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

and threes, the pilots heard the controller repeatedly telling all available
aircraft to head out to sea at top speed and to intercept many bandits
heading their way. Giving his Spitfire maximum boost, Cocky set course.
For once there was no squadron formation; some were ahead, some behind,
and one by one they tore over the coast and out over the sea, climbing as
they went.
Cocky was about fifteen miles east of Bridlington when he saw them, to
his left and slightly below, the long, thin shapes of German twin-engine
Junkers 88s, some seventy in all, flying a loose, scattered formation. And
all on their own – not a enemy fighter in sight. Switching on his reflector
sight and setting the range for 250 yards, Cocky switched the gun button to
‘fire’, then arced down in a diving turn, curving towards the nearest bomber
so that he came in behind. Tracer pulsed towards him and sped past, then
Cocky opened up with his eight Brownings and the return fire stopped
immediately. Moments later, the Junkers banked and fell away, a gush of
black smoke followed by a steady stream from its engines, and then it was
diving headlong into the sea.
Now turning to look for another target, he saw his fellows diving down
on to the German planes. Below him, a damaged bomber was turning back
to sea so he decided to go after it and try to finish it off. This was a mistake;
he should have looked for a fresh target, because by the time he caught up
and fired the last of his ammunition, he was several more miles out to sea
and the sky was suddenly empty.
Sweat ran over his head underneath the tight, hot confines of his leather
flying helmet and oxygen mask, but with a feeling of elation he now headed
for home. One by one, the squadron straggled back, and everyone seemed
to have fired his guns – the tell-tale red patches to keep away the dust had
been shot through and streaks of smoke ran across the wings. ‘A very large
number of Bosche disturbed our lunch,’ Cocky wrote to his mother the next
day, his excitement still palpable, ‘and we bagged a very large proportion of
them, along with other squadrons. I had the personal satisfaction of adding
to my own private score – one definite with a good big splash in the old
traditional “burning fiercely” style, and another with one engine out of
action creeping home ten feet above the water. Altogether, quite a
refreshing interlude in what was becoming a dull life.’
This had been Luftflotte 5’s first major effort of the battle. Stumpff had
only some 230 aircraft in his entire Norwegian-based air fleet, yet assuming