Spray lashed the cockpit screen, blinding the big pilot as he fought the bucking controls to belly-land the crippled Albacore in the choppy sea. Once, twice, she bounced before she hit the icy water at terrifying speed.

This was the second time young “Gusty” Bellows of the Fleet Air Arm had come off second-best to Kapitan Kreuzmann of the German Navy – the ruthless Kreuzmann, with his submarine mother-ship, “Seewolf”, bristling with guns, and his pack of U-boats. But Gusty was determined that next time it would be different – if there was a next time…