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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1009.PDF
MAY IST, 1941. THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (Continued) Iff NUMBERS : An artist's impression from the illustrated edition ot the " Battle of Britain" depicting the enormous fighterscreens employed by the enemy. Their very size made them too cumbersome to manoeuvre. in the afternoon, fought a running fight with our Hurri-canes and Spitfires from Hammersmith to Dungeness, from Bow to the coast of France. It cost the enemy one hun-dred and eighty-five aircraft known to have been destroyed. Altogether, between September 6th and October 5th he hadlost eight hundred and eighty-three aircraft. In this phase the Germans used high-altitude fighterscreens, with the bombers, escorted by more fighters, 6,000ft. to 10,000ft. below. The high-flying fighters usuallyappeared a few minutes before the bombers. The object was evidently todraw off our fighters, exhausttheir petrol, and thus make it impos-sible for them to en gage the bombers. The enemy's highfighter screen was engaged by pairs ofSpitfire squadrons half - way betweenLondon and the coast, while wingsof two or three Hurricane squad-rons attacked the bombers and theirescorts before they LONG ODDS : Themethod emp'oyed by a single Hurricanewhen attacking an escort sub-formationof twelve Messer- schmitt 109 s. smu HIWWCM,E MEETS f2 MESSSRSCtttttTTS MEMP-OK reached the fighter aerodromes East and South of London.Other squadrons formed a third and inner ring patrolling above these aerodromes forming a defensive screen to guardthe southern approaches to London. These intercepted the third wave of any attack and mopped up the retreatingformations belonging to earlier waves. The percentage of raids intercepted increased, as did thecasualties of the enemy, while our own steadily decreased. Thus on September 27th No. 11 Group destroyed ninety-nine German aircraft, out of a total for the day of one FfcDUS OFF TBB TOP Of HIS LOOP v BREAKS OFF,UNDAI*M>eD / p SWOOPS UPWARDS tf /."' /,'•' SHOOTS OOWN REAR AIRCRAft DiVES UNDER THEM
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