Tale of bravery brought to the surface by BSAC divers

The rescue of two men trapped aboard a burning sea plane more than 60 years ago has been uncovered by a team of BSAC divers.

Members of the Eling-based Calshot Divers have become underwater detectives in a bid to unravel the mystery surrounding three iconic Sunderland Flying Boats.

And Calshot Divers are now backing a campaign for a permanent memorial to a leading aircraftman, stationed at Calshot in 1950, who was awarded the George Medal for bravery after rescuing two men from one of the stricken aircraft which was ablaze off the Hampshire coast.

John Greenwood, Calshot Divers’ Training Officer, said: “As a club we now meet in Eling, despite the club’s historic name. So, when looking for a new project all club members could get involved with, we wanted to somehow try and find a tie-in with Calshot, where our club was initially formed.

“Calshot is, of course, famous for its former flying boat base and the Schneider Trophy race for seaplanes. The last two races were held off Calshot Spit in 1929 and 1931 and were won by British Supermarines.

“We knew of a Sunderland Flying Boat wreck off Calshot, very close to where the lifeboat is now moored.

“From records we knew the wreck, which we managed to plot using sonar depth readings, could potentially be one of three identifiable aircraft, PP118, G-AGKY and ML883 which were all lost in the area.

“But everything pointed to it being PP118 which was built in 1945 at the Short Brothers factory in Rochester and reportedly, partially sank off Calshot, on February 3rd 1950 during a severe gale.”

Calshot Divers discovered that, during an operation to recover the aircraft almost three weeks later, it caught fire after flares aboard the stricken flying boat were ignited.

Leading aircraftman, Peter Anderson, who was known as Andy Anderson and stationed at Calshot, rescued two people from the burning wreck and was subsequently awarded the George Medal for his bravery.

One of the two other possible aircraft, G-AGKY, was also built in Rochester in 1943 was converted into a civilian passenger aircraft and went into service with Aquila Airways.

That aircraft was reportedly written off following an accident off Cowes and sank off Calshot on January 28, 1953 while it was under tow and thankfully, the five crew and 26 passengers on board at the time all survived.

And the third aircraft, ML883, was built in Blackburn, Dumbarton in 1944 and sank off Calshot, after being hit by a surface vessel, on December 17th, 1944.

John said: “All the records and information we could find led us to believe the wreck of the aircraft we had found was that of PP118, the aircraft that Andy Anderson rescued two people from.

“However, once we dived the wreck we realised, very quickly due to the shape of the aircraft’s windows and hull for example, the likelihood was that it was not PP118 and must be one of the other two which were different models.

“But that raised more questions than answers. If it wasn’t PP118 then which one was it? And where was PP118? We did a huge amount of research and wanted to find the family of Andy Anderson, who we discovered had died as recently as June 2003.”

He added: “We located Mr Anderson’s grave and saw it was clearly well tended. So, a few days before the anniversary of his death I left a message fixed to the grave headstone asking the family to get in touch.

“One of his sons, John Anderson, contacted me and we were able to meet and learn a great deal more about the circumstances surrounding the award of the George Medal to Andy Anderson and what had happened to the Sunderland Flying Boat PP118.”

“However, it was clear, and our suspicions were confirmed from photographs the family possessed, that the wreck we had dived on was most definitely not PP118.”

He added: “But hearing the story of Andy Anderson his bravery left us shocked that there is no permanent memorial in the Calshot area to commemorate his gallant act.”

For more information on Calshot Divers, click here.