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

Hurricane, even with the aileron now hanging down, so ducking out of the
fight headed for his old base, Biggin Hill. Opening his hood as he came in
to land, he was horrified to find his lucky navy blue polka-dot scarf had
come loose and was now whistled out of the cockpit, seemingly gone for
ever. Having made it safely back down, he jumped out and was inspecting
the damage when, to his delight, he saw his scarf fluttering from the
elevator. A good omen, it seemed.
It was now 249 and 46 Squadrons’ turn. Tom Neil spotted the bombers,
feeling a flutter of exultation and raw fear, and then moments later they
were in amongst them. A Dornier filled his gunsights and he opened fire,
feeling horribly exposed as he did so and wondering where the 109s were.
There were aircraft everywhere, including Spitfires, but still no Me 109s.
He saw one struggling Dornier being attacked by a pack of Hurricanes,
‘wolves worrying a flagging deer’, then turned to see a Spitfire attacking
him. Turning out of the way, and with ack-ack bursting in the distance, he
headed for home.
Both Pete and Tom had been surprised by the small number of enemy
fighters, but it had been at this point that the so-called Duxford Wing of five
squadrons had entered the battle, some fifty Spitfires and Hurricanes
attacking the 109s. Amongst these was I/JG 52, with its yellow-nose
Messerschmitts that seemed to be making such an impression on the Fighter
Command pilots. Ulrich Steinhilper had just turned twenty-two and as an
unintended present had been allotted one of the new Me 109E4s to have
reached the Staffel, already christened Yellow 2. He was flying it now, with
its new improved cannons, and hoped that with this increased hitting power
he would finally open his score and start shooting down some enemy
aircraft. Ulrich was sure the RAF must now be in its death throes so had
been taken aback by the number of Tommy fighters that now met them.
‘Over there we met amazingly strong fighter opposition,’ he wrote to his
mother. ‘I believe that the British are concentrating everything they have
left around the capital.’
While Ulrich was fending off the Duxford Wing, more squadrons were
engaging the bombers, including 303 Ko ciuszko Squadron. Jan Zumbach
had hit a Dornier before coming under fire from some of the 109s. Dodging
in and out of cloud, he felt disorientated and frightened by this game of
hide-and-seek but managing to eventually get on the tail of one of his
pursuers he opened fire, shooting it down, and then ran out of ammunition