Shipping in Straits attacked.
Night: Minelaying between the Wash and the Tay.
Weather: Temperatures high. Fine weather with slight haze in the Channel.
Enemy Action by Day
The return of fine weather on 5 August 1940 brought renewed Luftwaffe activity across Britain’s skies. With clear conditions and only light haze over the Channel, reconnaissance flights and minor attacks resumed, particularly targeting convoys along the southeast coast. While full-scale raids were still absent, multiple probing actions kept RAF Fighter Command on high alert. The day also saw intensified enemy minelaying operations along Britain’s eastern seaboard, from the Wash to the Tay.
Behind the limited aerial activity, preparations for a possible invasion continued. The Luftwaffe had been instructed to destroy Fighter Command and Britain’s aircraft industry before turning its attention to ports, food supplies and strategic reserves. Attacks against warships and merchant shipping were to become secondary unless particularly favourable targets presented themselves.
09:10–09:25 Hours: Fighting between Calais and Dover
Shortly after 09:00 hours, nine Spitfires of No. 64 Squadron encountered five Bf 109s patrolling north of Calais. Squadron Leader A.R.D. MacDonell opened the attack and claimed one Messerschmitt destroyed, while Sergeant Jackie Mann pursued another towards the sea and also claimed it destroyed. Flying Officer H.J. Woodward claimed a third Bf 109 probably destroyed.
MacDonell and Mann had almost certainly attacked the same aircraft, Bf 109E-4 W.Nr. 5337 of 1./JG 51, flown by Oberfeldwebel Karl Schmid. The Messerschmitt crashed into the Channel and Schmid was killed.
The engagement also brought losses for No. 64 Squadron. Sergeant Lewis Reginald Isaac, flying Spitfire L1029, failed to return after being attacked north of Calais and was presumed killed. Pilot Officer Arthur Gerald Donahue, an American volunteer flying his first operational sortie, brought Spitfire K9991 back to Hawkinge at 09:25 hours after a cannon shell tore through the starboard fuselage, damaged the internal control cables and disabled the radio and gunsight. Donahue escaped injury, and the aircraft was subsequently repaired.
At about the same time, twelve Spitfires of No. 65 Squadron engaged Bf 109s over the Channel east of Dover. Flight Sergeant W.H. Franklin claimed one destroyed, Sergeant H.C. Orchard claimed another probably destroyed and a third damaged, while Sergeant J.R. Kilner claimed a further Messerschmitt damaged.
Flying Officer Wilford H. Walker’s Spitfire P9436 was struck in the fuel tank and caught fire during the engagement. Cannon fire also damaged the engine and airscrew and destroyed the air bottle controlling the brakes and flaps. Walker nevertheless reached Manston at 09:20 hours, where the Spitfire ran into a haystack after landing. He suffered bullet wounds to his left knee and ankle, together with injuries to his right shoulder and elbow, but the aircraft remained repairable.
German pilots of I./JG 54 and 7./JG 51 submitted several claims for Spitfires during the morning fighting. These exceeded the single RAF fighter actually lost, although K9991 and P9436 both returned with substantial combat damage. Oberleutnant Reinhard Seiler of 1./JG 54 was slightly wounded, while another Bf 109 crash-landed at Bouin and an aircraft of 8./JG 51 returned severely damaged.
Bomber Command Activity
At 10:00 hours, Hampden P4357 of No. 61 Squadron suffered a sudden failure of its port engine during an air-firing exercise at approximately 1,000 feet and crashed into the North Sea off the Yorkshire coast. Sergeant George Hugh McCrory was lost, while Sergeant Herbert Stanley Blakeman and Sergeant John Leonard Shardlow were rescued injured by the vessel Mizpah and taken to hospital in Bridlington.
Early Afternoon: Friendly-Fire Incident over Cumbria
During a navigation exercise, Whitley N1411 of No. 10 Maintenance Unit approached RAF Silloth without identifying itself or responding to instructions to land. Two Blenheims and two Hurricanes of No. 22 Operational Training Unit were sent to investigate the unidentified aircraft.
Believing the Whitley to be hostile, Sergeant John Parrott opened fire from Hurricane R4118 and forced it to make an emergency landing at Squires Gate. No one was injured, but both Parrott and the Whitley’s pilot, Flying Officer Jack Oettle, subsequently appeared before a court of inquiry and were judged equally responsible for the incident.
14:30–15:00 Hours: Fighting off Cap Gris Nez and Dover
During the afternoon, six Spitfires of No. 41 Squadron and nine Hurricanes of No. 151 Squadron encountered a German formation of more than thirty aircraft over the Channel off Cap Gris Nez. Flight Lieutenant J.T. Webster of No. 41 Squadron attacked a He 111 and claimed it damaged.
No. 151 Squadron entered the fighting shortly afterwards. Flying Officer K.H. Blair claimed a Bf 109 destroyed, while Sub-Lieutenant H.W. Beggs of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve attacked a bomber identified as a Ju 88. Beggs fired repeatedly from astern until smoke poured from its engines and fuselage, finally leaving it diving steeply towards the French coast. He claimed the aircraft probably destroyed.
A Dornier Do 17 of 7./KG 3, coded 5K+AR, failed to return from the sortie and may have been the bomber attacked by Beggs, although the connection cannot be established conclusively. Oberleutnant Karl Ullrich, Unteroffizier Fritz Weiss, Gefreiter Willi Berg and Feldwebel Kurt Widera were killed. Another Do 17 of 3./KG 3 crash-landed at Le Culot after an operational sortie, but its crew escaped injury.
Pilot Officer D.H. Blomeley recorded claims for a Bf 109 and a Bf 110 in his logbook, although neither appeared in the squadron’s official combat return. Hauptmann Hans-Heinrich Brustellin of Stab I./JG 51 claimed a “Curtiss” over the Channel, almost certainly misidentifying one of No. 151 Squadron’s Hurricanes, but no British fighter was lost during the afternoon engagement.
At approximately 15:00 hours, No. 65 Squadron was in action again off Dover. Flight Sergeant Franklin claimed another Bf 109 destroyed and a second damaged.
15:12 Hours: Bombing at Norwich
At 15:12 hours, a lone aircraft dropped bombs on Norwich, igniting fires in railway goods yards and timber depots. Scattered bombing incidents were also reported at Brighton, Leighton Buzzard, Milford Haven, the Isle of Grain, and Middlesbrough.
Reconnaissance over Eastern and Northern England
One raid ventured over Bempton on the East Yorkshire coast before fading 100 miles east of Whitby. Another passed between Hartlepool and Tees. Several other plots were likely linked to shipping reconnaissance flights off East Anglia.
A strange incident was reported over the Firth of Tay, where a Heinkel bearing white roundels—but no identifiable German insignia—was seen near Turnhouse. The aircraft’s purpose and origin remained unclear.
18:05 Hours: Coastal Command Loss
Hudson P5133, VX-D, of No. 206 Squadron crashed at Ringers Farm near Syderstone, Norfolk, while returning from an anti-submarine patrol during which its crew had searched for a missing dinghy. The Hudson stalled during a steep turn and exploded when its bomb load detonated. Pilot Officers Raymond Thomas Kean, DFC, and Robin Rustom and Sergeants Frederick Herbert Hull and Dennis Mannion were killed.
19:20 Hours: No. 41 Squadron Spitfire Lost
Spitfire N3234 of No. 41 Squadron suffered an engine failure shortly after taking off from Manston for a patrol. Sergeant Jack Whitwell Allison force-landed in a field near Sandwich with the undercarriage retracted, causing the aircraft to overturn. Allison escaped serious injury, but the Spitfire was written off.
Enemy Action by Night
Night activity was comparatively light. The Luftwaffe concentrated primarily on minelaying operations along the eastern seaboard. Between the Wash and the Tay, at least five raids were plotted and suspected to have dropped mines in coastal shipping lanes.
At 21:25 hours, a raid crossed inland near Dover, moving up through Kent toward the Thames Estuary. London was placed on “purple” alert. Two similar tracks followed shortly after.
Meanwhile, five raids were plotted moving down the Channel toward Cherbourg. Only two of these appeared to continue westward toward Cardiff and Swansea, though there is little evidence of damage or bomb impacts.
Four more short-duration raids were tracked off Pembrokeshire, while radio intercepts suggested Luftwaffe reconnaissance activity near the Bristol Channel.
At 22:10 hours, a returning RAF bomber crew reported sighting a Bf 110 flying at 10,000 feet, eighteen miles northeast of North Walsham.
Leaflet drops continued as part of the Luftwaffe’s psychological warfare efforts. Leaflets containing Hitler’s 19 July speech—his so-called “Last Appeal to Reason”—were dropped overnight near Great Oakley, close to Harwich.
German Losses:
Airmen: 17 | Aircraft: 8
British Losses:
Airmen: 1 | Aircraft: 2
Spitfire L1029, No. 64 Squadron. Aircraft lost.
Sgt L.R. Isaac. Missing. Presumed shot down by Bf 109 over Channel. Failed to return to base.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Isaac.htm
Photo Description
- Three Spitfire Mk Is (including R6712, YT-N, and R6714, YT-M) of No. 65 Squadron, taking off from Hornchurch, August 1940. © IWM (HU 54421)