Archive for the ‘fighters’ Category

Spitfire versus Messerschmitt

Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Spitfires in flight: relatively rare contemporary British image
Then, just below me and to my left, I saw what I had been praying for - a Messerschmitt climbing and away from the sun. I closed in to 200 yards, and from slightly to one side gave him a two-second burst: fabric ripped off the wing and black smoke poured from the engine, but he did not go down. Like a fool, I did not break away, but put in another three-second burst. Red flames shot upwards and he spiralled out of sight.

Posted in 1940, September 1940, fighters | No Comments »

303 Squadron’s first combat patrol

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
An Me 109 that just made the coast of France. 303 Squadron shot down six in under an hour on their first combat patrol.
'A' Flight, at 16,000 ft east of Biggin Hill, saw about 60 Dorniers going east, protected by fighters. The bombers were in tight vics with sections of Me109s circling around them. Some fighters were covering them above. 'A' Flight attacked out of the sun and took enemy escorts by surprise. Each of our pilots selected one Me109 and six dogfights took place.

Posted in 1940, August 1940, fighters | No Comments »

Hurricanes attack bombers head on

Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Hurricanes from No.85 Squadron in flight earlier in 1940
Ease the throttle to reduce the closing speed - which anyway allowed only a few seconds' fire. Get a bead on them right away, hold it, and never mind the streams of tracer darting overhead. Just keep on pressing on the button until you think you're going to collide - then stick hard forward. Under the shock of 'negative G' your stomach jumps into your mouth, dust and muck fly up from the cockpit floor into your eyes and your head cracks on the roof as you break away below.

Posted in 1940, August 1940, bombers, fighters | No Comments »

“Never in the field of human conflict …”

Friday, August 20th, 2010
A Wellington bomber makes a practice low level attack on an RAF airfield. Bomber crew were included in Churchill's famous speech praising "the few".
"we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power."

Posted in 1940, August 1940, Churchill, bombers, fighters | No Comments »

Flight Lieutenant Nicolson wins V.C.

Monday, August 16th, 2010
Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON V.C.
Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.

Posted in 1940, August 1940, Victoria Cross, fighters | No Comments »

The Luftwaffe launch ‘Adler Tag’ – Eagle Day

Friday, August 13th, 2010
A fleet of Dornier 17 bombers in flight
We had been briefed the day previous to Adler Tag that we would be going across the Channel in strong formations to attack England. At last, we would be concentrating in large bomber formations with a fighter escort. For so long, we had been flying our individual missions on simple operations like photographic reconnaissance or minelaying duties.

Posted in 1940, August 1940, bombers, fighters | No Comments »

Air combat over the Channel at Dover

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
The Junkers 87 'Stuka' dive bomber was vulnerable to attack and invariably had fighter protection, in this case the Me 109.
"Now then, oh, there's a terrific mix-up over the Channel! It's impossible to tell which are our machines and which are the Germans. There was one definitely down in this battle and there's a fight going on. There's a fight going on and you can hear the little rattles of machine-gun bullets. Crump! That was a bomb, as you may imagine."

Posted in 1940, July 1940, fighters | No Comments »