Read "Triplanetary" by E. E. Smith online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Sobbing furiously, Captain Ralph Kinnison wrenched at his stick -- with half of his control surfaces shot away the crate was hellishly logy. He could step out, of course, the while saluting the victorious Jerries, but he wasn't on fire -- yet -- and hadn't been hit -- yet. He ducked and flinched sidewise as another burst of bullets stitched another seam along his riddled fuselage and whanged against his dead engine. Afire? Not yet -- good! Maybe he could land the heap, after all!
Slowly -- oh, so sluggishly -- the Spad began to level off, toward the edge of the wheatfield and that friendly, inviting ditch. If the krauts didn't get him with their next pass.