacket was it could also support when damaged, the German bladder type simply would bleed air away.

By Falling into the sea around Europe and Britain i think drowning was the leat of your worries as the cold would kill you in minutes at certain time of the year and a few hours at the best.

[PeterVerney]

My knowledge is post war, but our equipment was I think the same as used in the latter stages. We had a dinghy pack which we sat on, on top of the parachute pack. This had a one man dinghy inflated with a small bottle of ? gas, which had to be operated once in the water.

We were also told that in winter it was essential that we were in the dinghy within 15 seconds of hitting the water otherwise we would be too cold to do much. The drill with the parachute was to release it when 6 to 10 feet above the water so it fell clear. The Mae West was not to be inflated until we were actually in the water. To this end we had to do dinghy drill in local swimming pools.

There were still people who drowned after baling out into the sea, particularly at night.

[mikeshilton]

The 10-30-B Schwimweste was a great improvement over the kapok type,in that it had a bladder around the neck which would keep the head out of the water,also it was far less bulkier.There was a single seat "einmanschlauchboote" dinghy available for pilots of single seat aircraft,this was carried in a special bag that the pilot strapped on under the parachute harness and was inflated by a Co2 cartridge.
Some RAF Pilots preferred the German life preserver over the RAF item,Guy Gibson wore one regularly.