Coastal Command

Coastal Command completed one million flying hours, 240,000 operations and destroyed 212 U-boats. Coastal Command casualties amounted to 2,060 aircraft to all causes. From 1940 to 1945 Coastal Command sank 366 German transport vessels and damaged 134. The total tonnage sunk was 512,330 tons and another 513,454 tons damaged. 10,663 persons were rescued by the Command, comprising 5,721 Allied crew members, 277 enemy personnel and 4,665 non-aircrews. A total of 5,866 Coastal Command personnel were killed in action. During the Cold War, Coastal Command concentrated on anti-submarine warfare preparations against the fleets of the Warsaw Pact. In 1969, Coastal Command was subsumed into the new Strike Command, which had also absorbed the former Bomber, Fighter and Signals Commands and later absorbed Air Support Command, the former Transport Command.