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

Then suddenly he heard a loud crack from the front below his plane and in
seconds thick smoke was swirling around the cockpit and flames were
licking his feet. The control column was loose in his hands and he knew he
needed to get out of his machine fast. Releasing the canopy, he managed to
undo his harness and leads and somehow flip the Messerschmitt over so
that he fell out. He was horribly close to the ground but managed to get the
parachute open and briefly noticed a large cenotaph from the last war and
large numbers of shell craters and dead strewn round about before hitting
the ground. Knocked unconscious, he awoke as several soldiers were
carrying him back to their positions. Not far away, Siegfried saw his plane,
his ‘No. 7’, burning. His head throbbed, but he was alive. Like Hajo, his
had been a lucky escape.
Back on the ground, the situation was becoming critical at the eastern end
of the perimeter. It was here, against Nieuport and Furnes, that the German
Eighteenth Army had hit hardest, and the Fusiliers, for one, were suffering
under the weight of this onslaught. Their depleted number, armed with
rifles, a few Brens and way too little ammunition, could only hold on so
long against an enemy of massively superior man-and firepower. Their
remaining carriers had now been pressed into service as ambulances to take
the wounded back to the Regimental Aid Post. Casualties were now critical
so Major Lotinga ordered them to fall back 800 yards. Another second
lieutenant and several NCOs were killed in the process. The new battalion
HQ was little more than a ditch. ‘It consisted merely of me,’ says Norman
Field, ‘with a signaller equipped with a vital telephone.’ Dribs and drabs
found their way back and took cover in neighbouring water ditches.
The RAP, which had been operating in a house on a crossroads, was
also ordered to pack up and fall back. It was just as well, because no sooner
had they left than it was hit by six successive shells and reduced to rubble.
All along the eastern end of the perimeter, the Tommies were hanging
on by a thread. Furnes had been heavily attacked all morning and looked
likely to fall as the line between the town and the village of Wulpen began
to collapse. A costly counter-attack by the Coldstream Guards managed to
restore the situation but it was clear they would not be able to hold out
much longer. Next to the Fusiliers, the 1st/6th Surreys were also suffering,
although they had managed to stand firm. Late in the afternoon the
Germans had been seen massing for another attack on Nieuport but it was at