The Eighth relied entirely on the RAF and the Royal Navy for air-sea rescue, yet failed to work closely with their deeply dedicated personnel. The result: 99 percent of its fliers who went into the sea were lost. (During this same period, approximately one-third of ditched RAF bomber crews, all of them flying night missions, were rescued.) A year later, still relying on the British, but working in unison with them, the Eighth upped its survival rate to 44 percent—and to 66 percent by the war’s end.
