Farish drove back to the aerodrome to be told that the newly arrived Spitfire IXs had already downed two Germans. Harry Strawn, who was at Thelepte when 72 Squadron flew in, was fulsome in his praise of the new fighters. ‘They are much faster than ours, have a better rate of climb and a higher ceiling. In fact they can outclimb the latest Me109 and Fw190s. They did OK too, for on their first mission they shot down two 109s and damaged two more. The Hun can’t tell them from our Mark Vs so he tries the same tactics on them that he uses on us which proves fatal, for the Nines just climb up behind
...more
