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

37
Adlertag
WHEN ULRICH STEINHILPER touched down at Coquelles for the first time, he
soon discovered the groundcrew had been quick to plunder the large stocks
of equipment abandoned by the British ten weeks earlier. They used British
bell-tents, considered much better than German equivalents, which were
erected in an orchard at one end of the airfield. Inside each tent, a hole
around a metre deep had been dug and lined and, Ulrich thought, made for
quite a comfortable billet. There were British Nissen huts too. ‘Calais and
Dunkirk were rather like vast military supermarkets,’ noted Ulrich.
‘Virtually anything you wanted could be found in or around the harbours or
on the beaches.’ Among other things, they had appropriated a Morris tripleaxled
truck and a large van which they converted into a mobile tool and
parts store, and also discovered a plentiful number of barrels of wine
floating in the harbour at Calais, which gave them an almost unending
supply. Having hitched up the local electricity supply, they found their new
home was reasonably comfortable, if a little primitive. They even had a
record player.
Up the road at nearby Guines-South, Hans-Ekkehard Bob was also
settling into his new surroundings. Like most fighter airfields in the Pas de
Calais, Guines was another field, its crop only recently harvested. It was
pretty rudimentary. The aircraft were penned in the woods at the edge of the
field. Like Coquelles, there were bell-tents, a kitchen and Nissen huts,
where the groundcrew lived, set up in the woods, and a large tent in which
aircraft were repaired. ‘The technicians’ tent was really big,’ says Hans,
‘big enough to fit an aircraft in.’
Hans, along with the other pilots, found digs in the village. He also
brought with him his dog, a fox terrier called Chica. She would always fly
with him whenever they moved airfields, stowing away in the luggage hold
behind his seat. ‘She was a passionate flier,’ he says. ‘She always cried
when she wasn’t allowed to come with me.’
On 12 August, the Gruppe was in action, escorting bombers first to
Dover, then Manston, Hans claiming a Spitfire. Ulrich Steinhilper had also