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

‘We touch down,’ he wrote, ‘the wheels rumble over the airfield until we
come to a stop and I can switch off the engines. Our first trip to London is
over.’
Later that night, the Luftwaffe hit the City and West End. The next day the
planes were back again; Portsmouth and Southampton were also hit. Once
again, London was bombed at night.
Air Vice-Marshal Park’s hunch had been right. A clear pattern was now
emerging and on 11 September he issued another instruction order to his
controllers. The enemy, he pointed out, had stopped the practice of carrying
out two or three separate attacks by up to 300 aircraft a day, and instead was
now concentrating three or four hundred planes in two or three waves
following in quick succession, the entire engagement lasting between fortyfive
minutes and an hour.
Before, he had been forced to meet the large numbers of disparate raids
with whatever he could scramble, fighting over a wide area, but now he
recognized that it should be possible to meet the enemy at maximum
strength, employing squadrons not in large wing formations, but in pairs,
each independent of the other but operating in tandem, and rendezvousing
over a base decided upon by the Group controller. Sector controllers were to
inform the Group controller the moment a pair of squadrons had
rendezvoused. The Group controller would then lead those two squadrons
to a raid, leaving the remaining squadrons in a sector to the sector
controller. Spitfires were to attack the high fighters, Hurricanes the bombers
and close escort. Learning from the Germans, Park also told his squadrons
to dispense with the vic, and to fly in a more loose, line-abreast formation
of four instead. In issuing these new orders, Park was demonstrating just
how adaptable he was, revealing a commander who was prepared to make
decisive operational and tactical changes according to how the battle
evolved. Surprisingly few shared this attribute.
However much Park and Dowding may have viewed the change of German
effort as a respite for their airfields, it did not feel that way to the men
flying to meet these colossal German raids. On 7 September, 92 Squadron
was posted to Biggin Hill, now one of the world’s most bombed airfields.
Tony Bartley had been on leave and returned to Pembrey to find everyone
gone, and with them his V8 car. It was too late to head to Biggin that night