Document-23. |
The Germans are dive-bombing a convoy out
at sea; there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven German dive-bombers,
Junkers 87s. There’s one going down on its target now — Bomb! No! he missed
the ships, it hasn’t hit a single ship — there are about ten ships in the
convoy, but he hasn’t hit a single one and — There, you can hear our anti-aircraft
going at them now. There are one, two, three, four, five, six — there are
about ten German machines dive-bombing the British convoy, which is just
out to sea in the Channel.
I can’t see anything. No! We thought he had got a German one at the top then, but now the British fighters are coming up. Here they come. The Germans are coming in an absolute steep dive, and you can see their bombs actually leave the machines and come into the water. You can hear our guns going like anything now. I am looking round now. I can hear machine gunfire, but I can’t see our Spitfires. They must be somewhere there. Oh! Here’s one coming down. There’s one going down in flames. Somebody’s
hit a German and he’s coming down with a long streak — coming down completely
out of control — a long streak of smoke — and now a man’s baled out by
parachute. The pilot’s baled out by parachute. He’s a Junkers 87, and he’s
going slap into the sea — and there he goes. SMASH! A terrific column of
water and there was a Junkers 87. Only one man got out by parachute, so
presumably there was only a crew of one in it.
Now, then, oh, there’s a terrific mix-up over the Channel !! It’s impossible to tell which are our machines and which are Germans. There was one definitely down in this battle and there’s a fight going on. There’s a fight going on, and you can hear the little rattles of machine gun bullets. Grump! That was a bomb, as you may imagine. Here comes one Spitfire. There’s a little burst. There’s another bomb dropping. Yes. It has dropped. It has missed the convoy. You know, they haven’t hit the convoy in all this. The sky is absolutely patterned with bursts of anti-aircraft fire, and the sea is covered with smoke where the bombs have burst, but as far as I can see there is not one single ship hit, and there is definitely one German machine down. And I am looking across the sea now. I can see the little white dot of parachute as the German pilot is floating down towards the spot where his machine crashed with such a big fountain of water about two minutes ago. Well, now, everything is peaceful again for the moment. The Germans, who came over in about twenty or twenty-five dive-bombers, delivered their attack on the convoy, and I think they made off as quickly as they came. Oh yes, I can see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten Germans haring back towards France now for all they can go — and here are our Spitfires coming after them. There’s going to be a big fight, I think, out there, but it will be too far away for us to see. Of course, there are a lot more German machines up there. [Can you see, Cyril?’] Yes, there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven on the top layer, one, two, three — there’s two layers of German machines. They are all, I think, I could not swear to it, but they were all Junkers 87’s. [There are two more parachutists?
No damage done, except to the Germans, who lost one machine and the German pilot, who is still on the end of his parachute, though appreciably nearer the sea than he was. I can see no boat going out to pick him up, so he’ll probably have a long swim ashore. Well, that was a very unsuccessful attack on the convoy, I must say. Oh, there’s another fight going on, away up,
now — I think about 20, 25, or even 30,000 feet above our heads, and I
can’t see a thing of it. The anti-aircraft guns have put up one, two, three,
four, five, six bursts, but I can’t see the aeroplanes.
Now we are looking up to the anti-aircraft
guns. There’s another! There’s another Messerschmitt. I don’t know whether
he’s down or whether he’s trying to get out of the anti-aircraft fire,
which is giving him a very hot time. There’s a Spitfire! Oh, there’s about
four fighters up there, and I don’t know what they are doing. One, two,
three, four, five fighters fighting right over our heads. Now there’s one
coming right down on the tail of what I think is a Messerschmitt and I
think it’s a Spitfire behind him. Oh, darn! They’ve turned away and I can’t
see. I can’t see. Where’s one crashing? No, I think he’s pulled out.
CHARLES GARDNER, JULY 14, 1940
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