EXT. SKIES OVER THE ENGLISH CHANNEL - NIGHT It's dark, but there are breaks in the clouds, giving way to patches of light from a full moon. The squadron of Spitfires tightens up for battle.
Rafe is positioned just right of the squad leader; he sees planes breaking out of the dark clouds ahead.
RAFE:
Here they come.
The clouds break, revealing a huge attack formation.
BRITISH SQUAD LEADER Alpha group, on the bombers! Beta group, take the fighters!
They peel off, into action.
EXT. THE AIR BATTLE OVER THE CHANNEL - NIGHT We stay with Rafe as he and the Squad Leader rush side by side at the lead bomber, blasting away with their guns.
INT. GERMAN BOMBER - IN THE AIR - NIGHT The Spitfires' bullets rip into the pilot and also kill the nose gunner; the bomber dips as the copilot struggles to take control.
INT. RAFE, IN HIS SPITFIRE - NIGHT As he streaks past, Rafe sees the bomber wobble in the air.
RAFE:
We've got him hurt, stay on him!
Rafe throws his plane into an ultra-tight, high speed turn, right between the tails of the leader German group and the noses of the second. His turn is so tight that the plane flexes with the g-force.
Rafe comes out of his turn ahead of the Squad Leader, and races back up through the formation of German bombers, moving above them where their weapons and armaments are the weakest.
He stitches a trail of bullets from tail to nose of the wounded lead bomber; it begins to smoke.
The second Spitfire, the Squad Leader's, takes fire from the other German bombers, and shears off, heading through the smoke of the plane Rafe has on the ropes.
RAFE:
We've got him going!
Rafe does a half-loop and half-spin, to bring him around to face the bombers again. This time the g-force of the turn pops an oil line inside Rafe's cockpit; hot, pressurized oil begins to spray everywhere -- all over Rafe, his controls, and worst of all, over the inside of his cockpit glass.
He wipes at the oil with his hands and that just smears it and makes it worse.
His wingman sees him veering away from the bombers...and sees the German fighters moving up to meet him.
SQUAD LEADER:
McCawley! Get to the clouds! Get into the clouds!
RAFE, IN HIS PLANE, is flying blind.
RAFE:
I can't see the clouds!
His problems are just beginning; the fluid is dripping down onto his cockpit's corroded electrical wiring; the fluid causes an arc...a spark...and suddenly a fire is spreading through Rafe's plane.
He grabs his fire extinguisher and triggers a cloud that snuffs the fire but fills the entire cockpit with choking smoke; between that and the smeared fluid on his glass, he can't see a thing.
And the Messerschmidts are swarming over him.
Rafe's wingman dives in, raking the German planes as he passes.