War in Greece

Junkers 88 Bomber plane

After his accident in Egypt Roald Dahl spent a long time in hospital. Then he back to war - this time in Greece. This is a description from the book, published on the Roald Dahl fans website.

'Half a minute later, the dots had resolved themselves into black twin–engine bombers. They were Ju 88s. I counted six of them...'
He eventually managed to hit one of the planes.
...'Then the black smoke came pouring out of his engine and very slowly, almost in slow motion, the bomber winged over to starboard and began to lose height... He was turning slowly over and over like a leaf, the black smoke pouring out from the starboard engine. Then I saw one...two...three people jump out... I watched spellbound. I couldn't believe that I had actually shot down a German bomber.

Messerschmidt 109 fighter plane

12 of the planes he was flying had been sent up into the air. errrr....The people of Athens were scared because they knew the Germans were coming. So the British airforce were told to fly around over Athens to show the Greeks they were there. But there were only 12 of them. Suddenly, the sky around them was full of German fighter planes. There was a massive battle. When he'd run out of bullets Roald Dahl flew back to base. His plane was full of holes and some of the other pillots didn't come back.