London is the main target with additional raids on Southampton and Portsmouth.
Night: London, Liverpool and Manchester are the main targets.
Weather: Mainly fair, but generally cloudy.
Main Activity:
German patrols began to appear between Beachy Head and Southwold from about seven in the morning. They gave no trouble but at 10.45 a force of 100 aircraft operating from Caen attempted to bomb Southampton and Portsmouth. They met stiff opposition.
There was a marked difference in the composition of this raid. The machines were mostly Bf 109s and Bf 110s, some of them carrying bombs. The Germans were beginning to reserve their bombers for night operations and place the whole burden for the daylight offensive on the fighter arm which had converted one Staffel of each gruppe or one gruppe of each geschwader to fighter-bomber duties.
A third of the German fighters — 250 aircraft — were so converted, Bf 109s to carry a 250 kg. bomb and Bf 110s a total bomb-load of 700 kg.
Flying at great height and taking every advantage of the cloudy weather, these aircraft set Fighter Command new and difficult problems and imposed many fruitless hours of climb and chase upon the British pilots. But they did little else and Fighter Command continued the recovery which had started on September 7th.
From 1 to 3 p.m. a steady stream of aircraft crossed the coast between Deal and Selsey Bill. The first three waves, consisting of fifty Bf 109s, reached Maidstone before 2 p.m.
Forty minutes later about seventy-five planes flew in from Calais and split some thirty miles inland. The raiders were intercepted and retired towards Maidstone but bombs landed at Brixton, Wandsworth, Camberwell and Lambeth.
The third attack was a half-hearted effort to penetrate over Dungeness and the Germans turned back before the RAF could reach them.
In the north three raids were plotted over Aberdeenshire and three in the Moray Firth. One of these, a single aircraft, was seen returning to Brittany across Wales and Devon.
At 5 p.m. more than fifty aircraft assembled over Cap Gris Nez at 20,000 feet. No sooner had they crossed the coast than Luftflotte 2 massed for a follow-through with another thirty to fifty Bf 109s and Bf 110s. For each attack the RAF were up in force.
Excerpt from The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood & Derek Dempster
German Losses
Airmen: 16 | Aircraft: 9
British Losses
Airmen: 6 | Aircraft: 7
Hurricane P3599, No. 238 Squadron
Sgt. F.A. Sibley. Reported ‘Missing’ after combat with enemy fighters over Poole Harbour.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Sibley.htm
Blenheim R3626, No. 248 Squadron
Failed to return from a reconnissance operation to the Norwegian coast.
P/O C.C. Bennet. Listed as missing.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/BennettCC.htm
Sgt. G.S. Clarke. Listed as missing.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/ClarkeGS.htm
Sgt. G.B. Brash. Listed as missing.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Brash.htm
Hurricane P2900, No. 607 Squadron
F/Lt. C.E. Bowen. Reported ‘Missing’ after combat with Bf 110s over the Isle of Wight.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/BowenCE.htm
Hurricane V6686, No. 607 Squadron
N. Brumby killed. Shot down in combat with Bf 110s over the Isle of Wight.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Brumby.htm
Photo Descriptions:
- At the end of September an instruction was issued within Luftflotte 2 that each Jagdgeschwader was to fit one Gruppe with bomb racks. These fighter-bombers came over the coast at high altitude and Fighter Command found them difficult to intercept. Here German ground crew bomb up a Bf 109E (Jagdbomber) Jabo.
- The wreckage of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 of 4./JG 26, which dived vertically into the South Downs at Falmer, near Brighton on 1 October 1940. No trace was found of its pilot, Uffz Hans Bluder. Here soldiers scour the fields and pile wreckage in a convenient heap around the smashed engine ready for collection by a salvage party.