's, and diving
on an enemy from above is a job the FW does best.

Stan settled down close to the channel again and kept racing on. The
FW's were sloping in at a screaming pace. Stan felt their first lead as
it hailed around him. He stayed in the fire a split second, then bounced
up and over. He saw the three FW's far below him. They were coming
around for another climb.

"Sorry, fellows, but I just can't wait," Stan muttered.

He nosed down again and used the slope to build up speed. Suddenly he
glanced at his gasoline indicator. It was getting wobbly. Stan went up
again to have a look around. Far ahead he spotted two black specks with
smoke pluming up over them. That meant larger ships than patrol boats.
They might be German light destroyers on patrol, but they were the only
craft in sight. He had to make a try for them.

Sloping off again, he roared away toward the ships. Slowly their hulls
became larger and Stan saw that they were destroyers, small, sleek, and
fast. They were plowing along at top speed, which was not a good sign.
German craft in those waters would be making knots because Allied planes
kept a sharp watch over the channel.

Stan went in at top speed. He was still a long way from the two ships
when his engine quit. It went out without any sputtering at all, and it
refused to rev up a single blast.

Flying so low, Stan knew he would not stay up over any great distance.
He felt the Mustang begin to settle. The ships were closer now, but he
still had not identified them. That no longer mattered. If they were
German he would just sink with the Mustang. Considerable haze and smoke
enveloped the ships. They were putting about and swinging away from him
so that the smoke kept them covered. Stan had a wild notion they thought
he was trying to torpedo them and were taking evasive measures.

"Germans," he said between his gritted teeth.

Then the Mustang shot through the smoke, grazed the prow of one of the
destroyers, and settled into the channel with a terrific splash. Stan
heard anti-aircraft guns blasting away and saw flame and smoke belching
from dozens of gun muzzles above him. "They aim to finish me off right,"
he thought wryly.

He promptly forgot his resolve to go down with the Mustang. Pawing the
hatch cover open he heaved himself out of the cockpit and tumbled into
the water. A big wave rolled over him and the suction from the sinking
Mustang dragged him down. Savagely he battled his way to t