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

22
What Next?
THE RAF HAD continued to cover the evacuation right to the end, flying over
at dawn and dusk when the lifting of men ended and began for the day. The
fighter boys of 92 Squadron had flown their last Dunkirk sorties early on
the 2nd, and they had been their most successful to date. For some reason
Tony Bartley could not fathom, the fighter escort was hanging back, so the
large formation of lumbering Heinkels posed a juicy target. And the pilots
were learning, too. Over Dunkirk, they had cottoned on that it was best to
dive down below a Heinkel then pull up and blast his underside at as close a
range as possible. Without an under-gunner, the Heinkels could do nothing
but take evasive action. They were also realizing that the more firepower
they could bring to bear, the more likely they were to knock aircraft out of
the sky. Tony’s section had raked six Heinkels in turn. ‘We silenced all six
rear gunners,’ noted Tony, ‘and set five Heinkels on fire, before running out
of ammo.’ These were bombers from KG 54, and of those five only one
managed to stagger home.
Cocky Dundas and 616 Squadron had also flown their last combat
patrol over Dunkirk that day, while Cocky’s brother John had flown his last
the day before. On that sortie John had discovered just how hard it was for a
single Spitfire to shoot down another aircraft. He had hammered away at a
Heinkel, using up all his ammunition, ‘but the wretch refused to come
down’. Like all the squadrons, 609 had suffered over Dunkirk. Five pilots
had been killed – a third of their number. The excitement and bravado with
which they had entered the fray had gone. Any small group of men in a
time of war are tied by a unique bond, but those men in the fighter
squadrons had mostly known each other a long time. This was particularly
true of Auxiliary squadrons such as 609 and 616, whose number were close
friends drawn largely from the same part of the country. Allan Wright in 92
Squadron had also lost his best friend when Pat Learmond had been shot
down and killed. The first losses in war can be the hardest to take, and yet
all were equally aware that a long, hard fight lay ahead of them. The air