Newsreel footage of No. 66 Squadron RAF based at Gravesend, September 1940. The film also includes a brief shot of Uffz Ernst Poschenrieder’s wrecked Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 of 7./JG 53 after it was shot down at Broom Hill, Strood, Rochester on 30 September 1940. Source: British Pathé
1940
18
Oct
Friday 18 October 1940
Relatively quiet. Night: Raids on a reduced scale. Weather: Fog in Straits of Dover and Thames Estuary. Visibility poor. Main Activity: After a fairly busy night the morning was unusually quiet. Between lunch and tea thirty-five raids were counted flying high over East Anglia. Forty-five RAF fighter patrols were flown. Some intercepted and shot down […]
19
Oct
Saturday 19 October 1940
Isolated patrols and reconnaissance. Night: Raids on London, Liverpool, the Midlands and Bristol. Weather: Cloudy in Channel, mist in northern France clearing later. Main Activity: Swirling mists gave the Germans an easy morning but where possible they mounted some patrols. One bomber sent out was brought down over Kent. At lunchtime it began to clear […]
20
Oct
Sunday 20 October 1940
Fighter-bomber raids on London and the south-east. Night: Heavy attacks on London and industrial targets in the Midlands. Weather: Mainly cloudy in most districts. Main Activity: All was quiet until 9.35 a.m. when the first of five Messerschmitt waves were plotted on RDF. In the afternoon high-flying raiders again penetrated inland. Squadrons of Fighter Command […]
21
Oct
Monday 21 October 1940
Sporadic raids on London, Liverpool and the West Country. Night: London, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Birmingham and Liverpool bombed. Weather: Mainly cloudy with fog and intermittent rain. Poor visibility. Main Activity: Taking advantage of the overcast, single aircraft and small formations of bombers despatched by Luftflotten 2 and 3 reached widely separated targets in England. Between 11 […]
22
Oct
Tuesday 22 October 1940
Quiet morning and afternoon. Night: London, Coventry and Liverpool attacked. Weather: Widespread fog in the south, clearing to rain later. Main Activity: With No. 12 Group now receiving the same indications of hostile activity as No. 11 Group, it must have been galling for the Duxford Wing to be grounded by a thick fog which […]
23
Oct
Wednesday 23 October 1940
Mainly reconnaissance. Night: Attacks on London and Glasgow. Minelaying off the Yorkshire coast. Weather: Low cloud and drizzle. Visibility poor. Main Activity: For Fighter Command this was the quietest day of the Battle of Britain. Hampered by the weather, the squadrons flew ninety sorties. They lost six planes, however. The Germans, who made some minor […]
24
Oct
Thursday 24 October 1940
Very quiet. Night: Raids on London and Birmingham. Weather: Overcast and hazy in the Channel, clearing to a starlit night. Main Activity: Apart from a few reconnaissance patrols, the morning was quiet. A single raider crossed the coast at Southwold, Suffolk, and penetrated as far as the midlands. It was shot down at St. Neots, […]
25
Oct
Friday 25 October 1940
Fighter-bomber raids on Kent and London. Night: Italian Air Force carries out an attack on Harwich. Weather: Fair but overcast. Main Activity: Signs of activity showed on the radar screens as the first business commuters were disgorging from London’s deepest shelters—the Underground railway stations. High over Kent they flew, only to be dispersed by Hurricanes […]
26
Oct
Saturday 26 October 1940
Fighter-bomber raids on London and Kent. Night: Raids on London, the Midlands, Manchester and Liverpool. Weather: Cloudy with local showers chiefly in the north and east. Main Activity: The whole of London was now under the lash of Göring’s night blitz and as the German News Agency put it inadvertently at the time: ‘Bombs fell […]