Mainly reconnaissance.
Night: Attacks on London and Glasgow. Minelaying off the Yorkshire coast.
Weather: Low cloud and drizzle. Visibility poor.
Enemy Action by Day
Despite poor visibility throughout the day and night, the Luftwaffe maintained a low but persistent pressure, blending reconnaissance, sporadic bombing, and mine warfare as the Battle of Britain entered its final phase.
Enemy activity during daylight hours was minimal and largely restricted to reconnaissance flights and brief fighter incursions. From dawn until midday, no raids were reported, and the few enemy aircraft plotted later in the day consisted almost entirely of lone reconnaissance machines.
At 12:40 hours, a solitary German aircraft flying from Calais traced a low path along the coast between Dover, Dungeness, and Hastings before turning inland over Kent and crossing the Inner Artillery Zone. The aircraft, possibly a fast reconnaissance or fighter-bomber, reportedly attacked a site near Stanmore before retreating eastward across the county. Around the same time, a series of long-range reconnaissance missions unfolded across the southeast and east of England. One raider from Holland flew over a convoy near Clacton, lingered over Harwich for ten minutes, and then returned to the Scheldt. Another followed a similar path across convoys northwest of Herne Bay before heading toward southeast London.
By mid-afternoon, more aerial intrusions developed. Between 14:24 and 15:22 hours, a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight swept inland from the Orfordness area to Luton, skirting North Weald and passing over Clacton. A second aircraft tracked westward from the Suffolk coast toward Peterborough, Grantham, Wittering, and Duxford before fading near Martlesham. Other aircraft were active over Portsmouth and Southampton, although weather conditions prevented deep penetration. At 15:36 hours, a reconnaissance flight from the Caen region passed over both ports, evidently observing shipping concentrations.
One of the few aerial engagements of the day took place over Sussex, when Hurricanes of No. 145 Squadron, scrambled from Tangmere, intercepted a formation of Bf 109s. The RAF lost two Hurricanes in the combat. Further patrols were plotted off the coasts near Beachy Head, the Thames Estuary, and the Isle of Wight, but cloud and mist continued to hamper operations for both sides.
Enemy Action by Night
After sunset, German operations resumed on a modest scale, with a renewed focus on London and suspected minelaying along the east coast. The first enemy aircraft crossed the Channel from the Abbeville area shortly after 18:00 hours, followed by formations from Holland and the Dutch islands. Approximately ten aircraft were tracked heading toward London from the east, while seventeen more came in from the Somme sector, again bound for the capital.
A damaging raid struck St Pancras at 18:47 hours, leaving a deep crater on the London mainline and severely damaging railway infrastructure, including bridges, rolling stock, and surrounding property. As the evening wore on, enemy aircraft also struck Liverpool, and more unusually, a number of raids penetrated the Yorkshire coast. Around a dozen German aircraft flew in from the North Sea and were plotted moving westward across England to the Lancashire coast. Their reduced speed and unusual flight patterns led observers to suspect minelaying missions. Some turned back along reciprocal routes, while others appeared to drop their payloads along the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coasts.
Between 01:00 and 06:00 hours, the night remained relatively quiet apart from two raids from Brittany directed toward South Wales, and another that crossed over Devon. A Heinkel He 111H of I./KG 27 crashed at Tours airfield during the night, smashing into a barrack block and killing its four-man crew along with thirteen members of the ground staff. Eleven others were injured in the blast, underscoring the dangers Luftwaffe personnel faced even far from the front lines.
In Tynemouth and North Shields, parachute mines (PMs) caused significant damage. A mine detonated on the bowling green in Tynemouth Park, leaving a crater 35 feet wide and damaging the adjacent café, club pavilion, AFS station, and hundreds of surrounding homes. Another mine exploded near the LNER railway at Kennersdene Farm. In London, the toll of repeated night bombings continued to mount. Damage was again inflicted on public buildings, shelters, and homes across the capital, though no single mass-casualty incident was reported this night.
German Losses:
Airmen: 5 | Aircraft: 4
British Losses:
Airmen: 1 | Aircraft: 1
Blenheim L1272, No. 600 Squadron
P/O P.R.S. Hurst killed. Crashed into hillside at Kirkby Malzeard, Yorkshire during practice flight through cloud.
http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Hurst.htm
Photo Descriptions
- The Prime Minister Winston Churchill reads a newspaper on the platform while waiting for a train at St Andrews during a trip to Scotland to visit Polish troops, inspect coastal defences and tour a Naval Establishment in Fife on 23 October 1940. © IWM (H 4985)
- Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspecting troops of the 1st Rifle Brigade (1st Polish Corps) with General Władysław Sikorski, the C-in-C of the Polish Armed Forces, at Tentsmuir, 23 October 1940. General Gustaw Paszkiewicz, the Commander of the Brigade, is behind General Sikorski. © IWM (H 4961)
- This smiling girl, dirtied but apparently not injured, was assisted across a London street on 23 October 1940, after she was rescued from the debris of a building damaged by a bomb attack in a German daylight raid.