Some fighter sweeps in east Kent.
Night: London and Merseyside attacked.
Weather: Mainly fine.
Main Activity:
London, cloaked in haze, enjoyed a relatively quiet day, as did the rest of the country except for isolated attacks and extensive reconnaissance in coastal areas.
Among the lone raiders was a Ju 88 which bombed the Hawker works at Brooklands in a tree-top-level attack. Fortunately the damage did not affect production.
When an unidentified aircraft was plotted at 4.30 p.m. 25,000 feet over Liverpool, Pilot Officer D. A. Adams of No. 611 Squadron was ordered to investigate. He found a German bomber and sent it crashing into a field near Dolgelly, North Wales.
The bulk of Fighter Command’s 563 sorties were flown in the evening when five raids crossed the coast at Dover, Lympne and Dungeness to assail Kenley, Biggin Hill, Hornchurch and central London. Twenty No. 11 Group squadrons, the Duxford Wing and one No. 10 Group squadron scrambled to intercept but only one of them engaged. The German casualties numbered nine while the RAF suffered no loss.
Excerpt from The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood & Derek Dempster
German Losses
Airmen: 14 | Aircraft: 11
British Losses
Airmen: 1 | Aircraft: 1
Photo Descriptions:
- The tail section of Oberleutnant Robert Zehbe’s Dornier Do 17 bomber landed on a London rooftop shown 21 September 1940.
- The Palace of Westminster silhouetted against light from fires caused by bombings.