#do 24

German search and rescue flying boat Dornier Do.24N-1 in flight.

Designed to a Royal Netherlands Navy requirement for a replacement of the Dornier Wals being used in the Dutch East Indies, the Dornier Do 24K first flew on 3 July 1937. The Netherlands planned to operate up to 90 Do 24K flying boats, however when Germany invaded in 1940, only 37 had been delivered to the East Indies.

Post-invasion the Dutch production line was resumed and an additional 159 Do 24s were built in addition to 16 incomplete airframes at the factory. A second production line was started at the CAMS factory at Sartrouville, France, during the German occupation. This line was operated by SNCAN and produced 48 Do 24s during the war and another 40 after the liberation of France, which served with the French Navy until 1952.

The two prototypes were used by the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Norway to transport troops to Narvik.

The aircraft captured and produced in the Netherlands were pressed into service with Seenotstaffeln (air-sea rescue) and deployed in the Arctic, Baltic, North Sea, Bay of Biscay, Mediterranean, and Black Sea. They were also used as transports, notably for keeping contact with the troops left behind on the Aegean Islands and Crete, and for supporting the Kuban bridgehead in early 1943.

During the evening of 8 June 1944, two days after D-Day, part of the crew of the sunken submarine U-970 was rescued by Do 24 W4+EH. The 14 men had spent 24 hours in a dinghy by the time they were picked up (T Postma)

The Luftwaffe's very first ASR Dornier Do 24, D-AEAV.