Single-aircraft raids on airfields during the afternoon.
Night: Main attacks against London. Some lesser raids on Merseyside and South Wales.
Weather: Generally cloudy, some rain.
Main Activity:
The day dawned cloudy, and on the whole it was peaceful over England. In Germany the Luftwaffe Command Staff issued orders that ‘if the weather situation does not allow the engagement of strong force of Luftflotten 2 and 3 against England, the Luftflotten must carry out individual attacks against targets of the aircraft production industry’.
Nothing developed until five o’clock in the afternoon when single aircraft of Luftflotte 3, taking advantage of cloud cover, delivered attacks in 10 Group and the western part of 11 Group. One raider machine-gunned Tangmere, and another dropped bombs on West Mailing. Poling radar station reported bombs in the vicinity and a few fell in the area of Portsmouth dockyard. In the airfield raids fighters accounted for two Dorniers.
Following these incursions came six small raids from Luftflotte 2, which passed over Dungeness-Beachy Head and flew towards Biggin Hill. One aircraft reached the airfield, but was intercepted some minutes later south of Kenley and shot down. Two small raids appeared near Eastchurch but turned for home without accomplishing anything and these were followed by similar sorties towards south and south-west London. The rumours of invasion began to assume greater significance at 4.30 p.m. when a Coastal Command aircraft reported twelve merchant vessels plus five destroyers and thirty E-boats off Dieppe.
Excerpt from The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood & Derek Dempster
German Losses
Airmen: 11 | Aircraft: 13
British Losses
Airmen: 0 | Aircraft: 0
Photo Descriptions:
- Air raid damage, including the twisted remains of a double-decker city bus, in the City of London on 10 September 10 1940.
- Czech and British pilots of No. 310 Squadron confer at Duxford, September 1940. Pictured are Vaclav Bergman, Bohumir Furst, Rudolf Zima, Emil Fechtner, Stanislav Zimprich, Jan Kaucky, Karel Seda, Jaroslav Maly, Vilem Goth, Josef Vopalecky, Svatopluk Janouch, Raimund Puda, Gordon Sinclair, John Boulton and Jerrard Jeffries. © IWM (CH 1291)