http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/24.htm
July 24th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - naval and merchant shipping at Hamburg.
10 Sqn. Eight aircraft. Weather bad. Two bombed.
58 Sqn. Five aircraft. Two returned early, one bombed.
RAF Fighter Command: Weather cloudy, rain. Attacks on convoys in Channel. 8 enemy aircraft destroyed, 3 RAF aircraft lost.
[Losses quoted now for the Battle of Britain are as given in the official history, The Defence of the United Kingdom.]
Mersey Estuary: He 111s mining. Searchlight crews illuminate one which fires back upon their sites at New Brighton. That, or another He-111 was then illuminated again and held for three minutes. Coastguards at Hoylake and Formby Point independently claim that it crashed into the sea as a result of dazzle.
A low-flying single He-111 drops HE and incendiaries onto Glasgow’s Hillington Industrial Estate, damaging a printing works, a sugar and oil cake factory and injuring 18 people. Soon after Welsh-based 92 Sqn. Spitfires (K9998, N3167, N3297) engage a Ju88 of KG51 over Porthcawl. The Junkers is later shot down by 87 Sqn. Pilot Officer R.P. Beamont near Lynton, Devon.
Bombs fall for the first time on Renfrew, Samford, Waltham and Weybridge.
Later in the morning 18 Do17s escorted by JG52 attempt to bomb a convoy in the Thames Estuary. Thus ensuing what 54 Sqn called ‘The Battle of the Thames Estuary’. A ship is forced to run for shallow water and 54 Sqn while protecting have their ‘biggest fight since Dunkirk.’ So furious and confused is the fight over Margate that ‘54’ claim 16 ‘109s. Luftwaffe records suggest two, possibly three. Pilot Officer Allen (R6812) engages a 109 near Margate, the his engine stops. When it comes to life again he attempts to reach RAF Manston, but instead his aircraft spun in and crashed on an electricity sub-station in Omer Road, Cliftonville. Sergeant G.R. Collett (N3192) chases a Bf109 for a considerable distance, only to run out of fuel and crash at Sizewell, Suffolk. 1 Bf109 comes down in Dane Valley Road and another in Byron Avenue, Margate, where the pilot became a prize for the local AFS men. Nos. 65 and 610 Sqns had been vectored to Dover to engage the Bf109s when the latter were getting short of fuel and vulnerable. Unfortunately the plan misfired when a fresh formations of 109s arrived to deal with just such schemes. Fighter Command lost a pilot and two aircraft in the engagement and the Luftwaffe five Bf109s of JG26 and JG52.
ENGLISH CHANNEL:
Some 383 Frenchmen lost their lives tonight when their ship was sunk by a German motor torpedo boat off the coast of Brittany. The Meknes left Southampton early today carrying 1,277 French naval officers and ratings who were being repatriated to France.
She was showing all lights and had a searchlight trained on the French ensign when she was attacked at 10.30 pm. One officer said: “Why would they torpedo us when the war was over as far as we were concerned?”
FINLAND: The advance of Karelian Army is stopped north of Lake Ladoga after Col. Lagus’ 5th Div. reaches Tuulos, about 20 miles east of pre-1939 border. After beating back Soviet counter-attacks the Finnish troops regroup into defence. More to north (in northern Karelia) the Finnish advance is slowed down by heavy Soviet resistance in well-prepared positions. (Mikko Härmeinen)
PALESTINE: Italian Planes bomb Jerusalem killing 46.
ROMANIA: The government seizes British oil interests.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 328 July 24, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 15. At 6.30 AM, Luftwaffe bombs Rolls Royce factory at Glasgow without damage, hitting a nearby printing works. At 7.30 AM, Junkers Ju88s raid shipping in the Bristol Channel and 1 Ju88 is shot down by Spitfires of 92 Squadron. At noon, 18 Dornier bombers escorted by 40 Bf109s attack shipping in the Thames estuary, sinking minesweeping trawler Fleming (19 crew killed, 3 survivors rescued by minesweeper Corena). 54 and 65 Squadron go up and, as the Germans turn away, 610 Squadron scrambles from Gravesend to cut off their retreat. The 36 Spitfires shoot down 9 Bf109s which are running low on fuel off the coast of Kent (RAF loses 2 Spitfires). Another Bf109 is shot down by anti-aircraft guns. German bombers sink anti-submarine trawler HMS Kingston Galena (16 dead) and minesweeper Rodino (4 dead) off Dover.
1277 French sailors (captured when French warships in British ports were captured on July 3) leave Southampton for Marseilles on French steamer Meknes to be repatriated. At 10.30 PM, flying the French flag and with lights on to indicate neutrality, Meknes is sunk in the middle of the English Channel by German motor torpedo boat S-27 (416 lives lost). British destroyers HMS Viscount, Wolverine, Sabre and Shikari respond to distress signals and rescue the survivors. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1940-07-25a.983.2
Jeez, I thought that war was over 4 months ago. Little I really know. thanks HOMER, still reading everyday