The art of good navigation is, as any navigator would confirm, never being lost but merely temporarily uncertain of one's position. I suspect that Jack Stafford was never truly lost but, thanks to his inbuilt sense of spatial orientation, had always been on the right track for Volkel, merely uncertain of its exact location.
He had though that most essential ingredient of pilot self preservation, luck! The recall rockets were fired at exactly the right moment, otherwise he would have been forced-landing flapless into a ploughed field. The greatest luck though was flying this exceptionally tough old war horse of an aircraft, that had suffered a power wire strike, multiple hits from A/A, and still landed him safely back at base! Not much mention of this in this excerpt, but if he hadn't mentally said his thank-you's to Sir Sidney Camm and his team for building this flying tank then I would respectfully suggest that he be guilty of base ingratitude.
Thank you Geriaviator, your timing for dramatic suspense was impeccable. If you haven't used it professionally before, you might consider it for the future!
One man's day at work in the dangerous low skies of the liberation of Europe. Humbling!