Haze was the problem for those on both sides today. A combat developed over Dover in mid afternoon, involving Spitfires of No 74 Squadron, during which Pilot Officer Gunn and Sergeant Eley were shot down and killed.

Fred Eley, a bank clerk who had trained in the RAFVR, had lived with his uncle and aunt in Aston, Cheshire. In recent years his cousin, Brian George, recalled how he learned of Fred’s death. He was in the garden with his father when his mother came out of the house. She was holding a telegram and crying.