April 9, 1943, was just a routine day for Pilot Officer Harold “Harry” Walmsley of 611 Squadron. The German Luftwaffe had sent a patrol boat out from Calais with an air escort. In response the RAF dispatched a mixture of aircraft: Walmsley and his fellow pilots in Spitfires, as well as Typhoons from No 1 and No 609 squadrons. “We were informed by Operational Control that there was a ‘trade’ for us mid-Channel and given a southerly vector towards the French coast,” he told the authors of Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers Over Britain. “About ten miles off the French coast, whilst flying low-level, we arrived suddenly amongst an estimated eight FW [Focke-Wulf] 190s orbiting a German pilot in a dinghy and with a German ASR [air-sea

Source: The Times July 12, 2021 23:02 UTC