n went,
straight for the leading Stuka. The bombers had not started peeling off
so there was still time.

The leading Stuka never knew where the lightning came from. With a
swastika backed by a red field in his windscreen, Stan pressed the gun
button and sliced through the middle of the killer, breaking it into
almost two separate parts.

The Hawk faded to the right and another Stuka rolled past him, unaware
that death was dropping from the sky. Stan put her up 200 feet; and
then, his motor screaming, he laid over and was upon the Stuka, his guns
belching death. The bomber staggered and winged over, spilling men out
of her hull like sacks out of a van.

Savagely, Stan rolled and twisted seeking another target. O'Malley had
gotten into the formation first and he was taking it apart with a
display of aerial gymnastics that made the Jerries forget anything but
escape. Allison was cutting away far to the left and the carefully
planned blitz was already a fearful rout, with death as the lot of most
of the killers. Scattered, they zoomed and dived, seeking only to
escape. As they went twisting out of their formations, low over the
city, the cables of death claimed many victims.

Then the Spitfires of Moon Flight came roaring in from a wild chase to
the east and the rout was complete. Within a few minutes the astonished
gunners and the men at the lights below began to realize that somehow
what had seemed certain to be a terrible _luftwaffe_ had been turned
into a victory. The Ack-Ack boys laid off. Then Moon Flight plus Red
Flight bored upward to see how many Messerschmitts Herr Goering had sent
along as fighter planes. The ME's came cascading downward, eager to see
their charges safely home. There was a flight of forty and another of
fifty. They were met by three streaking silver planes that carried no
dull paint and looked like commercial craft out for a spree. The three
had out-climbed the Spitfires.

Stan swerved to the right to give O'Malley room. He had outflown the
Irishman and was grinning. O'Malley still had a few things to learn
about a Hawk before he could get everything out of his big engine. He
slashed into the formation with guns raking the descending ships. Past
them he flashed and bored on into the darkness. When he got back into
position again, the Spitfires had arrived and the Messerschmitts were
scattering and ducking into the night.

"Calling the Hawks. Calling the Hawks," Stan called.

"Sure, an'