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

before they began dropping their bombs, but Boozy Kellett ordered them to
fly on.
Writhing with irritation, Jan then heard a Polish voice telling them to
attack. It was Paszkiewicz, swooping down with the other sections – and
Kellett – following. Jan’s heart began pounding so much he could hardly
breathe. Spitfires were attacking as well and now a huge swarm of diving,
wheeling aircraft buzzed and twisted across the sky, tracer criss-crossing
murderously. Two blazing Dorniers dived in front of him, then parachutes
puffed open. Jan followed the others in a glancing frontal attack but as he
pressed down on the gun button, nothing happened. Cursing wildly he
realized he had failed to turn off the safety catch.
Wrenching his Hurricane into a tight turn, he doubled up over the stick
from the force of negative-g, and then a Dornier sprang up in front of him,
growing until it filled his sights. The tail-gunner opened fire and then Jan
pressed down again and this time bullets sped from his guns, the Hurricane
shuddered, but smoke began streaming from the Dornier’s port engine.
Another burst, and a flash of flame. ‘Just like that,’ noted Jan, ‘it all seemed
easy.’
English and Polish voices filled his headset. Jan dived after another
Dornier, getting so close it was a sitting duck. When he opened fire, it blew
up with his first burst, debris clattering against his own machine. A voice
now shouted, ‘Watch out, Messerschmitt!’ and in the same moment, Jan
saw a 109 on the tail of a Hurricane, but he was too late to help. And now
he was fighting for his own life as a dozen Me 109s seemed to be drawn on
to him by Jan’s attempt to intervene. With lines of bullets criss-crossing
over him, he steep-turned hard to the left and blacked out. When he came
to, he had lost some 12,000 feet and was all alone in the sky and with a few
holes gaping in his port wing. Only as he set course back to Northolt did he
realize his oxygen lead had come detached; no wonder he had passed out.
Arriving back over Northolt it was now his turn to perform a victory
roll. He was not alone – the squadron made claims for eleven Dorniers and
three more damaged and two Me 109s and two damaged. They had paid a
price, however. Athol Forbes, one of their flight commanders, had been shot
down and wounded, another pilot lost half his buttock, and a third bailed
out and landed in a suburban garden.