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

he pressed himself forward to counteract the force of negative gravity, then
opened fire, seeing his bullets knock out chunks of the aircraft. The Spitfire
fell away, spiralling to the ground.
Pulling back towards the vulnerable Ju 87s as they were re-forming
after their attack, he glanced down and saw smoke billowing up from the
airfield. He called his three Staffeln together and they covered the retreat of
the Stukas; then he led them back up to 15,000 feet ready for another brief
attack on the British fighters. His decision paid off. Almost immediately, he
spotted Spitfires re-forming after the mêlée, dived down on one, and
without being seen opened fire at close range. Bits of the airframe once
again began scattering across the sky before the machine burst into flames.
Pulling clear, he now saw a Spitfire attacking one of his pilots, and dived
towards it, peppering it with bullets. The Spitfire reared into a steep climb,
out of Dolfo’s reach. Glancing around him, he realized it was time to head
back. With his ammo almost out and fuel low, he needed to get home fast.
Reaching the French coast, Dolfo took out one of his preferred Mexican
cheroots and lit it with the lighter he had had specially installed, along with
an ashtray, in his Messerschmitt. A smoke after a fight like that was just the
thing.
It was around noon, and Cocky Dundas and the pilots of 616 Squadron had
been stood down from readiness and headed to lunch at Leconfield’s mess
as usual. Barely had they sat down, however, before the tannoy crackled
with the order for them to scramble immediately. At first they thought the
controller must have taken leave of his senses – they had never been
scrambled before at thirty minutes’ notice; in fact, they had hardly ever
been scrambled at all, it had been so quiet up there on the east coast.
However, the order was repeated with greater urgency and then a
telephone rang and, a moment later, a steward entered the dining room and
told them they were to head to dispersal immediately. Downing tools and
pushing back chairs, they ran out to their cars and sped off round the
perimeter track only to see their groundcrew already running towards their
Spitfires in a rush to have them running and ready.
Sprinting to his Spitfire, Cocky grabbed his parachute from the wing
and with fumbling fingers fastened the buckle, then jumped up on to the
wing and hurriedly clambered into the tight confines of the cockpit. Helmet
on, leads in, a thumbs-up to the groundcrew and away. Speeding off in twos