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

casualties, few people were being killed. There was danger in the air, but
not too much; enough to bring a frisson of excitement, but not so much as
to cause major concern – not for the majority, at any rate. Douglas Mann
had now broken up from Marlborough College, so had put away his OTC
uniform and headed home to Hartfield on the Kent–Sussex border. There,
he discovered his family farm was directly under much of the aerial battle
now going on. ‘It was extraordinary,’ he says. ‘There was machine-gun fire
and empty shell cases cascading down, and aeroplanes, too, falling in
flames.’
He was out on the terrace at the front of the house, sitting in a deckchair
with his father, when they saw fighting begin overhead.
‘What I need are my field glasses,’ Douglas’s father told him. He rang
the bell and the butler appeared. ‘Get my field glasses, will you?’ Douglas’s
father asked him.
‘Very good, sir,’ replied the butler. A minute later he reappeared, the
field glasses laid out on a silver salver. Douglas’s father took them, put
them to his eyes and leaned back. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘that’s much better.’
Not so far away, Harold Nicolson, at home with his family in
Sissinghurst, was about to go in for lunch when they heard the sound of
aircraft and looked up to see ‘twenty little silver fish in arrow formation’.
These passed but whilst eating lunch they suddenly heard aircraft quite
close and stopped to look. ‘There is a rattle of machine gun fire,’ noted
Harold, ‘and we see two Spitfires attacking a Heinkel. The latter sways off,
obviously wounded.’
Jock Colville had headed to Stansted Park for the weekend to stay with
his friends, the Bessboroughs, and had been hoping to see some aerial
battles, most of which he had missed so far. But while Friday the 16th had
been another day of heavy fighting, Saturday had been notably quiet. Jock
and Moyra Bessborough had walked over to see a crashed Junkers 88, but
had seen nothing above them.
But on the Sunday, 18 August, he got his wish. With another day of fine
weather, the Luftwaffe came over in droves. After lunch, they were sitting
out on the terrace looking towards Portsmouth and Thorney Island, the
barrage balloons just visible. Suddenly they saw puffs of smoke in the sky
followed by the sound of ack-ack fire. Moments later came the roar of
engines.