THE BRITISH AND FRENCH armies had cause to be grateful to the minesweepers at Dunkirk and Su Nazaire ; and there have been times when the trawlers have been able to pay the Royal Air Force a trifle on account of their debt for fighter protection, since their prompt action has saved the lives of many friendly pilots—or " Kates " as the Navy calls them—in the Channel or the North Sea.

One trawler picked up a pilot off the East Coast without interfering with her sweep, and when a Spitfire was forced down near H.M.T.

Staunch, Leading Wireman A. L. Elliott, with two other ratings, dived into the sea, swam to a Carley float which had been slipped, and rescued the pilot, who had been badly shaken in the crash.

There are also naval ratings who owe their lives to the sweepers. After the destroyer Wren had been sunk by enemy aircraft, a trawler sent her boat away to pick up survivors. The boat's crew saw an exhausted man struggling in the oil fuel which lay thickly on the sea where the destroyer had gone   down.     Second   Engineman   B.   E.