In July 1940, the largest air battle in human history began!
Thousands of fighters and bombers fought to the death over Britain and over the English Channel, known in history as the Battle of Britain.
But ah, the protagonist of this war is only the plane?
Oh, no, there are some little bits that few people are aware of floating above the sea. They look like this↓
On the surface, it looks like a buoy, but when it is opened, it hides a mystery.
Underneath this nearly square buoy is a living space of about four square meters, with a bunk bed on each side, so you can comfortably accommodate four people.
Since you want to be comfortable, must the living materials be indispensable? Let's see what it prepares?
First, there was dry clothes and shoes that could be changed, and second, six clean towels, enough dry food and drinking water for four days, and even a bottle of brandy, six bottles of soda, and some cigarettes.
Well? Didn't you say that in a closed public space, you can't smoke?
You can run outside and stand on the terrace with panoramic sea view!
Of course, do you think that's the end of it? No, there are still some board games in the drawer, which can help you pass the boring time.
There is also a latest radio on the countertop, which can help you grasp the dynamics of the outside world in real time, alcohol lamps, kerosene stoves, batteries, and medical kits.
In short, live here for four days, you really have no reason to give a bad review.
So what exactly is it?
It was actually something that the Luftwaffe had prepared for, called a rescue buoy.
The purpose was to give the shipwrecked pilots a temporary shelter after being wounded over Britain and unable to fly back to the European continent, after landing in the English Channel.
Because, in the early days, the way of wearing a life jacket and floating on the surface of the sea and waiting for rescue really could not save a few pilots, soaking in the cold sea water, and people would soon go to another world.
It is not easy to train an experienced pilot! Then naturally we must do everything we can to help them, and wait for rescue alive.
Rescue buoys like these are deployed in large numbers on the surface of the English Channel, anchored to the bottom of the sea by a cable with a clear visual identity.
The rope is long, so it allows the buoy to float in the direction of the current, pointing out to the pilot a landing position that is easier to reach upstream of the shelter!
Outside the 2.5-meter-high upper cabin, there is a bright signal light, ten flares, and a flare gun with twenty red, ten white, ten smoke bombs and ten parachute flares, and is painted with conspicuous red crosses on all four sides.
When a buoy is occupied, the shipwrecked pilot can raise a red and yellow striped flag on top.
In this way, the search and rescue boats that patrol regularly know that, hey, there is work to be done, after picking up the people, they will re-replenish the supplies inside and wait for the next batch of tenants.
So you say his tenants will always be German? Heck, not necessarily, the British pilot who landed, seeing such a good thing, there is no reason not to occupy it!
But was he sent back to base or to a prisoner-of-war camp? It depends on whose rescue ship arrived here first.