ABSTRACT
The wear and tear on men and machines in all this ‘upping and downing’ was serious, as was the ever-present danger that, in the midst of the take-offs and landings, a squadron would be caught refuelling and rearming on the ground. The Blenheim had started life as a civilian prototype named ‘Britain First’ and was paid for by Lord Rothermere of the Daily Mail. The operations of Air Fleet 5 in North-East and Eastern England on August 15th marked the one major attempt during the Battle to interrupt Bomber Command’s pin-prick raids of the period. The Martlesham Heath fighter base north of Harwich took a ‘pasting’ from some 100 bombers and fighters in the early afternoon, while some of its own fighters were looking for the enemy elsewhere and six other fighter squadrons were waltzing between the enemy’s feint and true excursions. Destruction of an enemy or one’s own death.
