him a greater chance to survive the odds than a new pilot but he acknowledged his fortune could not last forever. Braham continued to fly operations deep into enemy airspace over Denmark, alone, and in daylight. On 25 June 1944 he collected a Mosquito from 21 Squadron and the Australian navigator Don Walsh and then flew to Norfolk to refuel at West Raynham. They took off and headed to the Danish coast. Out-to-sea he spotted, and was likely seen, by German coastal ships. As they neared land Braham and Walsh noticed a slight whine in the aircraft's radio speakers meaning the Mosquito was being tracked by radar. To make it difficult for the enemy to track him he changed course frequently. Ranger operations depended on surprise, but it had clearly been lost. The clouds were thinning out and visibility was improving. Braham decided it was now a folly to continue and decided to head for home. While flying over Funen island he spotted a building with a big Swastika flag draped from a pole. A car was parked outside the entrance. Believing it might contain someone of importance, he dived to attack, strafing the building and destroyed the car. After departing the area he reached the west coast, but Braham had loitered for too long. He spotted two Fw 190s approaching fast from the east. Braham had shot down two of these machines in a Mosquito but he was uncertain of how experienced these pilots had been. There was no cloud cover and the Mosquito could not outrun the faster and more agile single-engine fighters for long. He decided to turn and fight while he still could. In a head-on attack the first Fw 190 pilot missed but the second struck the port wing and engine with cannon fire causing a large fire. The instrument panel and cockpit window was shot through missing both Walsh and Braham by inches. Braham dived to the sea levelling out below 100 feet. He tried to use the fire extinguisher to stop the fire. The German pilot shared Braham's philosophy of ensuring a kill by shooting at an enemy aircraft until it came down. The Mosquito was hit again and Braham crash-landed his aircraft onto a beach at 150 miles per hour. Braham and Walsh scrambled free of the Mosquito and hid behind a sand dune. As they did so the aircraft's fuel tanks