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

Stumbling backwards he was struck by how intact it still looked despite
ticking and smouldering. Heading back to the cockpit, he got his flare pistol
and fired two shots into the radio. ‘I suddenly felt rather lonely,’ he says.
‘So I took out a cigarette, had a smoke and waited to be taken prisoner.’ He
did not have long. Plenty of people had seen him come down, and at length
two elderly members of the Home Guard hurried across the field. Rather to
Julius’s surprise, they immediately demanded a souvenir from him.
‘What kind of souvenir?’ he asked.
They weren’t really sure. But something. Julius pulled out his
sunglasses, but there was only one pair, so he broke them in half and gave
the men half each, which seemed to satisfy them. And then he was marched
away.
As Tom Neil had discovered, it was perfectly possible to be scrambled,
climb up to 15,000 feet or more, and then see no sign of the enemy
whatsoever, while forty miles away a huge swirling air battle was raging.
On this Sunday, David Crook, John Dundas and the rest of 609 Squadron
had flown off to investigate some trails of smoke, had been scrambled to
patrol over Ringwood, and then again above Middle Wallop, but had seen
nothing at all.
Pete Brothers and the men of 32 Squadron, on the other hand, had seen
rather too many enemy aircraft that day – some forty bombers and sixty
fighters at around 1.20 p.m., then a further fifty or so bombers and thirty
fighters shortly after five o’clock. In the first, the men had been hastily
scrambled when it seemed the bombers were heading straight for Biggin
Hill. Speeding off, they climbed up to 16,000 feet and then dived down into
the bombers in an effort to disperse the formation. In a flurry of frantic
shooting, they claimed a number of bombers shot down, including another
for Pete, who hammered a Ju 88 and watched it plunge earthwards. By
tearing into the bombers they saved Biggin, but exposed themselves to the
enemy fighters. ‘Our casualties were P/O Pain,’ ran the rather dispassionate
report in the squadron record book, ‘shot down and slightly wounded, in
hospital. F/Lt Russell shot down and severely wounded. Sgt. Henson forced
landed. Slightly wounded.’
During the second fight, north of Canterbury, another three of their
aircraft were shot down, but once again all three pilots survived, two
heading straight back to the squadron. It had, however, been a good day for