Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Churchill finally manages to get the Duke of Windsor to sail for Bermuda. German agents have been trying to keep the Nazi sympathetic Windsors in Europe.
Date: 2 August 1940
Unfortunately, the first part of this report is missing, the surviving information is as follows:
South and South-East
Until 1630 hours only three tracks were plotted, of which one approached to within 5 miles of Dover. At 1630 hours two raids amalgamated and flew towards Clacton and over a convoy which was well out of its area 10 miles north of Herne Bay. The convoy was bombed but seems not to have been damaged. A fighter squadron did not intercept. Between 1827 and 1853 hours, seven raids concentrated in the Calais - Boulogne area and flew various courses in the Straits of Dover. Four squadrons were detailed but did not make contact.
East
In the Humber, a convoy was reported on by enemy aircraft, but no attack developed. Two sections of our fighters failed to contact.
In a raid off Haisborough a section of Spitfires armed with cannon attacked, but lost the enemy aircraft in cloud. This raid ineffectually bombed shipping off Yarmouth.
Three raids were made in the early evening off the East Anglian coast but soon faded.
North East
There was no activity in this area.
France
Between 0700 and 0900 hours enemy patrols were very active in the Gris Nez area. This activity was renewed at about 1200 hours and continued spasmodically throughout the day.
By night
Activity has not been heavy, although attacks have been widespread.
The usual visits were paid to South Wales, coming in over the Weymouth area, and some of these raids penetrated up as far as Sealand, Liverpool and Lancashire. One continued across to Hartlepool, turned back and flew home via Liverpool, Wales and the south coast to Cherbourg, but originated from Baie Seine and Cherbourg itself.
Several raids crossed in over East Anglia, (searchlight post north of Bury St Edmunds was reported machine-gunned) and penetrated to the Midlands generally.
Bombs were reported at Ternhill but the nearest fell 4 miles away from the aerodrome.
A raid which crossed in near Beachy Head came north to North Weald and circled the London Artillery Zone. This was later joined by a further raid which came in near the North Foreland, up the Estuary and also circled in the London Artillery Zone.
Minelaying is suspected in the Thames Estuary, off East Anglia, Tees to St Abb's Head, Aberdeen and North East coasts.
Some raids which flew in over Edinburgh passed over to Glasgow, turned south over Cumberland and flew out east.
Several raids of some strength were plotted towards the Orkneys and Shetlands at about 2200 hours.
Addendum to August 1st report
A report has been received from SS Highlander that she was attacked by two enemy aircraft at about 2345 hours on 1st August, 6 miles south of Stonehaven. She claims that one He115 was brought down by a Holman projector and crashed on the poop deck, and that the other aircraft crashed into the sea in flames due to Lewis gun fire. Both aircraft are stated to have made aerial torpedo and low machine gunning attacks.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 2 August 1940
Casualties:
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Air Intelligence Reports
Home Security Reports
Swansea was bombed at 2330 hours on 2nd August when house property and motor vehicles sustained considerable damage. There were five casualties. Battle of Britain
Today starts the last big push towards finishing my masters thesis and degree. I’m starting a 16 week seminar that is designed to help you finish out this last major paper. Because of this I may not be as active on these threads as usual since things will be very busy.
I will however continue the Battle of Britain postings that I am committed to and have prepared a couple items for August and will also have one ready for September. I also had something planned for mid-October, but I’m not sure if I’ll get to it. I may with Homer’s permission post a thread sometime this week asking the students of this class if they can help me with finding some sources. Particularly, I’m looking for anyone who knows a WWII vet that was a mechanic in the U.S. Army or U.S. Navy that would be willing to be interviewed. I’m working on a question list now for these interviews and have one vet in Arizona lined up already.
As always I will look forward to these postings as my morning routine, though I’m betting I wont be able to read them end to end like I had been doing for a while.
Ol’ Senator Wheeler of Montana (a democrat by the way) is deeply embroiled in the isolationist movement isn’t he. His crowning achievement I think would have possibly even ended FDR’s political career had not other events overshadowed it.