Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain by Deighton Len

Author:Deighton, Len [Deighton, Len]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, War
ISBN: 9780007549504
Amazon: B00EBZMKW6
Goodreads: 20699495
Publisher: William Collins
Published: 1977-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 24. About 11 a.m., 24 July

A convoy (dotted line) left the river Medway and entered the Thames Estuary. It attracted a bombing raid consisting of Dornier Do 17s escorted by Messerschmitt Bf 109s of the third Gruppe of JG 26, Schlageter, led by Galland.

(1) No. 54 Squadron was sent to intercept and a battle developed. While this was happening, 65 Squadron from Manston went to attack the now unescorted Dorniers. Tight formations and disciplined gunfire from the bombers prevented close attacks and they escaped without loss. Two of the forty Messerschmitts were shot down, and as they were all running short of fuel they dived out of combat and went home very low across Kent.

(2) Meanwhile 610 Squadron from Biggin Hill were sent to patrol Dover in the hope of cutting off the escape of Galland’s fighters.

(3) But another German fighter unit was coming to take over the escort duty. A fight developed between these Messerschmitts and the Spitfires from Biggin Hill.

July was a month of experiments. Kesselring discovered that attacking two coastal convoys at the same time forced the defence to divide. This worked well about 8 a.m. on 24 July, when two co-ordinated attacks were made: one on a convoy off Dover and the other on one that was entering the Thames Estuary. The defence – 54 Squadron from Rochford – sent after one raid, saw both, and had to split up to attack them. The raiders escaped without casualties but the bombing failed to hit any of the ships. About 11 a.m. two Staffeln of Do 17s returned to the Thames Estuary to attack a convoy. ‘Dolfo’ Galland’s Bf 109s were assigned as escort. Park sent 54 Squadron to attack them, and then, knowing that Galland’s fighter escort would soon run short of fuel, he ordered 610 Squadron (Biggin Hill) to patrol Dover, and so cut off their escape route. In fact, 610 ran into JG 52, who were coming north to help the returning Messerschmitts. There was a fight. The raid’s escort – Galland’s III/JG 26 – and JG 52 each lost three fighters. The two RAF squadrons lost three Spitfires.

As the engagement ended, the elated Spitfire pilots dived upon another formation, and shot down one of them. The victorious pilot reported that there had been no return fire and identified his victim as a Chance Vought V.156. RAF intelligence thought the Germans were so short of aircraft that they were now using captured French ones, until the Royal Navy reported the loss of a Blackburn Skua of 806 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm.

The fighter pilots were learning about their adversaries. The Bf 109, with its fuel-injection engine, not only dived without missing a beat or two (unlike the carburettor-fed Merlins) but could out-dive the RAF fighters. Galland’s Messerschmitts had dived out of combat and escaped that morning when their fuel ran low.

But the Luftwaffe had never before faced a fighter as good as the Spitfire. This was acknowledged by the disproportionate number of Messerschmitt fighter pilots who, on becoming POWs, insisted that they had been shot down by Spitfires.

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