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

34
Hotting Up
JUST AFTER 5 A.M., on Wednesday 24 July, the pilots of 87 Squadron were
settling down at their dispersal hut for a nap before breakfast. They had
recently moved to Exeter, in the south-west, and had been up since before
first light on readiness. Suddenly, and much to their annoyance, the
operations phone rang. A plot had been picked up and a section was needed
to patrol Lundy Island off the north Devon coast at 8,000 feet.
Bee Beamont, along with Rob Voase Jeff and Harry Mitchell, took off,
climbing through the grey morning cloud. Soon they were climbing through
thick cumulus, the cloud’s peaks gleaming with orange. Bee thought it was
almost better than sleeping, flying amongst these wondrous sunlit shapes.
Just as they cleared the Devon coast, with Lundy in the distance, the ground
controller told them that the target should be right in front of them. Sure
enough, moments later they spotted the dark silhouette of a Junkers 88
below them in a gap in the cloud.
Voase Jeff and Harry Mitchell peeled off towards the gap but Bee
decided to dive down to the left of the cloud in order to cut the bomber off.
Emerging through cloud, he came in directly behind the Junkers just as two
Spitfires were hurtling down from the right. His two fellow Hurricane
pilots, he now saw, were well behind. The lead Spitfire attacked with a
burst then broke away, leaving Bee 200 yards behind exchanging fire with
the German rear-gunner. A few moments later, the rear-gunner stopped
firing, a trail of smoke began streaming from the fuselage, and the Junkers
arced slowly downwards in a gentle dive. Bee followed it down, crossing
back over the coast at just a few hundred feet.
Just as he thought none of the crew would escape, a white parachute
opened, Bee nearly flying straight into it. Seconds later, the Junkers hit the
ground, sliding across a field, through a hedge, over a road and into another
field; then it slewed around, broke its back and finally caught fire. Bee
hurtled over the top, throttled back and then circled around it, hoping to see
some sign of life. He spotted the man with the parachute prostrate two
fields away, but then, circling again, Bee now saw the rest of the crew, one