May the 1st 1940

The south coast was put on invasion warning this morning following heavy enemy bombardment against our southern Cities and Aerodromes in the early hours.

As such 12 Group were called into action, with "A" Flight, consisting of myself in QV-J, and Speedy in QV-D, being ordered to patrol the coastal area near Dover, arriving there shortly past 08:00 hours.

It was immediately apparent that there was a large attack underplace, with smoke pouring up from Dover, Folkestone, and most of our coastal Aerodromes, while sporadic dogfighting was visible from low altitude up to 10,000 feet.

First contact with the enemy came when I spotted a flight of three plus Bf110s fighting against some Spitfires at 10,000 feet between Dover and Folkestone - I dove in behind one of the 110s and put a burst into his left side at around 180 yards, resulting in incendiary sparks bursting from his cockpit area, while smoke began to pour from his port engine, after which he nosed down out of sight.

Looking back I could see a second 110 trying to come up behind me, so I attempted to climb away from him in a spiral climb, however I soon found that his speed was much higher than I had previously thought, so I was forced into an almost vertical climb in the hopes that he would stall out before I did, it was a close run thing, as my Spit eventually gave up just as I saw tracer fire come streaming past, after which the 110 also stalled out, leaving me above him on his tail with only a few minor hits - chances are if I hadn't stalled in his gunsights those rounds would have been on target!

The boot was on the other foot as I came down to exact my revenge on the now fleeing 110, sending a short burst his way at 200 yards, when suddenly some silly sod in a Spitfire came zooming up between us - he was lucky not to find a load of .303 rounds sticking into his arse, but as it was I decided to break off and look for another target - spotting a wounded 110 a little lower, heading out to see - diving in on him and giving him a quick squirt from 150 yards, most of which missed due to him diving away, after which I noticed that both of his props were windmilling, and so decided to let him go off for his swimming lesson.

Breaking off I continued to patrol over the coast, spotting a number of isolated engagements at both higher and lower altitudes, but all of them seemed to consist of one of ours shooting at one of theirs, so I let them get on with it, instead finding my own target in a lone 109 to the east, who was diving towards some ships.

It took me a while to catch up to the 109, who was by then at low altitude having a go at a Spitfire - the snapper tore a piece off the tail of his prey after which I sent a burst at his tail, which seemed to throw him off as he broke off his own attack - either that or the turn combat was too tight for him, it was almost too tight for me as I found myself upside down looking at the water after a particularly tight turn, but I managed to level out and push the power up before finding myself in a watery grave.

Continuing my attack on the now lone 109, I placed a deflecting burst into his top from 140 yards, which forced black smoke from his right wing, presumably from an incendiary round - a few more squirts at his tail and I had him leaking coolant from both wing roots, after which a final burst into his tail from 130 yards had him on fire, smashing down into the Sea shortly thereafter.

Returning back to the coast I patrolled with Speedy for a while, spotting a lower altitude scrap after a few minutes, consisting of a 109 being chased by a Spitfire, being chased by a 109 - not being one to turn down a good 'conga line' as they call them, I dove in on the rear 109, placing a quick burst into his back from 100 yards as he was turning to attack the Spitfire, being immediately rewarded with the 109 bursting in flames as I 'flopped' past him, somewhat surprised at the shortness of the engagement.

I turned to continue my patrol towards Dover, leaving the now freed up Spitfire to chase down his foe, after which I saw another 109 dive in on me from 2 o'clock high, fly past me and turn back around and head towards Dover, with me trying to catch up to him.

I chased around this 109 for a while, slowly gaining on him as we flew up and down above Dover, finally getting in range to fire a burst at him as he nosed down after an attempt to climb away - sending a deflection shot his way from 130 yards, which seemed to get him smoking a little, but turned out not to do much damage at all - I then moved to press my attack further, but saw a hurricane zoom past and stick a burst right into the now slow 109 - again I had done all the work only for some cheeky sod to come along and steal all the credit!

After breaking away from the Hurricane and 109 I heard Speedy over the radio, reporting that he had taken hits over Dover docks at angels 2 - I moved in to assist and saw Speedy over the dock, with a second contact above him to the south, presumably the one that had attacked him - though seemingly he had by now broken off his attack, as he was quite a way away.

Descending north to form up with Speedy, I spotted another contact to the east over the white cliffs at around angels 2, this fellow turned out to be another snapper - so I moved in on his six, seeing him fly head on with Speedy, after which I put a short burst into his top from 120 yards, though I ran out of ammunition in most of my guns before I could do any damage - as such I called up to Speedy, who took over the attack after I threw my last rounds at the 109.

I was covering Speedy as he pressed home his attack on the 109 when I found myself under attack from a second 109, as such I dove down to the north to try to drag him away, hoping to lose him in the low ground, but found him too close for any of that, forcing me to break while Speedy came in to try to clear me - thankfully my Spitfire was easily able to out turn the Hun and keep his guns from doing any real damage - by now however there were 3 109s, and the outlook was somewhat grim, with Speedy leaking coolant and myself out of ammunition.

Luckily we managed to hold the enemy off long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but not before Speedy had strained what was left of his damaged engine - forcing him to make a crash landing just outside Dover, after which I attempted to return to base, first heading towards Manston, which was a complete shambles with hangars ablaze all around, then heading to Eastchurch, which seemed to be in better shape, though there was smoke streaming up from one of the hangars.

Tally:

2 x Bf109 destroyed in flames.
2 x Bf109 damaged.
3 x Bf110 damaged.

good show