It's not long before the capital is visible up ahead. By now, we're at about fourteen thousand, our patrol height...



...but I put on another couple of thousand feet before levelling off. Today is one day I definitely don't want to run into a bunch of Huns with an altitude advantage and a point to make.



A gentle course adjustment to the right is needed to put us on course for that darned steel factory we've supposedly come here to stop getting bombed. The famous U-bend in the Thames, around the Isle of Dogs, is as usual an unmistakeable landmark, for Hun bombers as much as ourselves. But the skies are clear, which a check with the Controller back at the Ops Room in Tangmere, confirms.



On we go. Below my aircraft you can see several other landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster (a.k.a. the Houses of Parliament) and further downstream on the Thames, Tower Bridge.



Ahead and to the right are Tilbury Docks. The sun glints prettily in the water of the Thames Estuary, but I haven't come here for sightseeing.



Suddenly I realise there are aircraft to my right rear, flying away from us. They're not attracting Ack Ack fire, no-one has reported them as hostile, and a check with the Controller confirms he doesn't think they are, either.



Another RAF squadron going about its business, evidently. They're soon slipping away behind us. I watch them go, just to be sure they don't suddenly do something hostile. Which they don't. Which suits me, in my present unwarlike mood.



By now we've reached out patrol area so I begin to orbit. Warily. After that collision on the last trip, I'm concerned that some idiot could run into me and thwart my heartfelt plans to come through today, and preferably the whole battle, in one piece.



But suddenly, I've got other things to worry about. A check with the Controller reveals that he has some trade for us.



The Huns are coming!

...to be continued!