Battle of Britain diary

[Allen Dewire]

Hi Steve,

I'm sure I can speak for everyone following this interesting and most excellent blog when I say "Thank you ever so much for your hard work and dedication in making this a "must" read every day"...

I have more than once stared out my window and tried to imagine what the folks saw coming at them in waves, upon waves. One cannot fathom or visualize 200 or more aircraft approaching at once over the coast of let's say Folkstone. Even trying to visualize 30 aircraft is difficult. The drone of the engines and knowing what they were going to do must have been hell on earth...

Thank you once again Sir!!!

Prost
Allen

[adt70hk]

Hi Steve,

I'm sure I can speak for everyone following this interesting and most excellent blog when I say "Thank you ever so much for your hard work and dedication in making this a "must" read every day"...

I have more than once stared out my window and tried to imagine what the folks saw coming at them in waves, upon waves. One cannot fathom or visualize 200 or more aircraft approaching at once over the coast of let's say Folkstone. Even trying to visualize 30 aircraft is difficult. The drone of the engines and knowing what they were going to do must have been hell on earth...

Thank you once again Sir!!!

Prost
Allen

Very well said indeed Allen.

[stona]

Monday 21 October

Heavy cloud, fog and rain over the South East.

The poor weather again severely affected flying today. This was becoming something of a pattern for the month. An estimated 40-45 aircraft crossed the coasts of Britain, mostly single bombers on nuisance raids (Storflug).

A Ju 88 of I./KG 51 was the only enemy aircraft definitely shot down, by two Spitfires of No 609 Squadron flown by F/Lt Howell and P/O Hill, who shared the victory. German reports show several other bombers returning with damage and one failing to return, assumed shot down by the British, though there is no corresponding claim.

The Ju 88 shot down by No 609 Squadron was that unit’s 100th official victory. Oblt Fabian Maximilian and his crew had made a low level attack against the RAF base at Old Sarum. Howell and Hill received orders from their controller to fly to Salisbury, and they arrived at Old Sarum just in time to see Oblt Fabian’s Ju 88 leave. The British pilots took up the chase. Oberleutnant Fabian’s mistake was to try to escape at low altitude instead of climbing up into the low clouds. Hit by both Spitfires the Junkers crashed near Lymington. No one in the crew survived. Being the first squadron to 100 victories demanded a celebration and F/Lt David Crook remembered just that:

“We trooped into the writing-room and there found a couple of waiters behind the bar and almost hidden by the large stock of champagne and brandy that had been installed for the occasion…We toasted practically everything we could think of, in round after round of champagne cocktails”.

Today the Luftwaffe had lost two aircraft on operations against Britain with four more damaged. It had lost or damaged several more in accidents. Fighter Command suffered no operational losses today, just two were written off and one damaged in accidents.

Luftwaffe operation tonight were reduced by comparison with previous nights and it is likely that this was due to the poor weather. Coventry was heavily bombed in two raids, London was on alert for nine hours, enduring sporadic bombing. Bombs were also dropped on Chesterfield, Birmingham, Swansea and Hull.

Bomber Command despatched 42 sorties tonight, to targets in Cologne, Hamburg, Reisholz and Stuttgart. Wellingtons sent to Hamburg attempted an attack on the Bismarck. They did not hit the ship but started 12 fires, 8 of which were described as ‘large’ in the Hamburg civil defence report.

Tonight, a Do 17 of Kustenfliegergruppe I./606 (a remnant of Germany’s naval aviation) took off from Lanveoc-Poulmic on a night reconnaissance raid. Lt. Walter Stirmat and his crew should have flown up the Irish Sea, turning east towards Liverpool along the north coast of Wales. They seem to have crossed the Welsh coast too soon, near Aberdovy, and flown on to the Shrewsbury area. They encountered adverse weather and a ‘magnetic storm’ which disrupted their navigational equipment. They flew on becoming increasingly unsure of their position. Now thoroughly lost but believing that they were over France, Stirnat engaged the auto pilot and he and his crew all baled out. They were not over France but over Salisbury plain. All four men survived the jump to become prisoners of war. Incredibly, the aircraft seems to have decided to attempt a return to Germany and flew on for nearly 150 miles before running out of fuel and making an almost perfect belly landing on the mud of Ness Point, near Shotley, between Felixstowe and Harwich, in Suffolk



You couldn’t make that up!
This picture was taken sometime on the 22nd, it gives an idea of the weather this week.

[adt70hk]

Steve

As always thank you so much for this. Seems like today's weather is much like that of 80 years ago, at least where I am.

As for the belly landing, completely amazing!

Thanks again.

Andrew

[Tim Marlow]

Thanks for this one...Love the Do-17 story. I suppose autopilot is designed to keep the aircraft straight and level, and that’s what it did, even after the fuel ran out. Still a remarkable story though.

[yak face]

Brilliant stuff as always , cheers steve . I wonder what happened to the almost complete do17 , would have made a great museum piece.

[stona]

Brilliant stuff as always , cheers steve . I wonder what happened to the almost complete do17 , would have made a great museum piece.

It looks like it could be easily recovered with a tractor or two, plenty of those in Suffolk
This would have been the responsibility of the RAF Maintenance Unit responsible for that area. They would not have been bothered about keeping it in one piece if it was easier to cut it up where it came down. Ultimately, assuming it was recovered, it would have been broken up for salvage. The aluminium would probably have ended up being re-processed at the Alcan works in Banbury.

[yak face]

It looks like it could be easily recovered with a tractor or two, plenty of those in Suffolk :smiling3:
This would have been the responsibility of the RAF Maintenance Unit responsible for that area. They would not have been bothered about keeping it in one piece if it was easier to cut it up where it came down. Ultimately, assuming it was recovered, it would have been broken up for salvage. The aluminium would probably have ended up being re-processed at the Alcan works in Banbury.

Probably ended up as pie tins then , shame .

[stillp]

I wonder who'll be the first to make a dio of that downed Do17?
Pete

[Tim Marlow]

Probably ended up as pie tins then , shame .

Not necessarily, might have ended up as parts of a Lancaster.....but you’re probably right.

[stona]

Not necessarily, might have ended up as parts of a Lancaster.....but you’re probably right.

Aluminium from Alcan definitely found its way into the British aircraft industry. It's the main reason why wrecks were considered worth recovering, though how economically viable that would have been in peacetime is another question. Aluminium was a strategically important material, so its use in things not of vital importance would have been limited at the very least.
There must have been a stock built up, because later 'German' aluminium was cast into victory bells. They were made by the Buckinghamshire Die-Casting Co. of Burnham, Bucks using aluminium alloy from German aircraft destroyed during World War II. They bear the heads of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in low relief with a large 'V' on the handle. Sale proceeds went to the RAF Benevolent Fund. My grandparents had one of these (I think my brother may have it now) but we were not allowed to ring it. Of course we did, and it doesn't, I remember a clonk rather than a ring!

Here's an example, picture from the internet.

[stona]

Tuesday 22 October

Heavy cloud, rain and fog over much of England today. At least some airfields in the south east began the day fogbound.

Once again, the weather restricted offensive daylight operations by the Luftwaffe. Single bombers, using the cloud as cover, flew nuisance raids. Some casualties were caused at Eastbourne, Deal and New Romney, few aircraft penetrated far inland. The only bombs to fall in the London area fell on Epsom Downs. A few ‘Jabo’ attacks were attempted, leading to fighting between the Luftwaffe’s Bf 109s and the fighters of Fighter Command.

Fighter Command managed some interceptions. Uffz. Arp of 2./JG 26 was killed when his Bf 109 was shot down by No 257 Squadron’s F/O Coke. No 257 Squadron lost Sgt R H B Fraser who was shot down and killed in return. We have Coke’s Combat Report.

“I was flying Yellow 1 doing rear section lookout to 257 Squadron who were escorting 46 Squadron. At 22,000 feet above New Romney I saw about nine Me 109s above and behind, manoeuvring to up sun of us. I warned 257 Sqdn leader, turned towards the enemy aircraft and saw two of them come down at us. I got in one short burst from quarter ahead at the second one but observed no result. I then saw a dogfight in progress south of me over the sea and below and flew west and then turned and flew towards it down sun. However, at 19,000 feet I sighted 7 Me 109s in wide Vic slightly below and flying straight towards me. I don’t think they saw me. I carried out a ¾ head-on attack on the right-hand Me 109 of the Vic; I could see my bullets hitting him from the engine right through to the tail. I passed about 50 yards from him and turned but lost them in the sun.”

Arp was flying as Galland’s wing man, his aircraft exploded in mid-air, giving him no chance of escape.

Fhr. Mueller of 3./JG 51 tangled with S/Ldr ‘Sailor’ Malan and F/O Mungo-Park of No 74 Squadron, coming of worse and being shot down into the Channel. The nineteen year old Mueller survived to become a prisoner of war. In this action 74 Squadron’s F/O P C B St John was shot down and killed. He was almost certainly another victim of Werner Molders and holds the dubious honour of being the first victim of the new Bf 109 F-1, which Molders was flying for the second time in combat today.

The Luftwaffe had lost four aircraft today on operations against England with two more damaged. Once again several more were written off or damaged in accidents. Fighter Command had lost six aircraft, including an own goal when a Hurricane of No 257 Squadron was shot down by Folkestone’s anti-aircraft artillery, killing P/O N B Heywood. Two other aircraft were damaged.

Luftwaffe activity tonight was again on a comparatively small scale. Most bombs were dropped before midnight, though a few fell on south west London soon after 01.00. Apart from a few districts in South Wales, Devonshire and Cornwall, no air raid warnings were given after 01.30. Coventry was the most heavily bombed, suffering its fourth successive night of raiding.

Bomber Command did not operate tonight.

[stona]

Wednesday 23 October

Very bad weather, heavy cloud, rain and fog covering airfields in France and England.

The weather had deteriorated from marginal to impossible for flying in most areas. There were few daylight operations, a few single aircraft dropping bombs in the London area. There were no interceptions today and no aircraft were confirmed shot down in aerial combat.

The Luftwaffe may have lost one aircraft in operations against Britain, a Ju 88 of III./KG 77 which failed to return from a mission to bomb London, though the cause of its loss is not certain. The Luftwaffe lost or damaged another six aircraft in accidents, a reflection of the marginal flying weather.

Fighter Command, for the most part, stayed on the ground. There were no operational losses, but a No 600 Squadron Blenheim from Catterick crashed into a hill side killing all on board and a No 616 Squadron Hurricane from Kirton-in-Lindsey was badly damaged when Sgt Wilson misjudged his approach.

A few Luftwaffe bombers penetrated inland in the early part of the night and some bombs fell in London. The ‘All Clear’ was given very early, at 01.50, as enemy activity ceased.

Bomber Command despatched 79 sorties, presumably confident that its airfields would be clear when they returned in the early hours. The biggest effort was to Embden and Berlin. Two Wellingtons were lost.

[JR]

Great blog Steve, thank you for all the effort.

[stona]

Thursday 24 October

Weather slightly improved.

Conditions improved enough to allow the ‘Jabos’ to operate again over England. Most raids were carried out by single aircraft.

421 Flight’s Sgt Don McKay claimed a Bf 109 damaged over Ashford. This was probably a Bf 109 of 8./JG 27 which finally crashed into the sea off Cap Gris Nez, killing Unteroffizier Ulrich Linke.

A Do 215 of 3./Augkl.Gr.Ob.d.L. was shot down during a reconnaissance of Birmingham and Coventry, crashing at Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire. The crew baled out very low and three of the four were killed. In an unfortunate accident tomorrow, the jib of a crane used for the recovery of this wreck touched an overhead powerline, causing three men to be electrocuted, two fatally. One of the men killed, A.C. Harry Clack, was just sixteen years old, one of the ‘Trenchard brats’ whose apprenticeships were accelerated at the beginning of the war. He had been sent from RAF Halton to join No. 54 MU, which was responsible for wrecks in this area. It was his second day with the unit. There was a severe shortage of men with the skills required to maintain the RAF’s aircraft. Men (and it was men in 1939/40) with the necessary skills working in the aircraft industry were badly needed where they were and could not be transferred to the RAF. It was this that led to the accelerated training programmes and apprenticeships which saw very young men, like Clack, posted to the RAF’s Maintenance Units in 1940.



Most losses were again to accidents. The Luftwaffe lost three aircraft on operations against Britain. Fighter Command suffered no operational losses.

An estimated 120 Luftwaffe aircraft were over Britain tonight. 50 raided the London area with others attacking Birmingham, Bristol and targets in East Anglia. London was under a red warning from 19.17 until 00.52 and then again from 01.30 to 04.12. Birmingham was under alert from 19.46 until 23.13, though the actual raid only lasted for half an hour and did far more damage than that caused by the scattered bombing in London. Bombs fell on Birmingham city centre, Hockley, Lee bank, Kings Heath and Moor Green.

Bomber Command despatched 113 aircraft to targets in Germany and Holland. The heaviest raid was on Hamburg where several large fires were started and 217 people bombed out of their homes. All the aircraft returned safely.