AIR SEA RESCUE AND ANIMALS AT WAR

AIR SEA RESCUE

 - wide range of equipment used in the field of ASR

 - an ASR training film

ANIMALS AT WAR

 - information on the roles that dogs, elephants, horses, dolphins, pigeons and other animals (including a cat!) have played during wartime

RAF Davidstow Moor had a major role within Cornwall during WW2 for the provision of Air Sea Rescue facilities, so it is only appropriate that the museum has a display on this subject.

Some of the equipment that you can see is of the type used in the 1940s and 1950s, other items are much more modern. Included amongst the items is a 4-man inflatable dinghy, a 1-man inflatable dinghy, emergency rations, a Gibson Girl radio (with the familiar yellow box-kite to keep the aerial aloft), various other items of survival and from more modern times, a harness as used by a helicopter winchman.

The DVD showing in this building is an RAF Search and Rescue training film.

When asked about the use of animals during wartime the usual response is of horses in WW1, carrier pigeons in WW2 and the use of sniffer-dogs in more recent conflicts. However, there are others. As well as the ones mentioned, the displays in this building also show the part played by mules, elephants, dolphins and other animals, including a cat! Simon was a black & white cat aboard HMS Amethyst during the Yangtze incident in 1949 and is the only cat to have been awarded the Dicken Medal for “Gallantry under enemy fire”.