Hammond Innes: Attack Alarm

By the grace of God no-one was hit, though Langdon got his face cut by a bit of flying cinder.

Three times this happened. Each time we destroyed a ‘plane. The fourth time I found myself laying. Red had been killed outright, a bullet through his head. This had happened as we destroyed the second Junkers. The third time it was Blah who was hit. He got a bullet through his arm. Fuller got one in the foot.

Three twin-engined ‘planes appeared out of the north. At first we thought they were Me. 110s. But suddenly Langdon cried, ‘They’re Blenheims.’

And Blenheims they were, thrown in as fighters to make weight in the emergency. They came in at about two thousand feet. And high up we saw a squadron of Spitfires fire on the Messerschmitts that had been worrying us.

Then suddenly Junkers and Messerschmitts turned for home, the latter circling the troop-carriers to cover their retreat. It was all over in a few seconds. One moment the sky was full of Jerries and the din of battle. Then the sky emptied. The throb and drone of ‘planes died away. A great quiet settled on the Station, in which the crackle of the flames at B hangar was the only sound. I leaned back against the gun. Peace at last. It was over.

I think I passed out then. I didn’t faint. It was just that the reaction left my mind a blank. I wasn’t conscious of sound or sight. I came to to find Langdon getting the casualties to the sick bay. And the Tannoy was announcing: ‘All clear! All clear! All ground defences and gun teams will remain at the alert. All clear! All clear!’