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

about this,’ he noted, ‘though he promised to do his best for us and not to
leave us alone.’
It was not helping the Luftwaffe to find itself in the middle of a tactical
rift at this moment, and it should have been emphatically resolved without
delay, and in the fighters’ favour as Göring had instructed. But it was one
thing making such a pronouncement from the far-off confines of Carinhall
and quite another getting such a tactical order down the long chain of
command to those actually operating on the front line, even if the originator
was a six-star general.
Now, above the Channel, the weather was clear, but as the German
aircraft neared England, a closed layer of cloud seemed to extend all the
way across the country. Since the pilots could not guess the height at which
the cloud layer began, Paul realized they had little choice but to press on
and then dive blind through the cloud and hope they would emerge over the
target. But, as he was well aware, the chances of that happening were slim
indeed.
Listening to Paul Hozzel through his R/T was David Crook. The squadron
was one of four that had been ordered into the air to meet the advancing
raid, and now, just after four o’clock, the voice, which had been faint at
first, was quite distinct. By chance the German raid was using an almost
identical radio wavelength as 609 Squadron.
Suddenly, David saw them – dive-bombers, then Me 110s and finally,
on top, the Me 109s, some sixty machines in all, he guessed – and heard a
German voice say, ‘Achtung, Achtung, Spit und Hurri.’ He watched a
Hurricane squadron tear into the Me 110s, then saw the fighters and Stukas
pass beneath them. ‘We were up at almost 20,000 feet in the sun,’ noted
David, ‘and I don’t think they ever saw us till the last moment.’
This was certainly true. Paul had assumed their attack would be a
complete surprise and that they would hit Middle Wallop and the Spitfires
and Hurricanes on the ground before they had been given a chance to take
off. Now, however, the surprise was on him as 609’s Spitfires dived down
upon them. With a 250 kg bomb visibly suspended from beneath the plane
each of the Stuka crews was literally sitting on a powder keg. As Paul flew
on, he heard the first explosions as a Stuka was blown to bits mid-air. ‘A
sudden fire ball,’ he recorded, ‘and all was over.’