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

46
Wolfpack
AS IT HAPPENED, the fading plots Churchill had witnessed had not been the
last of the day. Around 6 p.m., twenty Zerstörers from Erpro 210 attacked
the Supermarine works at Woolston in Southampton, accompanied by
fighters from Jafü 3, including Siegfried Bethke and 2/JG 2. Siegfried heard
on the radio about the large-scale attacks on London. ‘Sixty kills, twenty
losses. Submarines have again sunk a good number of ships.’ He was still
sure the invasion must go ahead soon, aware, as they all were, of the
massive build-up of shipping around the Channel ports. They were
speculating among themselves as much as the British were across the sea,
with the rumour mill working overtime. ‘I also “heard” yesterday,’ he
scribbled, ‘that we will go over a few days after the first landing. How
everything will develop, and if everything will go according to plan, no-one
can say.’
That same day, Monday, 16 September, Göring summoned his
commanders once more to his train headquarters near Beauvais. He was not
pleased, and blamed the fighters once again for the lack of a more decisive
day’s fighting. It was true that many fighters had left the bombers to take on
the British fighters – Dolfo Galland for one – and so left them exposed, but
what was the point of the attack? To bomb London into submission or
destroy Fighter Command? Dolfo was a highly competitive person and his
victory score counted a great deal to him. Even so, the Luftwaffe High
Command was still agreed that attaining air superiority was the prime
objective and that could only be achieved by destroying the British fighters.
As it happened, Dolfo’s two victories were effectively worthless, since one
of the Czech pilots bailed out unhurt and the other only slightly hurt his
foot. Killing and badly injuring RAF pilots was the only way now the
Luftwaffe had any hope of clearing the skies.
It was Generalmajor Osterkamp, commander of Jafü 2, who spoke out,
complaining once more about the faulty tactics and shortage of replacement
aircraft. ‘The English have adopted new tactics,’ he said. ‘They are now
using powerful fighter formations to attack in force. From our radio-