fighters come sailing

Question

What is the exact meaning of the words in bold in the following passage? It is from the book “Persian Gulf Command” by Ashley Jackson, p. 97.
‘After this,’ wrote Freya Stark, ‘in a sort of golden mist of sunset our bombers and fighters came sailing: they came in troops and societies.
Many thanks in advance.

Greybeard · Accepted Answer

Fighters = attack aircraft
Sailing is often used figuratively to mean travelling at high speed: e.g. "Bullets went sailing over the heads of the villagers."
Then there is more figurative language:
they came in troops = they came in large numbers of similar aircraft
and societies. = they came in [large] groups of different aircraft.

fighters come sailing

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