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

with an odd weaving walk. Jan thought he must be drunk but then saw the
man was British.
‘Allied fighter!’ shouted Jan. ‘Polish pilot!’
The man kept coming towards him until Jan could see his Coast Guard’s
badge. ‘Sorry I fired,’ said the man. ‘I had to stop you moving. You’re
standing in the middle of a minefield.’
‘I zigzagged out on the sergeant’s heel,’ wrote Jan, ‘and recovered my
composure with the assistance of a large Scotch.’
The morning raid had barely died down when the next one began massing.
In fact, the first raid had primarily been a means of wearing down the
defenders. More than double the size of the previous effort, there were over
a hundred in this formation, although Kesselring had been forced to put two
Gruppen together to achieve the normal strength of one. There were also
more fighters as well, some 350 in all, including Dolfo Galland and his
Geschwader and all of JG 53.
At Uxbridge, Churchill was still intently watching the unfolding events.
Just after 2 p.m., the spotter, sent up to patrol the coast at 26,000 feet,
reported in. This was Allan Wright. ‘The idea,’ noted Allan, ‘is to get up
really early and plot the position of the blitz as it comes in. Lonely job.’ It
was an idea of the Controller’s at 11 Group HQ, and 92 Squadron had been
chosen to provide the pilot since it was a Spitfire squadron, and Allan had
volunteered. Unfortunately, he had not been scrambled early enough for the
first raid and had missed it, but this time he had made it in time, although
only just, because the raiders were passing almost as he was sending in his
report. He had also been spotted in turn by two Me 109s. After firing a good
burst at one, he dived vertically, dropping from 28,000 to 7,000 feet and
blacking out in the process. Recovering from the dive in time, he recovered
his wits and headed back to Hawkinge.
Squadrons were once again scrambled, although this time Park aimed to
have most of his forces attacking the bombers as they turned back for home.
They were also scrambled in pairings of one Spitfire and one Hurricane
squadron. By 2 p.m., both Pete Brothers and Tom Neil were once again
taking off. Five minutes later, so too was 92 Squadron. At 2.15 p.m., 238
Squadron from 10 Group was asked to take over 609’s earlier role, and 12
Group was asked to bring its big wing in to cover Hornchurch.