pzu, the John Cruickshank in Peter's story was a Catalina pilot, as was the John Cruickshank VC you refer to (
John Cruickshank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ), so there's a very good chance you're right.
If Peter's remarks about his staying over the downed Sunderland crew in 'Tiger Country' until well after first light and leaving only when forced to do so by his fuel state are anything to go by, his actions on the night he won the VC were by no means the first time he displayed that degree of bravery.
For those readers with no experience of air/sea rescue, it probably needs to be repeated here that a dinghy, (let alone a lone survivor in the water), is very difficult to see in anything but a pond-like sea state. Even after you've spotted it, it's extraordinarily easy to lose sight of it, and once you've lost it, unbelievably difficult to locate it again. So along with their incredible bravery, the Catalina crew's high degree of expertise should probably be acknowledged here.