owain...how many of the rear mounted (western) jets had to ditch?
how many wing mounted had to ditch?
What has that to do with the relevant vulnerability of rear and wing mounted engines to bird strike? Nothing that I can see;surely the association of bird strikes with no ditching just reflects the fact that you (generally) meet more flocks of birds overland than over the sea? And of course if the Hudson river hadn't been conveniently close it wouldn't have been a ditching.
BTW, because of the upwash produced by the wing on the flow ahead of the LE, a noticeable proportion of the air going over the wing and towards the rear mounted engines starts below the wing.