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

and noticed the enemy fighters were holding back – he couldn’t understand
why.
For a moment, Hajo couldn’t decide what to do – land on the beach
where the Tommies were? Or crash out at sea? Neither appealed, but with
his aircraft spluttering and jolting he realized he did not have much choice.
Diving down again, he picked out a ship, dropped his bombs but missed,
then saw a Hurricane had followed him down after all. There was another
bang as the bullets hit home, but the British pilot had overshot and now
Hajo knew he had to ditch the plane. Crouching in his seat, he waited for
the coup de grâce as he glided down towards the sea.
Water now burst through the cockpit. The urgent desire for survival
made Hajo act fast. Ripping off his life-jacket, leads and overalls, he
clambered out through the jettisoned canopy and on to the roof of the
sinking aircraft. To his relief, three more heads appeared beside him. Hajo
and his observer were unharmed but the wireless operator and gunner had
cuts to their faces. All four were alive, however, and they now swam the
short distance to the shore, dog-paddling then crawling up through the
shallows and on to the shore. Hajo looked around and then saw a soldier,
wearing a German steel helmet, emerge from the grass beyond the shore.
Relief coursed through him. Clearly, he had ditched just to the west of the
bridgehead – off the coast that was now in German hands. ‘I’d made it,’ he
noted. ‘That was my fortieth operation in this war, not counting the halfcentury
in Spain.’
Around the same time, Siegfried Bethke was leading the Staffel over
Amiens in support of Army Group A’s southern push. It was his second
flight of the day and they soon encountered a flight of French LeO 415 and
Douglas Db-7 twin-engine bombers. Siegfried ordered them to attack,
swooping down fast upon the enemy planes. Opening with his cannon he
saw bits of the French bomber fly off and one of the engines catch fire, so
he pulled back the stick and climbed out of the way to dodge the debris. All
his pilots were now attacking in turn. He spotted one Frenchman bail out;
one of the planes dived and glided in to land before being engulfed in
flames, then another bomber was plunging earthwards. All four had been
destroyed, no match for the 109s. Siegfried had just ordered his Staffel to
reassemble over Amiens when he spotted two more French aircraft flying
low below them. Diving down, he attacked again, although this time only
with his machine guns as he had already used up his cannon ammunition.