Fighter-bomber attacks on London and Kent.
Night: Raids on London, Liverpool and Birmingham.
Weather: Bright intervals with some showers.
Main Activity:
Limited visibility did much to mask the Luftwaffe whose raids started soon after breakfast. Ninety Bf 109s and Bf 110s raided Margate, Broadstairs and Stanmore.
They were back after lunch and throughout the afternoon appeared in large and small concentrations or in streams, feinting, weaving, splitting up and then rejoining, using cloud to maximum effect, employing every ruse to elude and confuse the defences.
At one of London’s key arteries, Waterloo Station, a bomb smashed all automatic signalling and signal telephones. Fourteen inexperienced station staff and a handful of soldiers somehow kept trains moving using flags.
British fighters enjoyed a moderate success. They destroyed five enemy aircraft and lost three of their own in combat. Luftwaffe losses for the day totalled fifteen.
Excerpt from The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood & Derek Dempster
German Losses
Airmen: 11 | Aircraft: 16
British Losses
Airmen: 5 | Aircraft: 5
Spitfire R6800, No. 66 Squadron
P/O H.W. Reilley killed. Shot down by Major Molders of JG 51 in combat over Westerham.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Reilley.htm
Spitfire P7360, No. 74 Squadron
F/O A.L. Ricalton killed. Shot down in combat with Bf 109s over Maidstone.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Ricalton.htm
Hurricane P3174, No. 213 Squadron
P/O R. Atkinson killed. Shot down in combat with Bf 109s.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/AtkinsonR.htm
Hurricane V6575, No. 242 Squadron
P/O N.N. Campbell killed. Presumed damaged by return fire from Do 17 engaged off Yarmouth.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/CampbellNN.htm
Hurricane V7414, No. 302 Squadron
Sgt. J.S. Zaluski killed. Overturned attempting forced-landing at Colliers End.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Zaluski.htm
Photo Description:
- Groundcrew refuelling a Messerschmitt Bf 110 “Zerstörer” of ZG 26 “Horst Wessel” in France, October 1940. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-404-0521-19A / Koster / CC-BY-SA