For more detail on events in the Battle of Britain for 26th August 1940 see the Battle of Britain Diary Day by Day and the Battle of Britain Memorial website. CP
26th August 1940: Aerial Battle over Colchester
Tremendous air-battle this afternoon, about 3 o’clock. The sirens sounded, and we had a full crowd in the Vaults. I went up on the roof, and very soon the air seemed full of the screaming of falling planes. We have all heard the sound so often on films that it really seems quite natural, and one tends to forget that is real, and that you are watching young men go down to a particularly unpleasant death. We could see burning planes to the E., W., and S., and I saw one of our fighters make a forced landing in the E., somewhere near Gt. Bromley I should think. All this took place in brilliant sunshine.
To Rose for supper.
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This is an extraordinary description of an air battle. I can just imagine him on the roof of Colchester Castle watching it all. Most of us are unaware of what that generation went through in the war... mainly because, in my experience, they rarely spoke about it.
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