Nothing startling about them, just a good average bunch, yet on 2nd June 1943 they fought and won a battle in the Bay of Biscay which virtually stands alone in the history of Coastal Command. Nine Australians and two Englishmen in that lone and solitary Short Sunderland N/461 routed an overwhelming enemy force which engaged them with the utmost fury and determination. Eight Junkers 88 twin-engined heavy fighters manned by thirty-two courageous Germans armed with fixed and free-firing cannons and heavy-calibre machine-guns, closed in combat with the Short Sunderland twenty times in three-quarters of an hour.
