Isolated raids on Britain. Heavy reconnaissance activity.
Night: Widespread harassing raids. Minelaying.
Weather: Mainly cloudy. Occasional showers in the east.
Main Activity:
On the 19th large numbers of the enemy made threatening moves in the Channel and estuary areas, but only isolated raids came through. The most intense Luftwaffe activity was put up by the long-range reconnaissance Gruppen who carried out photographic sorties.
At 1230 hours, sixty+ aircraft were off the coast between Dungeness and North Foreland at 20,000 feet and at 1250 hours a further fifty left Calais. Dover was the main target but the formations consisted largely of fighters. A few bombers penetrated to outer London.
Between 1430 and 1500 hours a small secondary attack came over Dover while raids approached Portsmouth and the Southampton Docks from Luftflotte 3. One raid succeeded in setting fire to oil-tanks at Pembroke Docks. Three hours later fifty+ approached the east coast between Dungeness and Harwich and bombs fell on houses and airfields, although without much effect on the latter. Fighter Command flew 383 sorties, losing three aircraft and destroying six German machines of which two were He 111s from K.Gr.100.
Excerpt from The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood & Derek Dempster
German Losses
Airmen: 23 | Aircraft: 11
British Losses
Airmen: 4 | Aircraft: 5
Blenheim L9497, No. 248 Squadron
Sgt J.H. Round missing.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Round.htm
Sgt W.H. Want missing.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Want.htm
Sgt M.P. Digby-Worsley missing.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Digby-Worsley.htm
Failed to return from reconnaissance mission over Southern Norway.
Spitfire N3182, No. 66 Squadron
P/O J.A.P. Studd killed. Hit by gunfire from He 111. Pilot baled out, rescued. Did not regain consciousness.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Studd.htm
Photo Descriptions:
- Two Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers return from an attack against the British south coast on 19 August 1940.
- Workmen carry part of the bullet-riddled fuselage of a Dornier Do 17, alongside the wreckage of other crashed German aircraft at a scrapyard in Britain, August 1940. © IWM (HU 104718)
- Blenheim Mark IV, ‘WR-B’, of No. 248 Squadron RAF based at North Coates, Lincolnshire, in flight over the North Sea, 1940. The aircraft is fitted with a Light Series Carrier under the fuselage. Note also the gas warning panel, which has been applied to the top of the fuselage in front of the tail fin. © IWM (MH 140)