If I had been a second later starting my break away from my pass at the Junkers, the 109 would have hit me fair and square. As it is, I'm already damaged by return fire, leaving a thin smoke trail which criss-crosses the fatter one left by the damaged bomber.



Down and away I go. The abandoned Junkers descends slowly, as the crew sail earthwards under their silken canopies.



Any hope that the 109 has decided to settle for scaring me off is soon dispelled. He's still hard on my heels, and I fired my last rounds at that bomber.



Meanwhile, the bombers are still turning, bomb doors now open. Their target can't be far away - I think there's a factory of some sort, near here somewhere.



But I've more pressing concerns, as I hurtle earthwards with the ground seemingly rushing up to meet me, and the 109 still determined to finish me off. I call for help on the R/T, which is acknowledged, but there are no friends in sight.



I try to pull out before smashing into the scenery. The engine noise is now being drowned out by a positively scary roaring or droning sound, rising in pitch. This could be it!



But the Hun isn't in the least bit put off.



I pull out just in time and bank left, aiming for a road which runs through a gap in the rows of buildings ahead. It's time to find out if the Hun is as desperate to get me, as I am to get away from him.



He's not! I bank right in triumph and relief as he breaks up and away, at last. You can just about see him under the tip of my raised wing. Suddenly he seems in a hurry to make himself scarce. Which suits me down to the ground...literally.



Time to go home, and file claims for those two bombers!



Back at Tangmere, I'm disappointed to see we have lost a pilot, Burby, flying as Yellow 3. How it happened, nobody seems to know. And I'm the only one to have fired my guns.



Still, whether they are ever confirmed or not, we did well to get two bombers, considering the odds. Not a bad lunchtime's work!

As a footnote, I was delighted to see for myself for the first time a respectably-large raid, of about gruppe strength, which I think needs to be the default for a convincing representation of the Battle of Britain. Today, I was convinced! Did FPS take a bit of a hit? Yes, a bit. Did it seriously affect playability? No, it didn't. Might it have, if more fighters had been attacking? Possibly. So while a bit of further optimisation or tweaking would likely help, I will remember this mission as proof of that Wings over the Reich can now achieve a visually pleasing, tactically challenging, personally engaging and historically convincing representation of flying for Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain.