From the Mirror archives

An air gunner takes aim in one of the “blister” gun turrets of a seaplane operating with RAF Coastal Command in the darkest days of the Second World War. The US-built Consolidated PBY Catalina “flying boats” were used in anti-submarine warfare and as convoy escorts during the Battle of the Atlantic as Hitler’s U-boats tore into shipping bringing vital arms and supplies to Britain from the United States. Originally designed as patrol bombers in the 1920s, the Catalinas had a range of 3,100 miles.