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

so he stayed at Pembrey, too excited to sleep. It never occurred to him that
he might be killed.
He was flown up the following morning, 13 September, in an Anson.
Circling over Biggin he saw a bomb-scarred mess – roughly patched craters
on the grass and tarmac runway, and ruined, blackened buildings. The ferry
pilots landed and rolled over towards some Spitfires, which, Tony realized,
belonged to 92 Squadron. Without even turning off the engines, the pilot
bustled him out of the Anson, which then sped off again as quickly as
possible.
Several of the pilots greeted him cheerfully, including his friend Brian
Kingcombe. ‘We shoot Huns all day, dear boy,’ Brian told him, ‘and get
bestially drunk at night.’ The station stores had been hit so they had all
begun helping themselves to whatever they wanted. Brian had taken two of
everything for a rainy day and advised Tony to do the same.
Just then, ack-ack guns opened fire as a lone Ju 88 emerged through
cloud and disappeared to the south, on this occasion ignoring Biggin.
‘What does one do on these occasions?’ Tony asked. Being at an airfield
coming under regular attack was a new experience.
‘Just put on a tin hat and strike a hostile attitude,’ Brian suggested.
His car, Tony now discovered had been wrapped round a tree a couple
of days earlier by Norman Hargreaves. He’d been drunk but had been let off
with a one-pound fine.
‘I’ll fix him for this,’ Tony told Brian.
‘Been fixed already, poor chap,’ Brian replied, ‘on the dawn patrol
yesterday.’ In fact, there had been quite a few changes already. Another
pilot had been killed the day before and a further one shot down. On the
9th, Allan Wright had been badly shot up but had spluttered back, and two
others had been shot down and wounded. Bob Stanford Tuck had been
posted to command 257 Squadron, and Allan had taken over Tuck’s flight.
The new CO, Squadron Leader Philip Sanders, was also out of action,
having set fire to himself accidentally with his cigarette lighter. A quick
lunch in the crew room at dispersal was interrupted by another lone raider.
Everyone dived for cover apart from Brian. ‘This gives me the most terrible
indigestion,’ he muttered.
They were stood down later, having not flown, so Tony found his new
digs. The mess had been bombed out, so they were in army buildings a bit
further down the road. Tony raided the stores as suggested, taking various