Sale, Richard "Flight of the Wankus Bird"

Imaginative — if wildly improbable — World War 2 convoy story. Young U.S. Navy ace aviator accepts a temporary assignment to fly a “wankus bird” (a Sikorsky helicopter) stationed onboard the BURMA STAR, a British tramp freighter sailing in convoy from Gibraltar to Plymouth, England. The helicopter is supposedly being tried out as a U-boat chaserto aid in the protection of ocean convoys. En route to Britain our hero learns that a buddy has crashed at sea somewhere nearby after a dogfight with a German fighter plane. In heavy weather he takes off in his helicopter and effects a dramatic rescue. It’s highly doubtful that anything like this occurred during World War 2, but the ending does at least have a satisfying Hollywood feel to it!