 Of this total, 5,721 were Allied aircrew, 277 enemy aircrew, and 4,665 non-aircrew.By the end of the war, British ASR had saved over 13,000 lives and was one of the largest such organisations in the world.In the Pacific Ocean theater, the first purposely assigned rescue aircraft, a PBY Catalina, was given the mission of plucking downed airmen from the ocean in January 1943.