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

Oskar tried to follow but failed. Cursing, he knew there was only one thing
he could do, and that was climb and dive again. He saw that most of the
other forty Stukas were similarly struggling. Bombs were hitting the water,
sending huge fountains of spray into the air, but none seemed to have hit the
destroyers. A transport was claimed as hit but if true the damage seemed to
be minimal.
Oskar made another dive but again failed, then ordered the Staffeln to
re-form at sea level and head back south. This was the Stuka pilot’s most
dangerous moment. Speed was reduced and the pilot was distracted by
reseating the diving brakes, reopening the radiator shutter, readjusting the
bomb-release switches and changing the airscrew and elevator trim.
And at this moment, Oskar heard someone shout, ‘English fighters
behind us!’ Immediately, he pulled his Stuka into a turn then craned his
neck to look above him. High overhead, fighters were glinting in the sky,
circling and weaving, but others were now diving down towards them.
Oskar throttled back again and stall-turned to starboard, aware that he had
no hope of escaping clear away from a fighter. It was a Hurricane of 17
Squadron bearing down upon him and the sleek machine now overshot and
flew past; Oskar’s trick had, for the moment at any rate, saved him. A few
seconds later the Hurricane became engaged with a waiting Me 109 instead.
Oskar made it safely back that day, but four other Stukas were destroyed.
No doubt from the ships below, the sight of forty Stukas diving on them
with their sirens wailing would have been terrifying; but the attack was not
terribly effective. As Captain Bill Tennant had discovered on his trip across
the Channel, a destroyer could get out of the way of a Stuka assault
reasonably easily.
Even so, when Göring visited the Führer later that day, he was in a
jovial mood and confident his Luftwaffe was doing all he had promised.
‘Only fishing boats are coming over,’ he joked with Hitler, ‘I hope the
Tommies are good swimmers.’
Just as British Hurricanes had often found themselves distracted from their
main missions during the opening stages of the campaign, so too were
Luftwaffe fighters as they now headed towards Dunkirk. On 26 May, I/JG
21 had been given the job of escorting Stukas to the port. Subordinated to
JG 27 and part of von Richthofen’s VIII Fliegerkorps, the Staffel had barely