Official Fulqrum Publishing forum - Will there be rescue boats and planes ?

From Wikepedia:

Quote:

In 1935, Lieutenant Colonel Konrad Goltz of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe), a supply officer based at the port of Kiel, was given the task of organizing the Seenotdienst (Sea Rescue Service), an air-sea rescue organization focusing on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Goltz gained coordination with aircraft units of the Kriegsmarine as well as with civilian lifeboat societies. Early in 1939, with the growing probability of war against Great Britain, the Luftwaffe carried out large-scale rescue exercises over water. Land-based German bombers used for search duties proved inadequate in range, so bomber air bases were constructed along the coast to facilitate an air net over the Baltic and North seas. Following this, the Luftwaffe determined to procure a purpose-built air-sea rescue seaplane, choosing the Heinkel He 59, a twin-engine biplane with pontoons. A total of 14 He 59s were sent to be fitted with first aid equipment, electrically heated sleeping bags, artificial respiration equipment, a floor hatch with a telescoping ladder to reach the water, a hoist, signaling devices, and lockers to hold all the gear.

...
During the first two years of war, the British had no coordinated air-sea rescue units—only about 28 crash boats and no dedicated aircraft. The ditching of a British aeroplane in the Channel or the North Sea usually doomed its crew. The fate of downed airmen was primarily in the hands of their parent organization, and they had little they could do to help the crash boats locate the accident site. In January 1941, a Directorate of Air-Sea Rescue was formed by the Royal Air Force for the purpose of saving those in distress at sea, especially airmen. Proper provisioning of rescue squadrons was slow, and it took more than a year for sea-going rescue boats and aircraft to come together in active ASR squadrons

So if you're RAF, and rescued, you'll most likely end up as a POW.