One bomber fell away from the formation, smoke pouring from it. I heard myself shouting excitedly. I was too worked up to have a very clear impression of what was happening. Everyone in the pit was muttering or shouting with excitement. Another bomber fell, but it pulled out of its dive and made for home. The air was full of the roar of engines and the distant chatter of machine-gun fire. It was impossible to make out our own fighters from the Messerschmitt 109s. All were inextricably mixed in a milling, dog-fighting mass. But the bomber formation came inexorably on. And high above it the topmost tier of defending fighters kept formation. In ones and twos our machines came racing to join in the fight, some almost certainly short of fuel and ammunition after fighting over the coast.
And above the din of the engines and the fight came the Tannoy: ‘Ground defences take great care before opening fire. Our fighters are attacking the formation.’
But Langdon, who was watching through glasses, said: ‘Take the leading flight of bombers. Anyone see any of our fighters there?’
No-one could. The layers reported On. Langdon waited a moment, gauging the range. The formation seemed to be passing to the east of the ‘drome now; it was well strung out in flights of three.
‘Fire!’
The gun crashed. I saw the breech-ring recoil and flame and smoke pour from it. I heard the whistle of the shell as it left the barrel. Another ammunition number ran up with a second shell. Micky rammed it home and the gun fired again. The noise was shatteringly loud. Hood had several shells already fused. The ammunition numbers were holding them ready. I braced myself for the next shot.
Not till we had fired five rounds did I glance upwards.
Four puffs of white smoke showed well amongst the leading flight. As I watched, another puff of smoke appeared just behind the leader. The ‘plane seemed to buck and then dived away in a streamer of smoke. And as it fell it suddenly exploded. A flash and only a little cloud of smoke showed where a second before,a German bomber had been.
‘Fuse twenty-two!’ Langdon yelled.
Hood worked furiously with the fuse key — a circle of metal which fitted over the nose-cap of the shell so that it could be turned and set to the correct fuse.
Steadily the gun went on firing. And in the intervals between our own shots I could hear the other three-inch cracking away furiously. Little cotton-wool balls of smoke marked the passage of the formation.
‘Fuse twenty!’
They were almost east of the ‘drome now. In a moment they would be past us, heading for London. I glanced away at the dog-fight between the fighters. And even in that glance I saw two ‘planes spin out of the melee in a long spiral of smoke. The fight had moved almost over our heads. Suddenly the scream of a diving ‘plane sounded above the din of the action. I looked quickly round. For a second I was at a loss to know where it came from. Then I saw it. Just north of the ‘drome it was, falling absolutely perpendicularly, its engines flat out. I saw it plan view as it dived out of control behind some trees. I saw the spout of earth and smoke it shot up. I felt slightly sick at the sight. I could imagine some poor devil fighting at the controls and then desperately trying to pull back a hood that had jammed. It had dived into the ground at quite 500 m.p.h. And all the time these thoughts were running in a flash through my mind I could still hear the growing crescendo of the engine. It was as though I had been shown in a dream what was going to happen. And then came the sickening crash, terrifyingly loud, to relieve my suspense.
I looked up again at the formation of Junkers. The leaders were turning slowly westwards, towards Thorby, puffs of smoke all round them. The gun kept up a constant fire. I was getting used to the noise now. My ears were singing, but I no longer braced myself involuntarily before each shot.
And as I watched the German ‘planes bank I knew what was going to happen. And sure enough as they banked they began to drop into a dive. I had seen the same thing happen to Mitchet. Now it was our turn. Strangely enough, I felt no fear. I seemed outside myself and comfortingly detached. With a critical eye I seemed to watch the completely automatic actions of my body as it ducked down, head thrown back, watching those silvery eggs fall from beneath each ‘plane.
It seemed an age that I waited, tense and expectant.
The only sounds were the three-inches, the screaming engines of the dive-bombers and the more distant sound of machine-gun fire.
And then suddenly all hell seemed to be let loose on the ‘drome. As the Jerries pulled out of their dives at about seven thousand feet, the Bofors and Hispano and Lewis guns all let loose. The red tracer shells of the Bofors, like little flaming oranges, could been streaming lazily up to meet the bombers.
Then a fountain of earth shot into the air just behind the dispersal point to the north of us and shook the pit. Pandemonium broke loose as bomb after bomb fell. All over the aerodrome great gouts of earth hung for a second in the air, and as they fell, others rose.
And all the time Langdon stood there easily, just behind the gun, controlling the fire. Many of the team were crouching against the parapet for shelter. But the layers were still on their seats and Micky was engrossed completely in the business of firing. There was a momentary pause when no shell was brought up to the gun, though Hood was still there fusing them. Without thinking, I ran across the pit, grabbed a round and held it for Micky to punch home.
For the next few minutes I knew nothing of what was happening as my whole attention was concentrated on the task of keeping the gun supplied. All I knew was that outside that concentration of effort absolute pandemonium was going on. Shrapnel was flying all over the place, bits of metal whining as they flew through the air just above the pit.
Others began to join Fuller and myself in taking shells to the gun. We were beginning to get used to the continual crump of bombs which shook the pit as though there was an earthquake. I remember once hearing the whine of a bomb — it was particularly loud — and looking up to see the thing coming straight for us. Instinctively I fell flat on my face. It fell, a second later, barely twenty yards from the pit. The noise was deafening. Part of the sandbag parapet crumbled inwards and great clods of earth and stones fell all round us. One fellow — Helson, it was — was knocked right out. But a second later the old gun was going again. We got one ‘plane, I know. We got it in the midst of its dive, and it continued straight on, crashing into one of the hangars and blowing up in a great burst of flame.
And in the midst of all this racket the telephone rang. It was just luck that I heard it. I dived for it. I picked up the receiver to find the message already coming through. ‘ — low to the south. Another raid coming in low to the south — Very low. Another raid coming — ‘ The voice from Gun Ops. sounded frightened and jerky.
‘How near?’ I cut in.
‘Very near,’ came the answer.
I caught Langdon’s arm and yelled the message into his ear. ‘Stop,’ he shouted. ‘Lay just over the hangars. Shrapnel, fuse two. Load!’ The gun swung round.
Chapter Seven
It seemed such waste to cease fire and stay, waiting, with the gun pointing over the hangars, instead of firing at the dive bombers which were still coming down on us. To the south the sky was empty. It flashed across my mind that some fifth columnist might have tapped the line. But it didn’t really matter, for we should have had to cease firing anyway. The weight of the attack was falling off as our own ‘planes, reinforced by stragglers from other fighter stations and by reserve squadrons which had been thrown in, were worrying at the bombers, upsetting the precision of their dives and foiling their attempts to reform en masse as they pulled out of their attack.