Scattered raids on East Anglia and southern England.
Night: London and its suburbs attacked.
Weather: Rain and drizzle in the Channel. Visibility down to 500 yards in places.
Main Activity:
Routine patrols and reconnaissance flights off the east coast opened the action for the day. Later raiders coming singly or in pairs, mostly from Belgian and Dutch bases, attacked targets over a widespread area. These included Thameshaven, Cosford, Cambridge, Cardington, Bedford, Leamington, Worcester, Reading, Harrow and Tangmere. The weather was too bad to intercept successfully, or to protect a convoy in the Channel at 5.20 p.m.
One raider, however, reached the de Havilland works at Hatfield. At 50 feet altitude a Ju 88 of KG 77 machine-gunned workers as they ran for the trenches and bounced four bombs into a sheet metal shop and the Technical School — killing 21 people and wounding 70. The 88 was hit by 40 mm. Bofors shells, 303 machine-gun bullets from an RAF detachment and even rounds from a Hotchkiss manned by the Home Guard. The burning aircraft crashed at Hertingfordbury.
Excerpt from The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood & Derek Dempster
German Losses
Airmen: 21 | Aircraft: 9
British Losses
Airmen: 3 | Aircraft: 1
Blenheim L4905, No. 600 Squadron
Suffered engine failure during routine patrol in heavy rain. Crashed into trees on high ground at Broadstone Warren.
P/O C.A. Hobson killed.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/HobsonCA.htm
Sgt. D.E. Hughes killed.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/HughesDE.htm
AC2 C.F. Cooper killed.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/CooperCF.htm
Photo Description:
- Soldiers guard the smouldering remains of Junkers Ju 88A-1 (W.Nr. 4136: 3Z+BB) of I/KG 77, which came down in flames at Eastend Green Farm near Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire after being hit by fire from ground defences on 3 October 1940. The crew: Oberleutnant Siegward Fiebig (pilot); Oberfeldwebel Erich Goebel (Bordfunker); Fw. H Ruthof and Uffz. K Seifert were all captured unhurt by farm workers. This aircraft had just bombed the de Havilland works at Hatfield, killing 21, injuring 70, and disrupting work on the Mosquito. © IWM (HU 70689)