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

great deal very quickly and it was all too easy to find oneself suddenly short
but with a large stretch of the Channel still to cross to reach safety. Too
many pilots had been pulled out by the air-sea rescue service, but that gave
only a little solace. ‘Nobody liked flying over the dark water,’ agrees Julius
Neumann, who with JG 27 was also operating from Normandy, ‘especially
with the sky full of clouds and no horizon. But you just did your best and
got on with your job.’
One pilot with plenty of personal fuel still left was Tom Neil. Word had
reached 249 Squadron of the rich pickings over the north-east coast the
previous day. It was just his luck that the moment the squadron moved
south, there should be a flurry of action up north. He was also annoyed to
have been left off the ‘slate’ that morning as one of the pilots not required
for duty. That meant another pilot using his plane, which he did not like.
Tom’s own ‘B’ Flight was scrambled around half-past twelve. Hurrying
back from the mess where he had been having an early lunch, he then hung
around dispersal, pacing impatiently as he waited for their return. They had
been sent to intercept a large raid heading for Portsmouth. In fact, the
bombers were heading for the airfield at Gosport, which once again was not
a fighter field, but belonged to the Fleet Air Arm. ‘B’ Flight missed the
bombers but did run into some Me 110s and Me 109s. It was during this
rather confused tangle that James Nicolson, one of the squadron’s flight
lieutenants, was attacked from behind whilst over Southampton. Four
cannon shells slammed into his cockpit, the first bursting on his canopy and
the second on the reserve petrol tank in front of his instrument panel, while
the third struck James’s foot.
With incredible wherewithal, he pulled his feet up away from the flames
and dived down hard to his right, only to see an Me 110 heading towards
him, so opened fire, knocking the machine down, then prepared to bail out.
The first time, he forgot to push back the remains of the canopy and hit his
head, the second time he was pulled back by his straps, and only at the third
attempt was he free. Burned and wounded in the leg, he then suffered
further ignominy by being shot in the backside by an overzealous member
of the newly renamed Home Guard. For this action, Nicolson was later
awarded Fighter Command’s only Victoria Cross.
But James Nicolson was not the only 249 pilot shot down that
afternoon. So too was the nineteen-year-old Pilot Officer Martyn King –