Any Aerial Private Ryans?
I recently finished reading Bomber Pilot by Leonard Cheshire and was taken by an incident whereby some of his messmates survive a ditching after running out of fuel....
"For a brief instant, as they were swept up onto the top of a wave, they had a fleeting vision of a Whitley silhouetted against the horizon, and, standing on its fuselage, their Flight Commander. And that was the end. Against the furied roar of the waves they drifted away towards the dawn. They did not know the Flight Commander's brother was not to return that night either".
Cheshire mentions how he knew his brother Christopher to be over the same target on at least 4 occasions, first on Whitleys, later on Hampdens.
Leaving me wondering if anyone on here knows of any examples where multiple siblings are lost on aerial Ops? Perhaps it was not such an uncommon event?
And were there ever similar machinations as Saving Private Ryan to avoid such events?