The Flight Commander 10

After that curious half light which preceded the dawn a rosy glow would till the cast and then a golden ball started rising from behind the mists, as though a giant unseen hand were gently pushing it from below; many-coloured rays shot out, licking up the mists and seemed to wake the earth, until one almost saw it throb and sparkle into life and all its contours rise clear through the haze of night, as the golden orb climbed still higher, until it stood revealed in all its perfect glory. And it would seem to say: “Behold,

I give you day and life,” and to the fighting pilot specially would it say: “Shelter in my radiance, for I will blind your enemies, but beware lest your enemies usurp your place, for needs must I smile on the attacker and the attacked.”


At 18,000 feet and twelve miles over the enemy lines we turned and I surveyed the space to the westward for any signs of enemy activity. I was rewarded, for away on our starboard I saw four hostile aircraft, as yet below us but gaining height, while on our port beam I saw five of the enemy about the same height as the others. Ahead of us and about on our own level was a two-seater flaunting its black crosses in the early morning sun. This had to be engaged first and we had to remember to keep an eye on the others, for if they outclimbed us while we attacked the two-seater we should have been in a difficult position, as they were nine strong to our five. We lost height  gradually, so that we could come up under the tail of the enemy. and he did not see us coming, for the friendly rays of the sun shielded us and in any case he was probably looking towards the west and not expecting attack from the east at that early hour; in fact, when we were quite close I saw the observer looking over the side but towards the west. We pulled up until our sights were filled with the aeroplane and then we fired, holding on until we thought we should crash, then over on our back to avoid collision. As we came on to an even keel I saw volumes of black smoke pouring out of the machine followed by a sheet of flame which seemed to stretch for forty feet into the air. Then, charred and lifeless, it plunged headlong to the earth.


Pulling up, we climbed hard to regain the height we had lost. I saw them as we turned and what I expected had happened; the formation of four machines had joined up with the other of five; we therefore had nine machines to tackle next. We had the satisfaction of knowing that we could outclimb the enemy and this, coupled with the fact that they were still to westward of us and would therefore have difficulty in seeing us, outweighed the disadvantage in numbers, for as long as we kept above the enemy we had little to fear, After a little while we set a course towards them and I was pleased to see they made no sign of having noticed us. It was obvious to me that they had not seen the fate of their compatriots in the two-seater.

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