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

down. Totally spent. Since breakfast, I had been in the air for more than
four hours.’
Back in the Pas de Calais, the pilots were excitedly discussing the mission.
At Mordyck, Siegfried Bethke learned that his wingman, Feldwebel
Rudorrfer, had shot down three Hurricanes in addition to his one. Some of
his pilots had returned with flak damage to their aircraft, others with bullet
holes. One of Siegfried’s friends had been rammed and forced to bail out
and had been taken prisoner.
Ulrich Steinhilper had been shaken to see a 109 latch on to the tail of
another and shoot it down by mistake. He had also seen pilots falling, their
parachutes on fire, but not a single one of their own Gruppe had been shot
down – all had safely returned. They had also been delighted by radio
intercepts of the British radio which had revealed numerous references to an
elite ‘yellow-nosed’ wing. Ulrich had not shot down anything himself, but
he knew he would not forget that afternoon in a hurry. The aerial battle over
London had been a beautiful but awe-inspiring sight. ‘The pure azure-blue
of the sky,’ he wrote, ‘with the sun dimmed by the sinister smoke
penetrating to extreme height; this interwoven and cross-hatched by the
contrails of fighters locked in their life and death struggles. In amongst this
the burning balloons and the few parachutes in splendid and incongruous
isolation.’ Like many pilots, he had not failed to realize the significance of
what had happened that day.
Raymond Lee, meanwhile, seeing the bombers had gone, had hailed a taxi
and hurried towards the fire. As he drove through London, people already
seemed to be carrying on as normal, people reading papers or wandering
through St James’s. Finally, he reached the Tower of London and from
Tower Bridge he looked down the Thames and saw immense fires raging on
both sides of the river. Leaving his taxi, he walked down through Wapping,
the streets crowded with fire engines and hoses, police and soldiers forming
picket lines. ‘Tremendous fires were raging within a block of where these
crowds were,’ noted Lee, ‘but they displayed little excitement and no signs
of panic.’
Having touched down for the last time that day and staggered back to
dispersal, Tom Neil learned that the squadron had taken a hammering.