Free I Sank The Bismarck by John Moffat Page A

afternoon and we flew at about 5,000
feet. As we were passing over Marlborough College there
were shouts in my headphones and, looking in my mirror, I
saw Crane pointing frantically behind and there was this
twin-engined Heinkel coming for me. As we were on a simple
housekeeping flight, our aircraft had not been armed and we
had no ammunition. I gave the engine full boost and headed
down, but still he came on and I thought if I turned left or
right he would open up on me from his forward turret. It was
then that I noticed Swindon and the big railway marshalling
yards, so I dived down at a very steep angle and pulled out
about 50 feet above the rails. I could no longer see him, and
neither could I see Crane. We flew as low as I dared
and landed at Kemble, about 10 miles further on. I taxied
over to some RAF Hurricanes whose pilots were on standby
and told them where I had encountered the Heinkel. Within
five minutes three of them were in the air. Lieutenant Crane
had been thrown to the floor of the cockpit in my dive, and
he struggled out as we stopped. We obtained the spare parts
from the stores and then he said, 'I am pulling rank, so you
can go in the back.' That was the thanks I got for shaking the
raider off my tail.
    Shortly after, although the lightning hit-and-run raids continued,
what became known as theBattle of Britain started in
earnest, with heavy bomber raids on London and other cities
all over Britain, including Portsmouth and Southampton. The
main targets were the docks, but of course the bombs fell
everywhere, and many of the poor civilians would move out
to the surrounding countryside every night to avoid the heavy
raids.
    The squadron that I was in then, 759, was referred to as
'The broken-down actor and windy jockey squadron'. We hadRalph Richardson,Laurence Olivier, the film star RobertDouglas and the jockeyFrankie Furlong of Grand National
fame as members. If it hadn't been for the constant raids it
would have been great fun. Ralph Richardson was an
instructor and once told me, 'If you see a plane flying over the
airfield going like this,' and he mimicked a plane rising and
falling with his hands, 'then it's me. I suffer from kangaroo
petrol.'
    Ralph in particular was great company, and of course
they could all drink like fish in the wardroom at night. We
had some very enjoyable parties, but sadly the airfield was
becoming just too dangerous and the navy decided to move us
all out to various places. The experienced pilots were sent to
boost the ranks of the RAF, where they were thrown into
action in the Battle of Britain.
    This was a strange period, at times both frightening and
bizarre. The weather was extremely good – it was a glorious
summer. Here we were in the midst of a deadly war, with blue
skies and the sun shining. I had a forty-eight-hour pass from
Eastleigh – in fact I had two for successiveweekends. For the
first one I was invited by one of my fellow pilots, a chap called'Lucky' Sutton, to visit his family at Kingston upon Thames.
About four of us went and we were made extremely welcome
by his parents and had a good night out at the local club.
    The next weekend's leave saw the same group travel to a
fellow pilot's home in a village in mid-Kent. We ended up on
the Friday night in the local inn, being stood drinks by everyone.
The next day after lunch we went with our host to the
village cricket match. I always remember on this July day
sitting on a grass bank outside the pavilion, watching a rather
boring match. I have never been an enthusiast of the game,
but there was a great deal of local interest. Then I noticed the
sky: there were aircraft at about 10–15,000 feet having a
terrific dogfight. The noise of machine guns was faintly
audible and there were great swathes of vapour trails
stretched across the sky. A fight to the death was taking place
above our heads, and my heart went up to the boys in their
cockpits, knowing how they would be desperately turning,
their mouths dry,