Convoy reconnaissances. Convoy off Cromer attacked.
Night: Widespread raids from Thames Estuary to Aberdeen and from Poole, Dorset, to Land’s End and Liverpool.
Weather: Mainly fair with cloud and thunderstorms in eastern districts. South-eastern districts cloudy. Winds variable.
Enemy Action by Day
The main Luftwaffe action during the day centred on convoy reconnaissance and one significant bombing attack. At 06:35 hours, Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron, flying a patrol near the Norfolk coast, observed bombs bursting around a convoy off Cromer. Fighters from Coltishall were dispatched to intercept, but a thick blanket of cloud ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 feet frustrated their efforts, and the enemy bombers escaped unscathed.
07:00–18:30 Hours: Convoy CW9 Peewit
At 07:00 hours, Convoy CW9, codenamed Peewit, sailed from Southend bound for Swanage. The convoy comprised approximately twenty-five merchant vessels, accompanied by naval escorts and protected by barrage balloons intended to discourage dive-bombing attacks.
Low cloud and fog helped conceal the ships as they approached the Dover Straits. At approximately 14:30 hours, Peewit passed Dover under the protection of three Hurricanes of No. 85 Squadron. As the convoy rounded the headland, further cover was provided by Hurricanes of Nos. 32, 501 and 615 Squadrons.
The convoy reached Dungeness unmolested shortly before 18:30 hours. As the visibility improved, however, Peewit was detected by the German Freya radar installation at Wissant and observed from Cap Gris-Nez. Its position and course were transmitted to German naval headquarters and subsequently passed to the 1st S-Boat Flotilla at Cherbourg. The convoy completed its daylight passage intact, but its discovery left it exposed to the surface and air attacks that would begin after midnight.
10:40 Hours: Scotland
At 10:40 hours, a raid comprising eleven German aircraft approached to within thirty miles of Aberdeen before vanishing from radar. Later, another single enemy aircraft was plotted ninety miles east of St Abb’s Head. Despite attempts by RAF fighters to intercept both formations, neither contact was made.
13:50–14:10 Hours: Coastal Command Activity
Before 13:50 hours, Blenheim L9456, WR-R, of No. 248 Squadron was forced to ditch near the Farne Islands after running out of fuel while returning from a reconnaissance sortie to Trondheim. Bad visibility had prevented the crew from locating the Norwegian port, forcing them to continue south along the coast in an attempt to establish their position before beginning the return flight.
Pilot Officer R.H. Haviland, Sergeant A. Kay and the slightly injured observer, Pilot Officer M.L. Wells, took to the aircraft’s dinghy. They were rescued by the auxiliary minesweeper Earl of Buchan at 15:55 hours and subsequently transferred to High-Speed Launch No. 119. Although the Blenheim was towed ashore, it was declared a write-off.
Three Hudsons of No. 224 Squadron also undertook armed reconnaissance sorties towards Stavanger. At approximately 14:10 hours, Hudson N7282, QX-F, flown by Canadian Pilot Officer Roy Bruce Forbes, was intercepted west of Bergen by a Bf 110 flown by Feldwebel Klaus Ladwein of 2./ZG 76. The Hudson had attacked the German escort vessel NB 02 in Fedjefjorden before being shot down into the North Sea.
Forbes and Sergeants John Morgan Oliver and George David Tennant were posted missing, while the body of Sergeant Stephen Grant was recovered from the sea and later buried at Trondheim.
Afternoon and Evening: Southern and Western Approaches
Throughout the morning and into the evening, several raids were plotted in the South and West, particularly near the Isle of Wight, Start Point and the Lizard Peninsula. One enemy aircraft was tracked inland, flying north of Bournemouth before passing over Gloucestershire and disappearing out to sea near the Isle of Wight.
In the evening, a formation of more than nine enemy aircraft approached the Isle of Wight but turned away before fighters from Tangmere and Middle Wallop could intercept. Two additional raids—one consisting of six aircraft and the other of three—were plotted off Beachy Head and the Isle of Wight respectively, but both withdrew southwards before contact could be made.
Enemy patrols also remained active over northern France during the afternoon, with formations of three aircraft frequently observed around Dunkirk, Calais and Cap Gris-Nez. RAF fighters patrolling the Dover Straits made brief sorties towards the French coast and encountered anti-aircraft fire near Calais, but no combat developed.
Bomber Command Activity
At 19:12 hours, Sergeant Don Wellings of No. 82 Squadron emerged from cloud over Haamstede airfield in Blenheim R3821 and released his bombs across a line of Bf 109s belonging to 4./JG 54. Two Messerschmitts were destroyed and four more damaged. Oberfeldwebel Max Stotz and Unteroffizier Hans Schätzel were slightly wounded, while mechanic Unteroffizier Willi Schulze was killed and Obergefreiter Arthur Schulz wounded by bomb splinters. The damage forced 4./JG 54 to withdraw from operations for more than a month.
Another No. 82 Squadron Blenheim, R3910, flown by Sergeant Don Blair, was caught by a concentrated burst of anti-aircraft fire during its sortie. The force of the explosions threw the aircraft onto its back and then into a steep dive, tearing away several Perspex panels and sucking part of Sergeant Bill Magrath’s navigational equipment from the cockpit. Blair and Magrath struggled together with the controls and finally recovered the Blenheim at approximately 1,500 feet above the sea.
Enemy Action by Night
The Luftwaffe’s nighttime activity expanded dramatically, with raids extending from the Thames Estuary to Aberdeen in the east and from Poole to Liverpool and Land’s End in the west. Several aircraft were tracked over the Norfolk coast between Cromer and Southwold, some of which were believed to be German fighters attempting to intercept RAF bombers returning from sorties over the Continent.
Eight separate raids approached the No. 13 Group area from the south-east. Three followed westerly courses along the Channel, while two approached Portland from the direction of Jersey. At least five raids concentrated around Harwich and were believed to be engaged in minelaying.
Additional mines were believed to have been dropped in the Thames Estuary, along the southern coastline between Beachy Head and the Isle of Wight, and between the Firth of Forth and the Humber. One Heinkel He 115 of 3./KüFlGr. 906 was damaged by anti-aircraft fire while laying mines in the Firth of Forth. The aircraft returned to its base, although one member of its crew was wounded.
Several raiders penetrated inland towards Yorkshire, while bombs fell in Gloucestershire, Devon and Glamorganshire. Poole was bombed, and minor damage was reported at Exeter and St Donat’s. Explosions were also heard around the Firth of Clyde, Airdrie and Stirling, although casualties and structural damage remained limited.
00:00 Hours: South-Western Interception
Around midnight, three Hurricanes of No. 87 Squadron were scrambled from Exeter and intercepted an aircraft identified by the pilots as a Heinkel He 111. Pilot Officer P.W. Comely, flying Hurricane P3420, claimed the bomber destroyed.
The aircraft may instead have been a Ju 88 of 9./LG 1 which crashed at Châteaudun while returning from an operational sortie. Leutnant Friedrich Harzog, Unteroffizier Georg Ernst and Gefreiten Hans-Heinz Karitsky and Johann Mählmann were killed.
RAF and Luftwaffe Losses
Fighter Command suffered no aircraft losses through enemy action, although three fighters were written off in accidents during the day. Several other aircraft were damaged but subsequently repaired.
At 06:25 hours, Hurricane N2631 of No. 229 Squadron struck a bump while taking off from Bircham Newton to intercept an unidentified raid, causing its undercarriage to collapse. Pilot Officer E.G. Bidgood was unhurt and the Hurricane was repairable.
At approximately 08:40 hours, Hurricanes P3041 and P3083 of No. 501 Squadron collided while approaching Gravesend in poor visibility. Sergeants E.F. Howarth and W.A. Wilkinson escaped injury, and both aircraft were subsequently repaired.
At 11:40 hours, the port tyre of the first production Westland Whirlwind, P6966 of No. 263 Squadron, burst during take-off from Grangemouth. Unable to retract the undercarriage, Pilot Officer Irving F. McDermott remained airborne until the fuel was exhausted before abandoning the aircraft. He suffered slight injuries, while the Whirlwind crashed at Lanton Farm near Stenhousemuir and was destroyed.
At 13:05 hours, the oxygen regulator in Acting Flight Lieutenant C.G.C. Olive’s Spitfire R6617 of No. 65 Squadron caught fire shortly after take-off. Olive abandoned the aircraft before it crashed and burned out near Rochford. His parachute initially failed to open and, after it eventually deployed, members of the Home Guard mistakenly fired at him as he descended. He escaped the gunfire but was slightly injured on landing.
Spitfire L1054 of No. 152 Squadron was also damaged in an accident during a non-operational flight. The pilot was apparently unhurt and the aircraft was later repaired.
At approximately 21:30 hours, Pilot Officer D.N.O. Jenkins of No. 253 Squadron lost control of Hurricane P3457 during a patrol five miles east of Prestwick. The aircraft entered a spin and Jenkins abandoned it safely, but the Hurricane was destroyed.
On the German side, two Bf 109s of 4./JG 54 were destroyed on the ground at Haamstede, while four others were damaged. The Ju 88 of 9./LG 1 was also lost with its four-man crew while returning to Châteaudun.
Hauptmann Karl Valesi, who had been attached to Erprobungsgruppe 210 because of his expertise in fighter-bomber tactics, was killed when his Bf 109E-4 crashed at St Omer. He was not the Staffelkapitän of 3./Erpr.Gr. 210; that position was held by Oberleutnant Otto Hintze.
Meanwhile, Major Werner Mölders of JG 51 returned to operations following injuries sustained on 28 July. Denying a pilot’s request for leave to marry, Mölders tersely declared:
“Why marry now when there is only England left?”
Strategic Developments: Luftwaffe Prepares for Adlerangriff
Behind the scenes, Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring issued direct orders on this day to commence full-scale attacks on British airfields. Göring had previously resisted focusing solely on the RAF, but pressure from his field commanders—especially Kesselring—had begun to sway strategic planning. The order laid the groundwork for Adlerangriff, the “Eagle Attack,” which would begin in earnest within days.
II./JG 27 was ordered to stand down for twenty-four hours, offering a brief respite to its exhausted pilots. Transfers and preparations continued throughout the Kanalfront as the Luftwaffe prepared for the next phase of its assault.
German Losses:
Airmen: 5 | Aircraft: 3
British Losses:
Airmen: 0 | Aircraft: 4
Photo Description
- Luftwaffe air crews study maps in the summer of 1940. In the background is a Dornier Do 17 light bomber. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-341-0481-39A / Spieth / CC-BY-SA 3.0.
- Four Messerschmitt Bf 109Es of Jagdgeschwader 51 “Mölders” (IV./JG 51) in France, August 1940. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-058-1784A-14 / Eckert, Erhardt / CC-BY-SA 3.0.