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

finally driven back to Biggin Hill, where he learned that Roy Mottram had
been killed and Bob Holland wounded.
Five days later, a massive free hunt by some 200 Luftwaffe fighters had
swept over. No fewer than twenty-four squadrons were scrambled to meet
them. Certainly, for those in Fighter Command waiting to be scrambled,
these were still long, tense days interspersed with frenetic action. Even on a
quiet day, a pilot might end up fighting one of the toughest engagements of
his life. Aircraft were still being shot down, pilots were still losing their
lives.
Some were still able to enjoy euphoric moments of victory, however.
On 26 September, Allan Wright was leading Green Section from his flight
and managed to intercept a formation of Dorniers in perfect fashion. ‘Most
glorious fun,’ he noted. He shot down one of the bombers, which dived into
the ground and exploded. The next day he shot down a further Dornier and
damaged a Junkers 88. ‘Two squadrons met 20 Ju88s with many 109s,’ he
wrote in tiny neat writing in his logbook. ‘Latter very shy.’ In fact, 27
September marked the biggest day’s fighting for nearly a fortnight. In the
morning, bomb-carrying Zerstörers had attacked London, and were
followed close after by formations of Dorniers and Ju 88s. These latter raids
were largely split up by British fighters.
Ulrich Steinhilper was leading the entire Gruppe that day although such
were their losses they were just thirteen planes from the three Staffeln. As
they neared London, as many as forty Spitfires and Hurricanes were tearing
towards them from seemingly nowhere. Deciding that the best form of
defence was attack, he ordered the Gruppe to turn and climb. Ulrich could
feel the stick against his leg as he brought his Yellow 2 into a hard aileron
turn. Negative-g was pressing him into his seat, and his arms were heavy
and his head felt as though it were crushing down on his neck as he
increased the turn and climb, but his slats were snapping out automatically
as his speed slowed, giving him an even tighter turn. With his vision
greying, it would have been far easier to cut and run but with the British
fighters diving down upon them at high speed he knew there was no way
they could now cut inside their tight upward spiral. The Spitfires now
hurtled past and then pulled up trying to climb back up for another attack,
but still Ulrich ordered his men to keep climbing in their tight upward turn.
Occasionally a Spitfire would cross their sights but they were so close to
stalling that firing their guns might have caused them to drop out of the sky.