By the time I catch the Spitfire again, he's headed back out to sea. There seems to be no fight left in him. It's a shame to knock him down, but that's my job.



My next burst whacks into him and down he goes.



He levels out again but he's now trailing smoke and slowly losing what height he has left. Probably too low to bail out.



He makes no attampt to force land, either, and is still going down when he crosses the coast, going north.



The Spitfire hits the water in a gout of white foam and is gone.



I clear my tail and begin to swing around the North Foreland. Time to go home. Back over the land, some flak is bursting, low down. A faint grey smoke trail just like the one left by the Spitfire is just visible against the dark greem of a forest, also heading out to sea.



A few seconds later, the aircraft trailing smoke has also gone in. Whether ours or theirs I can't be sure of, but the flak bursts suggest it was one of my people.



Deciding that enough is enough, I call up the boys and order them to re-form, gaining height as I do so.



I make a wide sweep to the east of the headland, both to keep out of range of the flak I remember being active there, and to give the boys a chance to catch up - those who haven't already had to go home, or aren't going to.



Another check of my instruments shows all is well and that I've still got plenty of fuel for the trip home.



Two other 109s join me for the run home. For a while we're pursued by what I take to be a Spitfire, but I go to full power for a while and he gives up. I'm not in the mood to take any further chances, either with my own neck or those of my two comrades.



Soon, we're well on the way back across the cold, steely-blue waters of the English Channel.



Back at base, I find that we have two pilots missing and one definitely killed. It's been a tough battle, but far from one-sided - we're claiming no less than six Spitfires shot down, including my two.



With enemy pilots bailing out or force landing often able to rejoin the fray, even a two-to-one kill ratio in our favour won't be good enough. If we average three pilots lost in every fight, even replacements won't keep us going long. And the air campaign is only just beginning!