The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

Three and a half years later, he was a lieutenant in a fighter squadron
flying over Dunkirk; and as a pre-war regular with two years’ flying since
being posted to the fighter Gruppe, he was an experienced pilot too. What
he lacked was combat experience. Over Dunkirk, it seemed that was about
to change.
Helmut Kühle was leading the Staffel. A Condor veteran, he now held
the others back from diving down on the mêlée below, instead circling
carefully above. Ulrich was chomping at the bit. He had been waiting in the
sidelines for so long and wanted his chance of gaining his first victory. ‘As
we wheeled around the dark cloud over Dunkirk,’ noted Ulrich, ‘Kühle
cautioned us to stay well clear of its sinister billows.’ If they wanted
surprises, he warned them, there were plenty around the edges of the
forbidding mass of cloud.
Their fifteen minutes up, they returned to Charleville having had a whiff
of the action to come but once again without having fired their guns.
Debates over tactics raged once they were back at their billet, but Kühle
held his ground; he would only attack when there was a reasonable chance
of success and equally the risk of losses was less. There was no point
plunging down into the fray only to be outnumbered and shot down. His
policy, he insisted, ensured that the Staffel would gain experience without
suffering losses. However much Ulrich and his fellow pilots might have
been itching to get amongst the enemy, Kühle’s stance was a sensible one.
They would all get their chance soon enough.
Back in London, the Ministry of Information had promised openness and
that was what the British public were getting. In his broadcast on 22 May,
Duff Cooper had admitted that not only was the situation ‘grave’, but it was
also a fact that the enemy’s intention was to take the Channel ports and
from there ‘launch war upon this island’. On the 23rd, the King broadcast to
the nation and called for a National Day of Prayer to be held the coming
Sunday, 26 May. The following day, Friday the 24th, The Times ran the
headline ‘Germans on the coast’, while Beaverbrook’s Evening Standard
warned people that ‘We would do better to prepare for the worst’.
Nonetheless, most newspapers tried to remain as upbeat as possible,
pointing out that the game was not up yet, that France was expected to rally,
and that the RAF was blowing up targets and shooting down enemy planes
at an impressive rate.