大象传媒

I was attending Dartmouth Boys School and during the lunch hour I was walking across the playground when I heard the drone of a German aircraft engine. I looked up and in a break in the low lying cloud I saw a large aircraft. Within seconds, out of the clouds, appeared a Hurricane fighter on the tail of the German bomber. Flashes of red flame came from the bomber followed by red flashes of gunfire from the fighter.

The engine of the fighter started to stutter and misfire, followed by white smoke from the engine. The pilot attempted to climb and he headed towards the sea.

The bomber dodged back into the clouds and made good its escape.

The fighter pilot ejected from his aircraft and parachuted into the sea. He was picked up, slightly injured, and taken to Dartmouth Hospital.

I have since ascertained that the fighter pilot had been transferred from the Fleet Air Arm, due to the losses of pilots in the RAF. He was not fully conversant with his aircraft. The bomber had been tracked by radar from Portland over Devon to Dartmouth.

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