Samer, Northern France Thursday 15th August 1940, 08.37hrs
It is another fine day, as I promised, my diary. France is like a huge airstrip, bathed in the orche summer sunrise, a beautiful dawn. And we have had a little early excitement. Doensch and Dieter took 3 schwarm out on an early morning patrol and managed to surprise a flight of Spitfires over a small convoy in the Straits of Dover. After a brief dogfight, one of the Spitfires becomes seperated from the rest and Dieter manages to damage it, causing it to crashland in a potato field behind Boulogne. On landing, he and Meckel take the Citroen and drive off to find the pilot. They return shortly before a late breakfast with a provost and the tommy pilot. The tommy looks nervous, not as a result of his brush with the Luftwaffe, more because of the hairaising experience of being driven in Meckels car. He is a tall Pilot Officer of the Royal Air Force, good looking and humourous too. We treat him to breakfast in our makeshift mess and enjoy some high spirited banter until it is time for him to go with the MP. He congratulates Dieter on his fine shooting, buts warns us we will not defeat his comrades. We modestly assure him that we will prevail, and salute him in the traditional manner as he leaves. We are impressed by his impeccable manners and feel it is terrible that we have to fight against such fine men.
I have a good staffel now. Doensch, a veteren of Spain and Poland leads 3 schwarm with my friend Dieter as his second rotte leader. Meckel leads 2 schwarm with Schnellman as his no2. I lead the staffel at the head of 1 schwarm with Kosch as my no2. I am lucky to have some of the most experienced men in the gruppe with me. Since the beginning of more intensive operations however, I have lost 4 men. Leich and Poll are dead, Strassmann and Hardatz are missing. Soon after the tommy has departed, two replacements arrive at the mess. They look as green as grass although both have reasonable credentials. Ihlefeld I put into Meckels care, and Korte in to my own schwarm to replace Poll. However, pilots are not my immediate concern, since the staffel has more than aircraft available. This morning, we have only 10 serviceable planes with no replacements in sight at present. The other staffels are in a similar condition. Samer is a busy place. We share a grass airstrip with 5 staffel, while 4 staffel are across the road towards Boulogne. Across the fields a little way to the north are I gruppe while III gruppe are about 3 miles away at Desvres. North of them at Hermelinghen are II JG54, and to the south, in the direction of Arras, are KG53. Today is to be the biggest day so far. Shortly after breakfast we are called to the Marie for briefing. It is indeed a big one. Our target is Biggin Hill, an important RAF fighter station south of London. This will be our deepest penetration so far. The whole Geschwader are to be involved, we together with 4 & 5 staffels have a high escort role. II ZG26 are to provide close escort with III JG3 futher out and I JG3 on frei jagd out in front. I & III KG1 and III KG3, almost 100 bombers, will provide the offensive punch. All told, the raid will comprise over 250 aircraft. There are many other raids going in around the same time to hit other targets in southern England. Tommy is going to get a big surprise today. Take off times and patterns are extremely complex, ours is set for 12.56hrs. I call the men back to our mess after the briefing for my own impromptu advice. I tell them that I don't want a repeat of the previous day. Everyone has a job to do and I explain everything once again. Outside, our ground crews are busy refuelling and rearming our aircraft. This will be our biggest test so far. What will the afternoon bring....
