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

allowed to go out on benders if they knew they would be flying the
following morning; it would not have even occurred to them to do so.
This did not mean they were completely abstemious, however. Ulrich
Steinhilper and his fellow Gruppe members would be on the wine most
nights, but they tended to talk shop, discussing tactics, the day’s events and
other flying matters, which was not really the done thing in the RAF. In
Ulrich’s case, he drank wine as a tension-reliever and also to help him
sleep, but not with the intention of getting blind drunk. Hans-Ekkehard Bob
says there was some drinking in the evening, but usually they would wait
until they had a night off and then they would head into Lille, where there
were lots of bars and good restaurants. They had a commandeered black
Citroën they would use. ‘And there were very, very nice girls in Lille,’ says
Hans. Like all the officers, Hans was now living in a requisitioned house a
short distance from the airfield in order to get away from the attacks by
Blenheims and ensure he got a good night’s sleep. ‘For us pilots,’ he says,
‘if there was a pretty girl in one spot, you tended to stay there.’
Julius Neumann says he rarely drank in the evening and neither did
anyone else in II/JG 27. Nor did his Staffel ever head out together for an
evening in a bar or local restaurant. ‘We never did that,’ he says. Instead
they would eat their meal and go to bed, or write letters or be writing up
combat reports. Anyone who claimed to have shot down an enemy plane
had to write one of these reports, and describe in some detail the action and
circumstances and what they saw, rather like a police witness statement. For
men like Hans-Ekkehard Bob, who already had thirteen victories to his
name, this could be a time-consuming business. Hajo Herrmann and his
Staffel would go into the village where they were billeted and chat up girls
and have a drink, but there was not much opportunity for letting their hair
down. ‘I was a Staffel captain and I tried to improve things,’ says Hajo. ‘I
used my spare time to write reports, I didn’t waste time.’ He lived in
reasonable comfort, sharing a house with five or so other officers. They had
another house that acted as a mess, complete with Luftwaffe furniture.
There was also, of course, the sea. The French beaches were not mined and
covered with barbed wire like the beaches were in England. Mordyck was
almost amongst the sand dunes and Siegfried Bethke enjoyed regular
evening swims at La Panne, followed by dinner out in the town.
For the British pilots, the waiting around was difficult. ‘There was a lot
of tension in sitting around in dispersal,’ says Bee Beamont. ‘You jumped a