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

Kanalkrankheit – the combat fatigue version. ‘Rothkirch is not adding up,’
he noted – he had flown just eight missions in two months. ‘He’s always
“sick”. A pathetic figure.’ A few days later, Hauptmann Helmut Wick
returned from Berlin, where he had been awarded the Eichenlaub – ‘Oak
Leaves’ – to his Knight’s Cross, an award given for forty victories. Hitler
himself had placed it around his neck. Wick reported back all that he had
been told. Both Hitler and Göring, he said, still hoped the Luftwaffe would
completely destroy the British fighters in a few days of good weather.
Siegfried thought that impossible. ‘It is also hoped,’ he noted, recording
much of what Wick had told him, ‘that through the blockade, there will be
serious disruptions to supplies in England. Unfortunately, not enough
submarines off the west coast of England.’
At Coquelles, as losses mounted, the evening debates were becoming
increasingly tense. It was not helping these young pilots to endlessly
discuss tactics at night. With leave so infrequent, they needed to use the
time off from operations to try and put the fighting to one side and relax –
but there was little chance for that, it seemed. The biggest complaints came
from the NCO pilots, who felt strongly that too many of the commanders
were glory hunters only interested in getting medals. It did not seem fair to
them that awards should only be handed out for aerial victories, when it
often took more bravery to sit at the back of the formation, keeping watch
over the glory boys’ backsides. Ulrich had quite a lot of sympathy – he had
never thought much of the special treatment given to men like Dolfo
Galland.
Of greater concern to him as a senior member of the Staffel was the loss
of pilots as well as the shortage of aircraft. At the beginning of the western
campaign, their Gruppe had had thirty-six experienced pilots with at least
three years in the Luftwaffe under their belts. Now they were getting new
boys straight from fighter school, and unlike in Fighter Command, there
was no structure in place by which they could be given further training
before being thrown into the front line. He and Kühle did their best to take
care of these fledglings until they had acquired a bit more experience but
this was not always possible.
At the end of September, a new NCO pilot arrived with minimal flying
time and only a tiny amount of air-to-ground gunnery. He had never flown
using oxygen and had no idea how to use his radio. Ulrich gave him around
ten hours of extra ‘tuition’, taking him and some of the other new boys out