(I JG 54) Combat Operations... 25 August 1940

Offensive Patrol... Lympne satellite airfield. Provide cover for attacking bomber force
The entire Staffel will carry out the operation...
Schwarn Eins will provide high cover
Schwarm Zwei is to engage with any RAF fighter force


Take off 0900hrs, distance to target 87 km.
Time to target, 14 mins. Weather over target: expect broken cloud.
Route to target altitude, 4700m.
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MAX STADLER DIARY ENTRY.

The war goes on... more faces missing in the mess.
We learnt that Piller had been killed yesterday. I thought, if someone like him can get it... then we are all living on borrowed time.

Another change in our order of battle today. My good friend Rosenfeld has been moved to Schwarm Eins.
That means that all the members of my Schwarm are more or less strangers to me.
I even have new arrivals asking 'me' about what it's like over 'there' and ''are our tactics working?''...

''Oh yes, of course... being tied to the bomber force was a great idea'' I'd say... I'm not sure if they understood the sarcasm.

Still, this life has started to become the norm for me I think. Today was another large strike on an RAF airfield.
Nine Emils is again all we could muster (plus three more in workshops).
We are being led by my new flight leader, Hauptgefreiter Camphausen... I looked at him and wondered how long will he last?... He gave us the usual pep talk and we were off.

The flight over the Canal is becoming routine now. The flak was just as intense as usual, but I remember thinking as I glanced out of my other side of the cockpit, just how quiet it was over Dover way...
I could even see the English radar masts as we passed...






More flak followed us to the target area... I saw the bombers below release their bombs as they flew over, and it really did look like this time they had done a good job!
Then someone reported enemy fighters, and very quickly the madness started again. Very soon there were the usual shouts and warnings...

''I'm attacking now'' from Camphausen... then a little later, ''I'm hit, heading home''...

''I've got him'' from Rosenfeld, all excited and full of the excitement of the chase.

I soon latched onto a Hurricane, overshot him before I could get him in my sights... ''#%&*$#'' I shouted at myself, and now he knows I'm on him.
I climbed at full power, turned over and came down at him again... it was a fleeting shot, but I hit him as he seemed to be suspended in mid air... next thing, the pilot bailed out!
My first kill!!!




He bailed out right above the airfield at Lympne... I was so excited I dived through the cloud, and flew flat out, low over the airfield, hoping to shoot up another Tommy aircraft parked up on the field,
But the bombers had done a thorough job, it was completely blasted...




I just decided to go all out for the coast at low level, because now the Tommies were throwing their sink and everything else they could find at me as I shot over the airfield...
I kept checking behind and above, expecting an attack at any second, but I made the coast, still pursued by the flak, but no fighters appeared and I made a safe return to Guines...




During the debrief after my return, Rosenfeld found me to tell me he had got a Hurricane... ''Me too'' I yelled... we were like a couple of school boys.
But our enthusiasm was short lived, for our IO informed us that our Schwarm Leader had not returned.

''He was returning and his aircraft caught fire, it was reported it just exploded above the sea, there's no hope I'm afraid''... and the war goes on.