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

destroy than had originally been expected, reconnaissance photographs
suggested considerable damage had been caused. Neither Lympne, Manston
nor Hawkinge, for example, were expected to cause the Luftwaffe too much
trouble any more. Yet again, German intelligence was to prove woefully
mistaken.
And so Tuesday, 13 August – Adlertag – finally dawned. Oberst Johannes
Fink had been up early and had breakfasted well – as had all his pilots and
crew. It was something he insisted upon before a morning mission, and
now, at 7.30 a.m., his bomb-laden Do17s of KG 2 were climbing high up
over northern France towards Cap Gris Nez ready to rendezvous with the
fighter escort.
Yet there was no sign of the escort and ahead he saw a bank of cloud
rolling over the Channel which most definitely had not been predicted by
the met men. Already feeling puzzled, he quickly became irritated as a few
Zerstörers passed in front of his nose in a series of short dives, rather than
heading towards England. Then, his temper rising, he watched them dive
away completely. Johannes could not make head or tail of it, but decided to
press on anyway, with or without the fighter escort; at least the unexpected
cloud would offer them some cover.
As they droned on, they fleetingly caught a glimpse of Margate before
flying over yet more cloud. They were now approaching Eastchurch, their
target, so Johannes ordered the formation to loosen out as they prepared to
descend. As a former Luftwaffe Chief Accident Investigator, he was always
mindful of safety precautions, and was concerned that none of the bombers
should get too close to one another as they passed through the cloud.
Suddenly, the sky cleared once more and down below, and just a few miles
ahead, was Eastchurch. Yet just as Johannes’s men were preparing to drop
their bombs, Spitfires from 74 Squadron dived down out of the gleaming
early morning sun on to the rear Staffel of Dorniers, shooting down one and
damaging most others.
While the rear of the bomber formation was being attacked by the
British fighters, the rest of the formation forged on, pasting Eastchurch with
bombs. Climbing and banking, Johannes then led his formation back out
over the Thames estuary, but now came under attack again, this time from
111 Squadron’s Hurricanes. In a brief flurry of machine-gun chatter and