One of those epic dogfight stories contained in the book of Alfred Price, DOGFIGHT. This is the tragic history of the 82th Squadron RAF(Royal Air Force) bombers during the 1940 campaign in France.
On May 10, 1940, when the German offensive began in the West, the 82nd Squadron was based in Watton, Norfolk, and Blenheim bombers had 22 IV. The unit spent the next two days on standby waiting for the order to go into action, which came quickly, making its first mission with the bombing of the roads of Belgium to stop the German attack.
In the following days, they continued to play missions in the Netherlands without encountering significant opposition by enemy fighters. On day 14 the RAF carried out a general attack on the bridges of the Meuse around Sedan, where there were crossing German troops, supplies, and equipment. The area was patrolled by a large number of Messerschmitt I-109, inflicting heavy losses to the British: 71 planes were shot down and 40 withdrawn.
This posed a serious warning about the weakness of unescorted bomber formations, and after the war, the RAF admitted that they had tried similar mission with more troops and lost the entire war planes.
At 2 am on May 17 they received orders from squad chief Miles Delap to wake his men for a bombing mission over enemy troops advancing between the towns of Namur and Gembloux in Belgium. The attack was to begin at dawn. The squadron took off at 04:50 hours and remained to circle with the lights on until all aircraft were airborne and training.
The formation was composed of two sections each with six bombers. Each plane was carrying four bombs of 113 kilos. During the trip, they had to meet a Hurricane fighter squadron that will escort them to their objective, but due to a planning error, it did not occur.
The British aircraft approached its target at 2,700 meters high in what was exhibited as a clear spring morning when they were suddenly surrounded by explosions of anti-aircraft shells. The formation was separated and the aircraft began to lurch to hinder anti-aircraft fire. One of the bombers was shot down in this first meeting.
Before the bombers had time to recompose its close formation they were subjected to attack by about 15 Messerschmitt I-109 fighters of Jagdgeschwader 3 , which were swooping with the sun on their back and opened fire with guns and machine guns. The gunners of Blenheim responded with long bursts to try to repel the fighters, but the light defensive weaponry of the bombers was no match for German fighters.
Delap later recalled: Some of the bombers swooped, others flew diagonally tried the evasive action. My own plane was holed including the wings and the port engine caught fire. The only thing that saved me was the armor plate on the back of my seat. Then a shell exploded inside the cabin, causing a fire that caused so much smoke that I could no longer see the instrument panel.
This was the straw that broke the glass, so I ordered the crew to jump from the plane. With all that smoke I was not going to be able to reach the escape hatch ground so I opened the hatch located above my head and I lifted my seat, facing the tail, and prepared to jump from the plane. The next thing I remember , I was outside in the cold air. After the heat and smoke in the cockpit, this was a great relief. Luckily it was well covered so I just burned my eyelashes. When I was off the plane I thought it was time to pull the ripcord. I groped looking for it but could not find. There was no panic , but I remember thinking: This is very rare! So I looked up and saw the parachute was open. I had lost consciousness and knew that I had not pulled the ripcord. Undoubtedly, it was something very strange.
The Me-109 were shooting down a bomber after another. The plane piloted by Sergeant Morrison was hit several times, an engine was damaged and the aircraft lost control. German driver probably thought it would end the same way as the others and stopped the attack. Morrison regained control of his shattered track and headed for Watton with the remaining engine. It was the only bomber that survived the attack.
When Delap hit the floor he was picked up by French soldiers and as he was already back to England. Wyness, his navigator, clear up the mystery of the ring of the parachute. When he was standing in the cockpit preparing to jump off the plane in flames, Wyness thought he had been knocked unconscious, so he grabbed the ring of Delap with one hand and gave him a good push with the other. Then he jumped too.
Of the 36 airmen who made up the crews of the 12 bombers almost all had been killed or taken a prisoner, it was a clear warning of the terrible fate that awaits those flying obsolete equipment against an enemy that has air superiority.